Tenebre (1982)
Dario Argento is best known for his giallos, and his 1982 film Tenebre (released in the USA as Unsane in 1987) shows why. My own personal favorite giallo of all time (tied with the Maestro's Deep Red), Tenebre is -- like many of Argento's films -- incredibly stimulating to the senses. Whereas Suspiria and Inferno had rainbow color schemes visually, focusing mostly on reds, greens and blues, Tenebre is visually dominated by pale, white shades that often startlingly are splashed with the most vibrant of bloody reds. As much as I love the film itself, my favorite thing about Tenebre is the psychedelic, riveting Goblin score. It's tied with their score for Suspiria as my personal favorite theme music of all of Argento's films; I'm so in love with this awesome score I bought the soundtrack on vinyl for a rather large sum years back, and to this day I've never heard another one quite like it -- and still find it playing in my head more often than most. It's basically The Bird With the Crystal Plumage updated to early '80s Italy, with a very similar plot and structure, only visually much more stylized and aesthetically rich.
The plot is pretty straightforward, though there are some cool twists thrown into the puzzle. American author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) arrives in Rome to publicize his brand-new murder novel "Tenebre", and as soon as he does a series of atrocious killings inspired by the ones described in his novel begins to occur. The glove-wearing psychopath appears to be obsessed with Neal and his books, and begins leaving anonymous, twisted letters after committing his terrible crimes at Neal's city hotel. The killer is determined to put a stop to all the "perverts" and "immorals" of the world: Beautiful shoplifter Elsa Manni (Ania Pieroni) is punished fatally for stealing Neal's book from a high-dollar boutique by the gravelly-voiced, razor wielding maniac; a friend of Neal's, lesbian reporter Tilde (Mirella D'Angelo), is savagely slashed to death with a razor in her swank penthouse along with her promiscuous female lover; and teenage Maria (Lara Wendel) is chopped into gory pieces with an axe when she is caught by the killer snooping through his luxurious home.
In addition, Neal's agent Bullmer (John Saxon) is gutted with a very sharp knife one day on the street, and Neal's fragile ex-lover Jane (Veronica Lario) -- who has been having a secret tryst with Bullmer behind Peter's back -- is dismembered and chopped to death in what is perhaps the film's trademark death sequence, which has the killer bursting through a window and slashing the poor woman's arm off with one swipe of his beloved axe, causing blood to spray all over the white apartment walls from her gory stump. In the midst of all the carnage, poor Peter has to attend tiresome radio and television interviews and lectures for the purposes of promoting his dangerously influential book, while also doing some amateur detective work on the side and piecing together the puzzle in his own mind.
Tenebre has Argento's trademark jaw-dropping visual style, with an array of cutting edge camera techniques to dazzle not only original audiences but those of today with their simple but galvanizing beauty. There's an awesome 2.5-minute crane shot that has the camera flying over and around Tilde's moonlit penthouse just before her murder, leaving a surreal, dreamlike impression on the viewer. American censors wanted to completely snip the remarkable sequence from the movie for its theatrical release, but fortunately Argento refused. Late veteran Hollywood actor Anthony Franciosa (whom Argento later claimed was hell to direct) gives it his all as Peter Neal, a role that was offered to Christopher Walken first. Daria Nicolodi is on hand to breathe life into the character of Anne, who serves as a personal secretary and love interest for Peter. Horror icon John Saxon is always a welcome part of any movie cast and doesn't fail to impress in his brief role as doomed agent Bullmer. Tenebre's considerable gore content caused it to be banned in the UK upon its video release as a so-called "Video Nasty" (though it has since been released in Britain uncut), and it is to this day banned in Germany. Argento claimed he was inspired to make the film after his own creepy encounter with an over-enthused fan, and as with the majority of his films, he indeed wrote the twisty screenplay that ends with one of the bloodiest and most awe-inspiring multiple death sequences of any '70s/'80s giallo.
Tenebre remains one of The Maestro's most visually and aurally arresting films. It's best viewed in its uncut 101-minute version, which -- after long being unavailable and a highly sought after collector's item -- has been released in the States on DVD by Anchor Bay both individually and as part of a Dario Argento Box Set. Required viewing for fans of giallo mysteries or Argento, Tenebre easily earns a 9 of 10 from this seasoned Argento lover.
The plot is pretty straightforward, though there are some cool twists thrown into the puzzle. American author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) arrives in Rome to publicize his brand-new murder novel "Tenebre", and as soon as he does a series of atrocious killings inspired by the ones described in his novel begins to occur. The glove-wearing psychopath appears to be obsessed with Neal and his books, and begins leaving anonymous, twisted letters after committing his terrible crimes at Neal's city hotel. The killer is determined to put a stop to all the "perverts" and "immorals" of the world: Beautiful shoplifter Elsa Manni (Ania Pieroni) is punished fatally for stealing Neal's book from a high-dollar boutique by the gravelly-voiced, razor wielding maniac; a friend of Neal's, lesbian reporter Tilde (Mirella D'Angelo), is savagely slashed to death with a razor in her swank penthouse along with her promiscuous female lover; and teenage Maria (Lara Wendel) is chopped into gory pieces with an axe when she is caught by the killer snooping through his luxurious home.
In addition, Neal's agent Bullmer (John Saxon) is gutted with a very sharp knife one day on the street, and Neal's fragile ex-lover Jane (Veronica Lario) -- who has been having a secret tryst with Bullmer behind Peter's back -- is dismembered and chopped to death in what is perhaps the film's trademark death sequence, which has the killer bursting through a window and slashing the poor woman's arm off with one swipe of his beloved axe, causing blood to spray all over the white apartment walls from her gory stump. In the midst of all the carnage, poor Peter has to attend tiresome radio and television interviews and lectures for the purposes of promoting his dangerously influential book, while also doing some amateur detective work on the side and piecing together the puzzle in his own mind.
Tenebre has Argento's trademark jaw-dropping visual style, with an array of cutting edge camera techniques to dazzle not only original audiences but those of today with their simple but galvanizing beauty. There's an awesome 2.5-minute crane shot that has the camera flying over and around Tilde's moonlit penthouse just before her murder, leaving a surreal, dreamlike impression on the viewer. American censors wanted to completely snip the remarkable sequence from the movie for its theatrical release, but fortunately Argento refused. Late veteran Hollywood actor Anthony Franciosa (whom Argento later claimed was hell to direct) gives it his all as Peter Neal, a role that was offered to Christopher Walken first. Daria Nicolodi is on hand to breathe life into the character of Anne, who serves as a personal secretary and love interest for Peter. Horror icon John Saxon is always a welcome part of any movie cast and doesn't fail to impress in his brief role as doomed agent Bullmer. Tenebre's considerable gore content caused it to be banned in the UK upon its video release as a so-called "Video Nasty" (though it has since been released in Britain uncut), and it is to this day banned in Germany. Argento claimed he was inspired to make the film after his own creepy encounter with an over-enthused fan, and as with the majority of his films, he indeed wrote the twisty screenplay that ends with one of the bloodiest and most awe-inspiring multiple death sequences of any '70s/'80s giallo.
Tenebre remains one of The Maestro's most visually and aurally arresting films. It's best viewed in its uncut 101-minute version, which -- after long being unavailable and a highly sought after collector's item -- has been released in the States on DVD by Anchor Bay both individually and as part of a Dario Argento Box Set. Required viewing for fans of giallo mysteries or Argento, Tenebre easily earns a 9 of 10 from this seasoned Argento lover.
