Giallo Films (Film Guide)

Source: Wikipedia. Commentary (films not included). Pages: 39. Chapters: Tenebrae, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood and Black Lace, The Cat o' Nine Tails, Giallo, The New York Ripper, Deep Red, Do You Like Hitchcock?, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Phenomena, The House on the Edge of the Park, Don't Torture a Duckling, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Opera, Trauma, Stage Fright, Hitch-Hike, Lust for Vengeance, Amer, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Torso, What Have You Done to Solange?, The House with Laughing Windows, Sleepless, A Blade in the Dark, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, The Card Player, Camping del Terrore, Black Belly of the Tarantula, Who Saw Her Die?, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, Macabre, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail, Delirium, The Dead Are Alive, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, Phantom of Death, Five Dolls for an August Moon, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Assassination in Rome. Excerpt: Tenebrae (also known as Tenebre) is a 1982 Italian horror thriller film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, and Daria Nicolodi. After having experimented with two exercises in pure supernatural horror, Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980), Tenebrae represented Argento's return to the giallo form, a sub-genre he had helped popularize in the 1970s. The story concerns an American writer promoting his latest murder-mystery novel in Rome, only to get embroiled in the search for a serial-killer who has apparently been inspired to kill by the novel. The film was released in Italy and throughout most of Europe without experiencing any reported censorship problems, but was classified, prosecuted, and banned as a "video nasty" in the United Kingdom. Its theatrical distribution in the United States was delayed until 1984, when it was released in a heavily censored version under the title Unsane. In its cut form, Tenebrae received a mostly negative critical reception, but the original, fully restored version later became widely available for reappraisal. It has been described by Maitland McDonagh as "the finest film that Argento has ever made." Peter Neal (Franciosa) is an American writer of violent horror novels whose books are tremendously popular in Europe. In Italy to promote his latest work, entitled Tenebrae, he is accompanied by his literary agent Bullmer (Saxon) and his adoring assistant Anne (Nicolodi). He is unaware that he is also being followed by his embittered ex-wife Jane (Veronica Lario). Immediately prior to Neal¿s arrival in Rome, a beautiful young shoplifter (Ania Pieroni) is brutally razor-slashed to death by an unseen killer. The murderer sends Neal a letter informing him that his books have inspired him to go on a killing spree. Neal immediately contacts the police, who put Detective Giermani (Giuliano Gemma) in charge of the investigation, along with the detective¿s female partner Inspector Altieri (Carola St