Showing posts with label giallo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giallo. Show all posts

Wednesday, 2 March 2022

Deep Red

Year:  1975

Director:  Dario Argento, 

Screenplay:  Dario Argento and Bernardino Zapponi

Starring:  David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril, Clara Calamai

Running Time: 126 minutes 

Genre:  Horror, thriller


One night Marcus Daly (Hemmings), a jazz pianist living in Turin, witnesses the gruesome murder of his upstairs neighbour, psychic medium Helga Ulmann (Méril).  Daly rushes to help, but is too late, however he sees the raincoat clad killer escape into the night.  Haunted by the idea that he saw something important which he cannot quite remember, Daly teams up with ambitious journalist Gianna Brezzi (Nicolodi) to hunt the killer, but the killer is hunting them.

This stylish murder-mystery is one of the classic giallo films.  Giallo was a sub-genre of horror and mystery films that came out of Italy in the 1960s and became hugely popular during the '70s.  Often seen as the fore-runner to later "slasher" films, these films were usually very stylish and showcased elaborate, stylised murders and violence, but were more focussed on the mystery and detection elements than piling up the bodycount.  The term giallo (Italian for "yellow") came from a hugely popular series of cheap paperback mystery novels which were published with distinctive yellow covers.  Deep Red features elaborate, over the top and extremely gory set pieces and a constantly moving camera, but it also has an intriguing and complex mystery plot.  As with most Argento films the dazzling, excessive visuals cover the fact that a lot of it doesn't really make any sense.  However it doesn't really matter, because as labyrinthine and bizarre as the film is, it is full of unforgettable elements, with bizarre sequences and characters, such as the mechanical killer doll (which surely must have been an influence on the Saw films) and the pulsing soundtrack from prog-rock band Goblin.  David Hemmings is charismatic in the lead role, but the film is stolen by Daria Nicolodi as the energetic and funny journalist.  Nicolodi would go on to appear in five more Argento films, and the two were married for a time.  This is definitely one of Argento's best films, and possibly the best example of the giallo genre.  Argento turned the film into a stage musical in 2007, and adopted the film's Italian title "Profondo Rosso" as the name for his horror memorabilia shop and museum in Rome.  



 David Hemmings in Deep Red

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Don't Torture a Duckling

Year of Release:  1972

Director:  Lucio Fulci

Screenplay:  Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti and Gianfranco Clerici, from a story by Lucio Fulci and Roberto Gianviti

Starring:  Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian, Irene Papas, Marc Porel

Running Time:  105 minutes

Genre:  Thriller, horror


The sleepy, rural Southern Italian town of Accendura is shattered by a series of murders of young boys.  As the police scramble to find a suspect, the superstitious locals, already suspicious of outsiders, prepare to take the law into their own hands.  Astute journalist Andrea Martelli (Milian) and wealthy party girl Patrizia (Bouchet) attempt to solve the crime before anyone else has to die.


Prolific Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci worked in a. number of genres before finding his niche with numerous gruesome horror and thriller films (must famously such delightful charmers as Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979), City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond (1981), The House by the Cemetery (1981) and The New York Ripper (1982)).  Although the bloodletting here is fairly restrained by Fulci standards, this is one of the first films to use the violence which he would later become famous for.  This belongs firmly in the giallo subgenre.  The word "giallo" is literally the Italian for "yellow" and it was used as a name for a series of crime novels and thrillers published in Italy with distinctive yellow covers.  The term later became known for lurid horror and thriller films, that were notable for their elaborately choreographed murder scenes, usually high production values and buckets of gore.  Don't Torture a Duckling however is unusual for a giallo in having a distinctly Italian rural setting, most giallo films were set in urban settings, and frequently in London or America, to make them more saleable abroad.   As with many films of the genre, Don't Torture a Duckling has a memorable, lurid title which bears little to no connection with the plot of the film (the closest thing to a duckling in the film is a Donald Duck doll). The film is suspenseful, and the mystery is intriguing.  The Italian countryside looks beautiful and the cast are decent.  It does paint a very bleak picture of Italian small town life, as well as providing quite a scathing critique of the Catholic Church, and the police (who are portrayed as pretty much completely incompetent), as well as the causal cruelty of children (in the opening of the film a child shoots at a lizard with a catapult).  There is even a weird but effectively creepy Black Magic element.  To be fair, it paints a pretty bleak picture of human nature in general.  Some of the gore effects are unconvincing, and the theme of child murder, while not graphic, and a scene of gratuitous nudity may be offensive to some.  While it is not one of Fulci's best known films it is one of his better films.  



Barbara Bouchet and Tomas Milian in Don't Torture a Duckling

Sunday, 12 June 2011

A Bay of Blood

Year: 1971
Director: Mario Bava
Screenplay: Mario Bava, Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni and Sergio Canevari, from a story by Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Barberi
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Laura Betti
Running Time: 84 minutes
Genre: Horror, slasher, mystery

Summary: In her mansion beside a beautiful bay, the elderly Countess Federica (Isa Miranda) is murdered by her husband, Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti), and arranged in a way to make it look as if she comitted suicide. However, no sooner is Donati finished arranging the crime scene when he is brutally stabbed to death by a mysterious assailant.
Believing that the Countess killed herself and her husband has disappeared, real estate developer Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his girlfriend Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) travel to the bay to get Donati to sign a series of legal documents which will enable them to take posession of the bay to devlop it as a holiday resort.
Also travelling to the bay is the Countess' daughter Renata (Auger) and her husband Albert (Pistilli) who are determined to get control of the bay by any means necessary.
Already at the bay are four teenagers ready to spend a weekend of drinking and partying at one of the abandoned bayside cabins.
However, the mysterious killer is still stalking the bay and the bodies are piling up in the water.

Opinions: This film is one of the classic Italian giallo films. "Giallo" is the Italian word for yellow and it came to refer to a series of cheap pulp fiction paperbacks which had distinctive yellow covers. The term came to refer to a series of horror and crime films which were notorious for lengthy and stylish scenes of extreme violence.
Mario Bava was a noted and well-respected film maker who specialised in horror movies, and this film got a very negative reaction from many critics due to the gruesome violence.
The movie proved to be very influential though and it's impact can be felt throughout the "slasher" and "splatter" horror film genre. The Friday the 13th films in particular with their killers stalking bucolic woodland locations are a direct descendent from this.
The storyline is fun and full of countless twists and turns. The impressive special effects were provided by Carlo Rambaldi, who went on to huge acclaim for the effects in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982).
The acting is kind of bland, although it is hard to really judge due to the dubbed dialogue.
It is definitely worth watching for horror fans and giallo fans. Although it is worth remembering that it has been released under a wide variety of titles including Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath and Carnage.



Laura Betti and Leopoldo Trieste in A Bay of Blood