Tenebrae

After the opening credits the film starts in New York, as American author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) cycles to JFK airport. He flies to Rome so he can promote his new murder mystery novel 'tenebrae'. Meanwhile in Rome a woman tries to steal a copy of the book from some shop and is caught. She convinces the security guard to let her off. But someone in the store is watching her and has seen whats happened. Back at her flat she is attacked, pages of the book 'tenebrae' are forced into her mouth and her throat is slashed with a straight razor, just like the one the killer uses in the book. The police head straight for Neal to question him, while there Neal receives a letter and phone call from the killer, from then on Neal is thrown in a complex mystery and plunged into the centre of a number of senseless, violent murders. Written and directed by the overrated Dario Argento this is definitely one of his best films. Stylishly filmed with visually pleasing photography, the stand out sequence being the murder of the two lesbians, the camera starts outside of a window looking in at one of the victims, it then moves up a level to another window, it moves across the side of the house to yet another window in which the second victim can be seen playing a record, then the camera moves up toward the roof, glides along it and back down the opposite side of the house from which it started to rest on the killers gloved hand breaking into the house. All in one smooth flowing shot, very impressive. Add to this lots of close ups, strange angles, free flowing camera movements and a nice color scheme, and we have a very good looking film. Acting is OK, most of the lead characters are a little bit bland. While the film does contain a nice amount of nudity, violence and gore it is perhaps a little more restrained than you might expect, except for a scene towards the end of the film where a woman has her arm chopped off with an axe, how much blood?! Having said that the murders are very well done, and Dario films them with style, like the rest of the film. Script wise, I liked the twists and turns but the reasons for some of them didn't make much sense. And one or two bits stray into silly horror film cliché, like the dog attacking the girl, my least favorite sequence in the film. Overall a very good horror mystery. Make sure you listen and pay attention otherwise you may miss some vital plot points, like it appears some of the people who have reviewed it on the IMDb did. One negative would be that once you have watch tenebrae once I don't think many people would be interested in watching it again, as once all the twists are revealed it loses its mystery and impact a little. Certainly worth a rent, recommended.

Thrilling and shocking Giallo by the talented writer/director Dario Argento . Exciting film with effective aesthetic that has lots of gore , guts , chilling assassinations and twists plots . An American crime writer named Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) arrives in Rome to promote a new novel , which triggers a killing spree in the manner described in his book , including savage cutting . As Detective Giermani (Giuliano Gemma) in charge of the investigation, along with a detective female partner . Peter Neal is unaware that he is also being followed by his embittered ex-wife Jane (Veronica Lario) and stalked by a serial killer bent on harassing him while killing all people associated with his work on his latest novel.

This is a Shocker/Chopper/Slasher/Horror/Thriller hybrid . Italian cult director Dario Argento , master of arty gore , brings this scary and stylish story plagued with depraved gore murders . This intriguing film packs chills , suspense , thrills , bloody murders and plot twists ; however it contains some gaps in the flick big enough to sink credibility . Interesting screenplay plenty of twists and turns by the master of horror , Dario Argento , who double-crosses and cheats like mad to conceal the murderous's identity and including imaginatively staged gory killings ; resulting to be one of his most successful movies . This is a trademark terror work for the Horrormeister Argento with high tension quotient and equally elevated suspense by means of an ever-fluid camera that achieves colorful shots well photographed . ¨Tenebre¨ is an acceptable and passable entertainment with surprising and intriguing situations , it does have some good and eerie moments . Ample support cast formed by usual in Italian Terror such as Ana Pieroni , Lara Wendel , Christian Borromeo ,John Saxon , John Steiner and Daria Nicolidi , Argento's wife . Furthermore , a colorful cinematography in deep red by Luciano Tovoli , Argento's usual and a creepy musical score composed by means synthesizer .

Dario Argento is one of those film-makers who set off simple for frightening us to death . His period of biggest hits were the 70s when he directed the animals trilogy : ¨Four flies over gray velvet¨, ¨The cat of nine tails¨, ¨Bird with the crystal plumage¨, after he directed some masterpieces as ¨Suspiria¨ (1977), a surreal horror film about a witch's coven that was inspired by the Gothic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which he also wrote in collaboration with his girlfriend, screenwriter/actress Daria Nicolodi, who acted in "Profondo Rosso" ("Deep Red") and most of Argento's films from then to the late 1980s . Argento advanced the unfinished trilogy with Inferno (1980), before returning to the "giallo" genre with the gory Tenebre (1982), and then with the haunting ¨Phenomena¨ (1985) , one of the best ¨Giallo , all of them confirm Argento's dedication to the technicalities of constructing frames in Grand Guignol style . In 1995 Argento made a comeback to the horror genre with ¨La Sindrome Di Stendhal (1996)¨ and then by another version of ¨The phantom of the Opera¨ (1998) both of which starred by his daughter Asia Argento . Most recently, Argento directed a number of 'giallo' mystery thrillers which include Insomnio (2001), ¨Il Cartaio (2004)¨, and ¨Ti Piace Hitchcock?¨ (2005), as well as two creepy , supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series "Masters of Horror". Furthermore , to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling , ¨La Terza Madre (2007)¨ has a lot of references to the previous two movies as 'Suspiria' and 'Inferno' which is a must for fans of the trilogy . And finally directed a so-so film called ¨Giallo¨ and recently ¨Dracula 3D¨ .

"Tenebre" stars Anthony Franciosa as a novelist Peter Neal who finds himself embroiled in a series of grisly murders,as one of his readers starts to imitate the killings in his latest novel Tenebrae.This Dario Argento's bloody thriller is full of startling plot twists and shocking bursts of gory violence.Plenty of serious shocks and a wonderful musical score by Goblin as well as incredibly gory finale that is among Argento's greatest sequences.As usual,there are some stylish killings,particularly a gruesome arm chopping near the end-definitely one of the bloodiest murder scenes I have ever seen.Argento uses some of the most vivid colors imaginable and like his 1977 effort "Suspiria",he uses these colors to enhance the atmosphere of the film.I'll end this review by saying that "Tenebre" is indeed excellent,thrilling,scary,well-acted and anything else I can think of-simply amazing if I have to say the least!Highly recommended.

"Tenebre " is closer ,in Argento's filmography ,to " profondo rosso " and "uccello della piume di cristallo ",than to "inferno" and "suspiria " which were pure fantasy horror .We deal with murder mystery again, whodunit.

Conan Doyle 's "hound of the Baskervilles" and his famous sentence ("whatever remains ,however improbable ,must be the truth ")give the final clue .Agatha Christie is also mentioned by the police lieutenant ("I read all her books and I could never guess any of her culprits") ,and in fact ,the plot ,save for the motivations and the gore, recalls some of her detective stories such a "the ABC murders" .

This Argento movie takes a little time to take off,but when it hits its stride, there's no letup as it continues to build in horror ,to an extraordinary finale ,which leaves "Friday the thirteen " far behind ;this director is also a past master when it comes to make a place terrifying : John Saxon in his "glass house" might be a red herring ,as was the woman to Tony Musante in "uccello ";

Besides Saxon, the cast includes two very good actors,Giuliano Gemma and Anthony Franciosa. Although far-fetched to a fault,the screenplay has its logic.

The Italian mastermind behind the giallo movement, Argento once again provides another enthralling crime investigative thriller poised with provocative imagery and plenty of throat slashing. This representing my third foray into his filmography, I was both sceptical and excited to see what he would produce. As soon as that 80s horror score kicked in almost immediately, I was invested. The author of the recent hit "Tenebrae" travels to Rome for promotional events, but is quickly caught up in a murder mystery to which the killer utilises phrases from his book leaving clues to the next victim.

The backbone of the narrative is reminiscent of his directorial debut 'The Bird with the Crystal Plumage', but with Argento's style evolving throughout the years. He showcases his talent for balancing suspicious characters (the list is endless) with evocative camera techniques that allow the tension and suspense to naturally grow. Beautiful one take shots to enhance the eerie quality, POV handheld movements enabling the audience to enter the suspect's mind and inventive use of mirrors to reflect slashed corpses. It's clear that Argento, at this stage in his career, exhumed confidence in his directing. The editing however frequently felt disorientating. Quick cuts were exhaustingly utilised during scenes of frantic nature, such as a woman fleeing to her room whilst grabbing onto her towel, which detracted from Argento's minimalistic approach.

The story itself, whilst consistently engaging, contained a few segments that were questionable at best. Stabbing someone in the middle of a high street in broad daylight, with people only noticing when he is lying in his own pool of blood, lacked believability. Evidently Rome is a dangerous place during giallo season, but still. The final reveal was unsurprising due to the amount of suspects being killed off, and consequently was absent of surprise.

Ironically the countless female kills did paint the narrative in a coat of sexism, fortunately the second half counteracts that indicative viewpoint. A criticism that Argento's work has succumbed to in the past, therefore reacting to this by changing the deaths in the second act. Not particularly subtle, evolving the story to fit around this criticism was evident, however it made for a refreshing pace. The performances were perfectly hammy, although Franciosa weighed in a surprisingly strong nuanced performance as the sturdy author.

As giallo films go, this is most certainly one of the most accessible. Whilst not necessarily Argento's strongest narratively speaking, for I did prefer 'The Bird with the Crystal Plumage', it honed in on his trademark aesthetic style. Erotically staged murders with exquisite lighting accompanied by a euphoric score. If you are new to the sub-genre or want to trial Argento's techniques, then this will most likely be the easiest film to watch.