Tenebrae

Alternate titles : Tenebre, Tenebres, Unsane, Shadow, Sotto Gli Occhi del Assasino

Tagline : "Terror Beyond Beleif."

Taking a break from the supernatural themes of "Suspiria" and "Inferno". Director Dario Argento returned to Giallo territory with this inventive "who-dunnit", that successfully combines elements of a stylish crime thriller with a mainstream horror pic to potently good effect.

The film revolves around respected horror novelist Peter Neal (Tony Franciosa, a regular in US detective shows), who travels to Rome to promote his latest novel Tenebrae, only to find himself embroiled in a series of grisly murders. A serial killer has been going round hacking young female victims to death, in the same styles described in his book, and then stuffing the pages in their mouths.

The police are called in to interview Mr Neal after the killer starts contacting him to boast of his crimes, but are unable to unearth the culprit. Believing the killer is someone known to him, Neal decides to do a bit of investigating himself, and aided by his assistant Anne (played by Argento regular Daria Nicoladi) and his publicity agent, Bulmer (played by horror B-movie veteran John Saxon), attempts to route out who the killer really is.

But when the person he initially suspects turns up murdered himself, along with several of his closest colleagues, it becomes a deadly race against time to stop the killer before he can finally get to him.

This is arguably my favourite Argento movie, and is definitely one of his better films. Highly entertaining and stylish, this should appeal to both horror movie and detective thriller fans alike. As girls are hacked, slashed and strangled, all in the best possible taste. The film also has a good supporting cast of cult movie regulars, including John Saxon as Neal's troubled promotional agent, Daria Nicoladi (ex-Mrs Argento) as his overly protective assistant. John Steiner as a creepy chap show host and Ennio Girolami, who has a minor role as a store detective.

Euro-horror fans should definitely love it.

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate Tag lines. "A Descent Into Madness", "Unrelenting terror from the maker of DEMONS, CREEPERS and SUSPIRIA".
• Argento apparently did not get on well with lead actor Anthony Franciosa on set, and has claimed him to be the most difficult actor he has ever worked with.
• Some versions of the film replaced the end credits theme with 80's pop song "Take Me Tonight" by Kim Wilde. Most current disc releases use the original Goblins score.
• Veronica Lario, who plays Jane, was married to film Producer, turned politician, Silvio Berlusconi. Who went on to become Prime Minister of Italy. As a result, the scene of her being murdered with an axe was cut from various showing of the film on Italian TV for a good many years.
• The 2 minute sequence, where the camera pans slowly around the outside of Tilda's house, going from room to room, took 3 days to film.
• The word 'Tenebre' is a Latin/Italian term, meaning darkness or shadows.
• The "woman" with the red shoes, shown in the killers nightmare flashbacks, was actually a transgender person.
• Fellow Italian Directors Michele Soavi and Lamberto Bava both appear in the film in supporting roles.
• It has been rumoured that American actress Theresa Russell dubbed Daria Nicoladi's voice for the English language version of the film. Though she has never confirmed, or denied, this.
• The uncut version of the film is still banned in Germany to this day.
• UK cinema version was cut by 4s by the BBFC, which shortened the axe murder scene. This same cut version was released onto UK video in the early 80s, but was subsequently listed on the Government's "Video Nasty" hit list and so was withdrawn. The cut cinema version was later passed by the BBFC for a home video release in 1999, which also toned down the box artwork, replacing the trickle of blood on the girl's neck with a red ribbon. The uncut version was finally passed and released to UK disc in 2003.

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