Tenebrae (1982)

Original title

Tenebre

Directed by

Dario Argento

Genre

drama film, horror film, slasher film, exploitation film, mystery film, giallo

Country

Italy

Runtime

1h 50m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 702 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An American mystery novelist travels to Rome to promote his new book. A serial killer starts committing murders that seem to mirror the killings in the author's novel. The police and the writer himself get drawn into the hunt for the killer.

stylishtensesuspensefulmoodyviolentvisceralcerebraldarkunsettling

What happens

Tenebrae (lit. '"darkness"', also known as Tenebre) is a 1982 Italian giallo film, written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Anthony Franciosa as American author Peter Neal, who – while in Rome promoting his latest murder-mystery novel – becomes embroiled in the search for a serial killer who may have been inspired to kill by his novel. John Saxon and Daria Nicolodi co-star as Neal's agent and assistant, respectively, while Giuliano Gemma and Carola Stagnaro appear as detectives investigating the murders. John Steiner, Veronica Lario and Mirella D'Angelo also feature in minor roles. The film has been described as exploring themes of dualism and sexual aberration and has strong metafictional elements; some commentators consider Tenebrae to be a direct reaction by Argento to criticism of his previous work, most especially his depictions of murders of women. After Argento had experimented with pure supernatural horror with Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980), Tenebrae represented the filmmaker's return to the giallo subgenre, which he had helped popularize in the 1970s. Argento was inspired by several incidents in which an obsessed fan phoned the director to criticize him for the damaging psychological effects of his previous work. The phone calls culminated in death threats towards Argento, who channeled the experience into the writing of Tenebrae. The director also wanted to explore the senselessness of killings he had seen and heard about while visiting Los Angeles in 1980, and his feeling at the time that true horror came from those who wanted "to kill for nothing". Shot on location in Rome and at Elios Studios, Tenebrae used mostly modern-looking locations and sets, allowing Argento to realize his vision of a near-future with a diminished population; the director filmed none of the historical landmarks that usually appear in films set in Rome. Employing director of photography Luciano Tovoli, Argento also intended that the film simulate the stark, realistic lighting featured in TV police shows at the time; production designer Giuseppe Bassan created supporting environments that were cold and austere, with sharp angles and modernistic spaces. Several former members of Italian rock band Goblin provided Tenebrae's music, a synth-heavy score inspired by rock and disco. Tenebrae was a modest success in Italy; it reached theatres with little controversy after Argento made cuts to one of the most violent scenes. However, in the United Kingdom, it was added to the infamous list of "video nasties" and banned from sale until 1999. The film's theatrical distribution in the United States was delayed until 1984, when it was released in a heavily censored version under the title Unsane, which received a mostly negative critical reception. The original version later became widely available for reappraisal and has come to be considered one of Argento's best films by many fans and critics. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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