Movies: The giallo (gialli)

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Knocked a few of these out over the weekend.

The Killer is One of 13. Perhaps a debatable inclusion? Shudder classifies it as such. There is a black gloved killer moving around a circle of well-to-do men and attractive women. A pretty good title. It's an Agatha Christie And Then There Were None set-up. A woman invites a group of friends and associates to here remote home on the anniversary of her husband's death and at the opening dinner reveals ... ONE OF THEM KILLED HIM! Ok. Good set-up. But this is all concept, no delivery. It doesn't work as a compelling giallo or a Christie-style locked room. It's an hour of discussion before anything happens and once stuff starts to go down it's still only barely rises above tedious. If I had a kid, I'd just throw this on and let them fall asleep to it.

Torso. Starts strong and I like the idea of the last 30 minutes or so even if I didn't fully love the execution. I hate to come across as a degenerate but there's a big moment of violence toward the end it simply cuts away from. Now the logistics of said scene might have been hard to actually film and justify. But it was a bit of a jarring cut to me. Oh that just happened? It's the middle stretch that really dragged this down for me. Solid enough but I'm not sure I hold it in the same regard as its biggest fans.

Strip Nude for Your Killer. Edwige Fenech is one of the most beautiful women to have ever walked this earth. This one delivers the goods in a very basic way, so to speak, but other than Fenech's presence and a pathetic slob with a deflated sex doll I don't imagine this is going to stick with me in any meaningful way. Bit of a by-the-numbers affair. I do like to imagine the writer of Home Alone watched this and lifted the idea of an intruder turning on water faucets for the Wet Bandits.

 

[Nakatomi]

Some of these films are questionable as gialli (see comments), but I've included all of the films that I watched because they were considered part of the genre. The ranking doesn't match my ratings, because the films I rate 1/10 films (so bad they're good) are often a lot more fun than the plain bad ones.

1) Deep Red (Profondo rosso, Argento, 1975) – 9/10
2) The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo, Argento, 1970) – 8.5/10
3) Blood and Black Lace (6 donne per l'assassino, Bava, 1964) – 8/10
4) Footprints on the Moon (Le orme, Bazzoni, 1975) – 8/10
5) Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave, Martino, 1972) – 7.5/10
6) Who Saw Her Die? (Chi l'ha vista morire?, Lado, 1972) – 7.5/10
7) The Fifth Cord (Giornata nera per l'ariete, Bazzoni, 1971) – 7/10
8) The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh, 1971, Martino) – 6.5/10
9) The Cat o' Nine Tails (Il gatto a nove code, Argento, 1971) – 6/10
10) All the Colors of the Dark (Tutti i colori del buio, Martino, 1972) – 5/10
11) What Have You Done to Solange? (Cosa avete fatto a Solange? Dallamano, 1972) – 4.5/10
12) Eye In the Labyrinth (L'occhio nel labirinto, Caiano, 1972) – 4.5/10
13) Strip Nude for Your Killer (Nude per l'assassino, Bianchi, 1975) – ??/10
14) Damned in Venice (Nero veneziano, Liberatore, 1978) – 4.5/10
15) Short Night of Glass Dolls (La corta notte delle bambole di vetro, Lado, 1971) – 4.5/10
16) Delirio Caldo (Delirium, Polselli, 1972) – 1/10
17) Torso (I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale, Martino, 1973) – 4/10
18) Paranoia (Orgasmo, Lenzi, 1969) – 4/10
19) A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, Fulci, 1971) – 4/10
20) Amuck (Alla ricerca del piacere, Amadio, 1972) – 3.5/10
21) The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire (L'iguana dalla lingua di fuoco, Freda, 1971) – 1/10
22) The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (La coda dello scorpione, Martino, 1971) – 3.5/10
23) The New York Ripper (Lo squartatore di New York, Fulci, 1982) – 3.5/10.
24) The Bloodstained Shadow (Solamente nero, 1979, Bido) – 3.5/10
25) Don't Torture a Duckling (Non si sevizia un paperino, Fulci, 1972) – 3.5/10
26) Puzzle (L'uomo senza memoria, Tessari, 1974) – 3.5/10
27) The Case of the Bloody Iris (Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?, Carnimeo, 1972) – 3/10
28) French Sex Murders (Casa d'appuntamento, Merighi, 1972) – 1/10
29) So Sweet... So Perverse (Così dolce... così perversa, Lenzi, 1969) – 3/10
30) Naked Girl Murdered In the Park (Ragazza tutta nuda assassinata nel parco, Brescia, 1972) – 3/10
31) Watch Me When I Kill (Il gatto dagli occhi di giada, Bido, 1977) – 3/10
32) Knife of Ice (Il coltello di ghiaccio, Lenzi, 1972) – 2.5/10
33) Le Foto di Gioia (Delirium, Bava, 1987) – 1/10
34) A Quiet Place to Kill (Paranoia, Lenzi, 1970) – 2.5/10
35) One on Top of the Other aka Perversion Story (Una sull'altra, Fulci, 1969) – 2.5/10
36) Black Belly of the Tarantula (La tarantola dal ventre nero, Cavara, 1971) – 2.5/10
37) Death Carries A Cane (Passi di danza su una lama di rasoio, Pradeaux, 1973) – 1.5/10
38) The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (La dama rossa uccide sette volte, 1972, Miraglia) – 1.5/10

I am so glad I stumbled across this thread again.

I just watched The Red Queen Kills Seven Times and I must say, your review gave me a good chuckle. It is certainly not a great film, but I think it has some moments worth appreciating. The fun fashion of the time, the solid soundtrack, the castle setting. Of course a ton of beautiful women and the unintentional (or maybe intentional?) hilarity of Italian social mores. Certainly not an all-time classic but if it is the worst giallo, I have a lot to look forward to! I'd have probably rated it somewhere in the 4 or 5 range, personally.

The others I just picked up that I've yet to see are Don't Torture a Duckling, The Cat O Nine Tails, and Deep Red. I think I will watch them in that order too.

Interestingly, any time I have ever heard of "Who Saw Her Die?" I mostly just wanted to re-watch Don't Like Now rather than see it. But with the two positive reviews in this thread about it, maybe I need to give it a go.

For whatever it is worth, my favorite films in the genre are:
Suspiria
Tenebre
Blood and Black Lace

The latter two might flip flop for second, but that Goblin soundtrack and just the opening scene alone of Suspiria get me hooked every time. Seeing the 4K restoration was a revelation.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I need to rewatch Tenebrae and rank it here. The Three Mothers films certainly rank very high in Argento's filmo (well at least the first two), but they are not gialli.

 

[shadow1]

StageFright (1987) - 7/10

A stage production locked inside a theater is stalked by a serial killer.

Barbara Cupisti stars as Alicia, a struggling theater actress starring in a murder-mystery musical called The Night Owl. The rest of the large cast, which includes Betty (Ulrike Schwerk), Brett (Giovani Lombardo Radice), Danny (Robert Gligorov), Laurel (Mary Sellers), and Sybil (Jo Ann Smith), are equally as desperate for success, as is the verbally abusive director Peter (David Brandon). After a tragedy on set, Peter and the rest of the cast decide to rehearse all night, unaware they're being stalked by a deranged psychopath...

StageFright, aka Deliria, was directed by Michele Soavi and written by Lew Cooper and Sheila Goldberg. This was the feature directorial debut for Soavi, who was a protege of Dario Argento, having served as Second Unit Director on films like Tenebrea (1982), Phenomena (1985), and Opera (1987). He also directed the documentary Dario Argento's World of Horror (1988). How does StageFright fare?

Let's address the elephant in the room: is this Gialli? It seems to be heavily debated but is considered a late-era entry by some. StageFright was included in the Troy Howarth book series "So Deadly, So Perverse" as an entry in the genre. Maybe @Pranzo Oltranzista can shed more light. I don't think this review on a hockey forum is going to provide a definitive answer, but this still feels like the appropriate thread to post it in.

The biggest reason this is a question is because StageFright is more slasher than mystery. It's not a mystery in all, in fact. Despite what I believe to be a perfect set up for a whodunit - a member of the cast wearing the owl costume - the audience and the characters know who's stalking them. Their only mission is to escape the theater they've been locked in, which also makes this a good entry into the siege subgenre of horror movies.

And StageFrieght has a lot going for it. It's photographed beautifully, and the movie makes great use of the theater setting. The film is also extremely gory. I've watched 23 movies for this year's "Hooptober" so far, including the entire Child's Play series, and this movie is probably gorier than the other 22 films combined. Add in the unique look of the killer, and you've got a real winner.

Do I have any complaints? Not a ton. As mentioned, I thought it was a missed opportunity not to make this a whodunit. But critiquing the film as-is, there are a couple of idiot-plot moments. Not the most egregious movie ever in that respect, but one moment comes to mind in which the remaining characters could've stayed in place and would've been relatively safe, but then the movie would be over. There are also a few subplots that go nowhere (largely because those characters are turned into bird food), and the backstory of the killer is very convenient...but now I'm nitpicking.

Overall, StageFright is a recommended slasher/seige/pseudo-giallo horror movie. Made for an estimated $1M, the film underperformed according to director Soavi, though I couldn't find any earnings information. A Canadian film of the same name and similar premise came out in 2014, but it is not considered to be a remake.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Screen Drafts is a fun movie podcast that is in my rotation. They did an episode where the two guests ranked their the top 7 Giallos. Amusing discussion.

Here's a link to the results:

Giallo

"Giallo" is the 61st episode of Screen Drafts. Guest G.M.s Rebekah McKendry and Elric Kane selected the seven best giallo movies. The following films were drafted: 7. Torso by Elric Kane 6. Don't Torture a Duckling by Elric Kane 5. The House with Laughing Windows by Rebekah McKendry 4. The Bird...

screendrafts.fandom.com

(Stage Fright made me think of this because it made their list and is one of the ones I haven't seen).