As the days get shorter and the nights get longer, a young woman’s thoughts turn to horror. Not just any horror, but the strange brand of Italian horror cinema dubbed ‘giallo’. Gialli are known for blood and gore, a stylish yet menacing atmosphere and bizarre twists at the end. Giallo films are considered the inspiration for American slasher movies and it’s not hard to see why.
If you’re a fan of Italian giallo, you’ll find DBRL’s free streaming service, Kanopy, a virtual wonderland that will surely keep you enthralled for the remainder of this horrifying year. And on that note, here are some gruesome* highlights to get you started. Maybe, in comparison, they’ll make 2020 look almost normal.
*No kidding! Put the kids to bed!
1977, 99 minutes
Filmmaker: Dario Argento
This is the original 1977 masterpiece. Young American Susie Bannion arrives at a prestigious dance school in Freiberg, Germany. Every scene is saturated in the lurid glow of murder-y red. This film is set to a relentlessly disturbing cutting edge (to this very day) soundtrack performed by Italian progressive rock band, Goblin. The thing that strikes me most about this movie was how Mr. Argento indulged every last one of his directorial whims and still managed to produce an amazing film. It may not be entirely coherent or ponder anything deep, but it will stay with you for a very long time. English.
Strangest moment: Maggots!! Maggots everywhere!!!
1971, 85 minutes
Filmmaker: Mario Bava
An isolated and highly dysfunctional seaside community engage in a bloody power struggle over ownership of the bay. The opening scene of forcible suicide is your introduction to Bava’s blunt force trauma style of storytelling. The camera shows you the first murderer, but as he is then killed in the same scene by yet another murderer, you spend the rest of the movie trying to spot murderer number two. Inevitably, the bodies pile up and we run out of suspects. In the absence of redeemable characters, one keeps wondering about the young children left alone in a camping trailer by their fortune-hunting parents. Don’t worry, you’ll find that those little darlings are going to be just fine. Filmed in English.
Notable moment: Shockingly fake beheading scene still burnt into my corneas.
![Hatchet for the Honeymoon [Original Trailer] - YouTube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HB5T2RD2Jko/maxresdefault.jpg)
He’s an experienced serial killer, but needs help with lipstick application.
1970, 89 minutes
Filmmaker: Mario Bava
The Italian title of this film seems more appropriate, Il Rosso Segno della Follia (The Red Sign of Madness). For one thing, the action doesn’t exactly take place during a Honeymoon, and for another, the murder weapon of choice is a meat cleaver, not a hatchet. The main character, John Harrington, introduces himself from the beginning as a madman. He is the dashing owner of a bridal fashion house and his beautiful home and enchanting hot house filled with roses serve as the peaceful backdrops for his horrifying crimes. He may be haunted by the violent death of his mother, but he doesn’t know just how haunted he will be by the time his wife is done with him. English.
Favorite scene: Kissing all the “ladies” in the secret mannequin bride room!
1973, 93 minutes
Filmmaker: Enzo Castellari
A handsome London solicitor rescues an Italian woman from her dull and drunken date. They paint London town red and then he whisks her off to his uncle’s house on the edge of town. There, waiting in the shadows, is a criminal with a criminally bad Cockney accent (the actor, Julián Mateos, is Spanish). He holds them hostage until his unhinged boss arrives. Turns out, the solicitor’s uncle happens to be a judge who had put both of these guys in prison years before. The movie was filmed entirely in English, except for moments when the Italian woman gets really angry. She’s my hero in this movie, keeping her wits about her and trying everything she can to survive.
Watch for: The “sexy pirate” 1970’s fashion on Julián Mateos.
As I got ready to do this post, I was expecting to brush up on my college Italian, but was instead surprised that so many of these films were ostensibly produced in English, though it always seems like the voice tracks are just a touch off. My guess is that the filmmakers were anticipating an international audience and therefore saw English as the most logical language for distribution. Gialli are not for everyone, but they definitely create an atmosphere of suspense, in high contrast with the almost humorously fake murder scenes with red paint gushing out of fake arteries. I enjoyed the resulting absurdity and perhaps also experienced some nostalgia for the slasher films I watched as a child of the 80’s.
