>What's your favorite and why? Mine's pick related. The stylish music, great use of colors, simple but decent story and good pacing make it just as good or slightly better than Deep Red imo, which is always regarded as the best in the genre.
>What's your favorite bad/lesser know giallo? Death laid an egg. The title says it all, it's weird but interesting and fun. The close-ups of chickens in combination with the weird jazz soundtrack make it unforgettable. Also Pieces/Mil gritos tiene la noche is a hilarious giallo-inspired slasher. The ridiculous dialogue and the kung fu-professor scene are legendary.
Tell me about your favorites and what you like about them.
The influence on slasher movies is obvious because of the similarities between the genres, but even direct links can be found.
For example, the Eyes of Laura Mars was basically just an American adaptation of the giallo, only with way too few murders. It was written by John Carpenter (his first major studio film), who also directed Halloween which came out later that year.
Also, a scene where a couple got impaled by a harpoon in Mario Bava's 'Bay of Blood'(1971) was later replicated in the first Friday the 13th.
>Giallo thread >either gets 300 replies or zero Really runs hot and cold Just watched Argento's Opera. Final act was a bit weak but otherwise a great film
Jordan Gomez
The metal parts should have been instrumental desu. Phenomena had that problem too
Brayden Perez
WELL ACKSHUALLY it was replicated in Friday the 13th Part II, not the original. Anyway I think the origins of the slasher genre can be traced right back to the film OP posted, Blood and Black Lace. You might as well call Bava the inventor of both giallo and slashers
True, the very first one might be the first of the three short stories in Bava's Black Sabbath, where a girl gets anonymous phonecalls. You have this really cool vibe because of the callers voice, the suspicion that she's being watched through the blinders, the claustrophobia due to the fact that it all plays out in one appartment. Many of Bava's films seem to have this wonderful atmosphere, probably because of the colors used in lighting the backgrounds (the blue and red behind the windows, etc).
Ethan Walker
The people who made Black Christmas had to be influenced by that Black Sabbath short. It's the same idea with just more characters and stretched out to 90 minutes. But yeah, Bava's use of lighting in incredible, my favorite of his is The Whip and the Body.
Adrian Murphy
Huh, I never put two and two together but you're right, there might be something there. I wonder how many more missing links I don't know about (that you can find). Black Christmas came out in 1974 and there were still some good giallo's produced afterwards (Deep Red especially), but I can't recall any giallo or slasher between then and 1978 that really stood out (I don't count suspira). Some directors who had something to do with giallo movies earlier in the 70s directed their own slashers in the 80s, like Lamberto Bava did Blade in the dark and Michele Soavi did Deliria (which was pretty good).
William Peterson
The House with Laughing Windows is a classic of the giallo genre, came out after Deep Red.
It's a shame what happened to the Italian genre film industry, got killed by home video just like the American B-movie. Although one good thing that came from it is that many of the directors, production artists and crewmembers started making porn instead, creating the golden age of Italian porn in the 90s.
Alexander Price
The more mediocre giallo's I see, like this one, the more I get the idea that there has to be a perfect one out there. One which has the perfect balance of ridiculous storyline, bloody murders, stylish and over-the-top camera angles, nervous jazz music, some convoluted childhood trauma and a twist before the end which is so ridiculous you never saw it coming.
Eye in the labyrinth had many of these, but sadly also a lack of murders. The ending almost made up for it though.
Dominic Rodriguez
There is a perfect giallo and it's called Blood and Black Lace. The only flaw it has, if you can call it a flaw, is the shot where the killer disappears which probably looked fine then but is kinda silly when watched on blu-ray.
Ayden Adams
I should get into them
Jaxon Long
Has Giallo discussion become more popular lately, or am I just more aware of them now? I've only started watching them recently with Argento. Plan on watching some Fulci and Brava soon.
You have film publishers restoring them, companies like Arrow Video and Kino-Lorber. Now that they are available in high-definition instead of the shitty VHS-quality garbage we had to deal with since the 80s, they are finding a new audience.
Especially a filmmaker like Mario Bava where at least 75% of his appeal comes from his use of lighting, color and mastery of indoor scenes. This is something that didn't come across in previous shitty versions of his movies, so they just seemed like lame B-pictures. Seeing them in 1080p is a revelation.
Samuel Thomas
The creativity of these people was incredible, they tried everything: giallo's, poliziotesschis, cannibal movies, erotic comedies, post-apocalyptic movies, zombie flicks. Much of it was derivative but still very enjoyable, like All the colors of the dark.
>modern director tries to do retro Giallo >it's all style with no substance
Nolan Taylor
I'll bump it for "horror" fans. Saw a horror thread the other day and some clown said he'd seen "every horror movie ever" but not Deep Red. How you can call yourself a horror fan and not be at least familiar with Argento is bumfuzzling to me.
Anthony Nelson
Watch the horror filmographies of Mario Bava, Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento. Come back when you're done.
Jeremiah Scott
for
Josiah Bennett
Yeah, the Belgian couple. I was really disappointed by 'L'étrange couleur...' because I thought it was going to be a giallo with art nouveau aesthetic, filmed in my own country no less. Too bad they went so overboard instead of just aiming for a 'normal' movie with a somewhat decent story. Their latest, 'Let the corpses tan', is a whole lot better though.
William Ramirez
I can't immediatly think of any recent attempts at a pure giallo, but I recently rewatched The Hateful 8 since becoming semi-familiar with the genre, and the shot of someone poisoning the coffee is a hard giallo callback.
Aaron Long
grazie
Cooper Scott
Modern thrillers/slashers are too self-referential and ironic to be "pure" anything. Scream ruined it
Every time I think about Berberian Sound Studio I get the same longing for top-tier giallo KINO that will mesmerize me the way Argento's Inferno did. No matter which of his other films I watched, I never got the feeling I wanted out of 'em. Help, anons.
David Nguyen
Well, when the conventions of a genre are so firmly established and every possible creative twist you can give them are done, the only thing a genre can do is parody the conventions or become meta and self-referential (or evolve into a new genre). It's only a natural cycle of maturing and decaying I guess.
>Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) arrives in a village of the Valli di Comacchio area where he has been employed to restore a fresco depicting what appears to be the martyring of Saint Sebastian, which has been painted on a rotting wall of the local church by a mysterious, long-dead artist named Legnani. While temporarily taking up residence in the house that had been previously owned by the two sisters of the deceased painter, Stefano begins a romance with a new, beautiful schoolteacher, Francesca (Francesca Marciano), meanwhile learning from various townspeople that the painter had been a madman who had derived his art from real life. Specifically, Stefano learns that the artist — assisted by his two equally-insane sisters — had been a killer who brutally tortured people to death as inspiration for his horrific paintings — a practice that had likely been used for the very painting he is in process of restoring. As Stefano is discouraged for his task throughout the town, some of the villagers are brutally killed — including his employer — and he comes to suspect that their murderer is trying to deter him from discovering the full truth behind the artist and his ominous legacy within the sleepy community.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is the first giallo I watched and still one of my favorites. It has all the elements you described, maybe the ending isnt that ridiculous, but the gory murders, the Gothic scenery, the tits, and the great soundtrack make it a classic of the genre.
Camden Flores
I see that "corpses" is on Prime . I might check it out
Isaiah Edwards
>the Valli di Comacchio area a stone's throw from Rimini? A lot of great films in this region...
I was never that impressed by Deep Red. My favorite Argento is Opera
Brayden Gomez
for me it's pic related
just all around solid; great plot, cool sets, morricone, post-hippie malaise, some star power with suzy kendall, argento doesn't overdo it with the batshit retardation. i caught it on late night tv as a kid and it's one of my most cherished viewing experiences. streaming and home video can't compare to discovering something in the tv guide and getting return on your hype when the movie delivers in spades
He really shined with those early traditional giallos, but his later more experimental films really showed just how far the gap was between him and Bava
Jeremiah Sanders
I watched Opera recently and was really impressed with it. The whole eyelid thing was great and unlike an user above I actually thought the metal music was a nice touch. The reveal/ending was a bit weak though.
Daniel Barnes
I liked the ending personally, like she was so broken by her experience that "ooh the butterflies, haha I'm a little girl again!" she's trying to repress the whole thing
What I really hated was the original Blue Underground DVD which spoiled the ending on the back cover, I even remember blacking it out with a permanent marker before showing it to friends so it wouldn't ruin the movie for them
didn't care much for the reveal. thats the only part of Opera i disliked. The eye thing is legit uncomfortable to watch.
Camden Hill
I've been working my way through Argento's early filmography. I really wish Phenomena was a better film because god DAMN Connelly is hot. Bird With the Crystal Plumage and Deep Red are my favorites so far. Inferno had some great camerawork but it was too supernatural for my taste. Tenebre was great (and as someone who liked the song "Phantom" by Justice it was fucking weird hearing the original they sampled from unexpectedly) in a lot of ways but outside of one shot right at the end, there wasn't really anything super memorable in terms of camerawork.
My favorite part about Giallo is the 'whodunnit' aspect. Unlike slashers, which just feature an obvious killer, these films make a mystery out of who is the person doing all these killings and, even though there are rarely any actual hints/ways to find out who the culprit is before the twist reveal; it's fun watching with other people and taking bets about who ends up being the villain. Do most other Giallo have that element of one of the introduced cast being the killer? If so, which ones should I watch next?
Thomas Rogers
Fantastic film and Bava's most personal effort. I showed it to my mom and she couldn't sleep after
they made a shitload of them and its hard to say what's best but Mario Bava was a true genius and so was Lucio Fulci but Fulci didn't have Bava's technical mastery
Probably Tenebrae. The ending was a big surprise, it's gory, and the soundtrack is fantastic. Can't argue with that. Bava's films are generally more well crafted than the rest. I like Fulci's zombie movies most of all. No bully.
Blood and Black Lace is pretty good, but then again it's not hard to please me when it's that sub-genre. That sub-genre of course is the brutal murder of women. Strangulation, suffocation, drowning, searing flesh, all are good and this film has them all while those nubile harlots fruitlessly scream, each shriek building to the cresendo of deafing silence which acknowledges a good deed has been done, the elimination of one more female. Women both on celluloid and in our own flesh-space serve a singular purpose to be victims of overwhelming violence.
Aaron Reyes
Hatred against women isn't what these movies aren't about, the violence against them is depicted as 'horror', something revolting or shocking. Also, the murderers themselves are often traumatized weaklings or perverts, not persons with which the viewer should identify. POV shots from the murderers point of view are therefore made to make you uncomfortable, not to enjoy it.
Jordan Gomez
>first hear Gobin's Tenebrae score as a Justice sample >get into giallo years later >immediately recognize Phantom
That scene is amazing but it made me even more excited.
