Tenebre

Plot synopsis:
Peter Neal, an American writer of violent horror novels, is in Italy to promote his latest work, Tenebrae. He is accompanied by his literary agent, Bullmer and his assistant, Anne. Neal is unaware that he has also been followed to Rome by his embittered ex-wife, Jane. Just before Neal arrived in Rome, Elsa, a young female shoplifter, was murdered with a razor by an unseen assailant. The murderer sends Neal a letter informing him that his books have inspired him to go on a killing spree. Neal is soon contacted by the police in the form of Detective Giermani and his female partner, Inspector Altieri.
More killings take place. Tilde, a beautiful lesbian journalist, is murdered at her home along with her lover Marion. Maria, the young daughter of Neal's landlord, is later hacked to death with a axe after discovering the killer's lair. Neal notices that TV interviewer Christiano Berti has an unusually intense interest in his work. That night, Neal and his Italian assistant Gianni watch Berti's house. Gianni approaches the house alone to get a better view and sees an assailant hack Berti to death with an axe. However, Gianni is unable to see the murderer's face. He returns to Neal to find the novelist has been knocked unconscious on the lawn.
Giermani discovers that Berti was obsessed with Neal's novels, and believes the killings will stop now that Berti is dead. However, Bullmer, who is having an affair with Jane, is stabbed to death while waiting for his lover in a public square. Gianni is haunted by the thought that he missed the importance of something he saw at Berti's house. He returns to the house and suddenly remembers that he had heard Berti confessing to his attacker: "I killed them all, I killed them all!" Before Gianni can share this detail with anyone, he is strangled to death from the back seat of his car.
Jane sits at her kitchen table with a pistol when a figure leaps through her window and hacks off one of her arms. The wound sprays blood over the kitchen walls before Jane falls to the floor. The killer continues to hack at her until she is dead. A woman enters the house and is attacked from behind by the ax. As she falls down, the killer is revealed to be Neal, who thinks he just killed Anne. He turns the body over to discover he actually murdered Inspector Altieri. Giermani and Anne arrive soon afterwards; when Neal sees that he cannot escape, he slits his throat in front of them. Finding the telephone out of order, Giermani and Anne go outside to report the incident from the car radio. Giermani explains to Anne that, upon learning the details of Berti's sadistic murder spree, Neal recovered a previously repressed memory involving his murder of a girl who had sexually humiliated him when he was a youth in Rhode Island. The memory torments Neal and inflames his previously repressed lust for blood, driving him insane. Giermani returns to the house and is murdered by Neal, who had faked his own death. Neal waits inside for Anne to return, but when she opens the door, she accidentally knocks over a metal sculpture that impales and kills Neal. The horror-stricken Anne stands in the rain and screams repeatedly.

Tags: gothic, murder, violence, horror, flashback, brainwashing, storytelling

Review:
I really enjoyed the film, so I bought the rerelease print from Anchor Bay, and I must say, the restored, uncut, letterboxed print looks and sounds wonderful.There's no need to go into the plot other than to say Anthony Franciosa stars as American horror novelist Peter Neal and, while he's in Rome on a book tour, murders are being committed by one of his crazed fans.
"Tenebre" stars Anthony Franciosa as a novelist Peter Neal who finds himself embroiled in a series of grisly murders,as one of his readers starts to imitate the killings in his latest novel Tenebrae.This Dario Argento's bloody thriller is full of startling plot twists and shocking bursts of gory violence.Plenty of serious shocks and a wonderful musical score by Goblin as well as incredibly gory finale that is among Argento's greatest sequences.As usual,there are some stylish killings,particularly a gruesome arm chopping near the end-definitely one of the bloodiest murder scenes I have ever seen.Argento uses some of the most vivid colors imaginable and like his 1977 effort "Suspiria",he uses these colors to enhance the atmosphere of the film.I'll end this review by saying that "Tenebre" is indeed excellent,thrilling,scary,well-acted and anything else I can think of-simply amazing if I have to say the least!Highly recommended..
Like many Italian murder mysteries, the story takes some swallowing, but if you can accept the convoluted plot, there's plenty of fun to be had.Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) is a best-selling novelist who becomes involved in real life murder mystery when the victims of a razor-wielding killer are found with pages from his latest book stuffed in their mouths.One of director Dario Argento's best movies, Tenebre is packed to the rafters with the kind of stuff that make good giallos such a trip to watch.
The movie's stunning cinematography is accompanied by one of Goblin's greatest scores, transforming what may have been mundane moments in the hands of a lesser director into pure works of art (in one amazing scene the camera simply prowls slowly around the outside of a building, but with Argento in control, it is simply breathtaking!).Murder has never been so stylish, and even the most grisly deaths are stunningly captured.
A particularly memorable moment has a young girl stumble into the house of the killer, before being chased through a garden; this scene is shot from the axe-wielding maniac's point of view, and is incredibly effective.Fans of gore are also catered for with several gruesome murders, the best of which involves bucket-loads of arterial spray decorating most of a wall.
Juicy!Argento reveals the identity of the killer in a suitably silly finale (all gialli have them), before offing the murderer in a fittingly gruesome manner.Check out Tenebre and witness one of the great works from one of Italian horror's finest..
Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa), a best selling mystery novelist, travels to Rome to promote his new book, Tenebrae, but before he arrives, a serial killer starts a reign of terror, inspired by the killings in the novel.
Excellent giallo thriller from Italian horror master Dario Argento is a favorite of many Argento fans and for good reason.Mystery author becomes the inspiration (or is he the target?) for a serial killer who has been murdering various women.Stylishly done all around and with a gripping story, Tenebre is a fine example of a perfect giallo film.
Stylishly filmed with visually pleasing photography, the stand out sequence being the murder of the two lesbians, the camera starts outside of a window looking in at one of the victims, it then moves up a level to another window, it moves across the side of the house to yet another window in which the second victim can be seen playing a record, then the camera moves up toward the roof, glides along it and back down the opposite side of the house from which it started to rest on the killers gloved hand breaking into the house.
Peter Neal is unaware that he is also being followed by his embittered ex-wife Jane (Veronica Lario) and stalked by a serial killer bent on harassing him while killing all people associated with his work on his latest novel.This is a Shocker/Chopper/Slasher/Horror/Thriller hybrid .
Interesting screenplay plenty of twists and turns by the master of horror , Dario Argento , who double-crosses and cheats like mad to conceal the murderous's identity and including imaginatively staged gory killings ; resulting to be one of his most successful movies .
Peter Neal , Anthony Franciosa, a top murder mystery writer goes to Rome Italy to promote his latest book "Tenebre".
Very effective and unbelievably gory film by Dario Argento about a killer on the loose in Rome with some of the most ingenious plot twists you'll ever see in a murder mystery movie.
"Tenebre" Dario Argento use of technique in regards to the killer was very similar to what Jacques Tourneur used in his 1943 movie "The Leopard Man" which most critics didn't think much of at that time.
Title: Tenebrae Director: Dario Argento Cast: John Saxxon, Anthony Franciosa, Daria Nicolodi Review: Tenebrae is Argentos return to his beloved murderer/detective genre after having departing into the realm of the supernatural in films like Suspiria and Inferno.
On this film were back to seeing gloved hands committing murders and trying to guess who the killer is.This time around the story revolves around writer Peter Neal.
Soon Peter and the local police team up to try and catch the killer before he continues his murdering spree across Rome.This movie is very different from Argentos previous films.
As American mystery writer, Peter Neal, flies from New York to Rome to promote 'Tenebrae', his latest book, a murder takes place in that city; it appears to be linked to his work as it mirrors a killing in the book and pages of it were stuffed in the victim's mouth.
John Saxon (from Black Christmas (1974), Blood Beach (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 & 3 & From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)) co-stars in this classic by Italian master director Dario Argento, who made the animal trilogy, the three mothers trilogy & Profondo rosso (Deep Red-1975).Tenenbre (1981) is a giallo & a slasher film.
Some of the gore is sloppy & looks a bit fake which makes a couple of the death scenes look fake, some of the females look like drag queens (the rest are beautiful), a very scary, intense chase scenes involving a dog is ruined with some stupid 'coincidences' stupid character actions & a fake kill, there are no interesting or likable characters (some characters are annoying) & overall, i just think the film could have been better.Is Tenebrae gory?
However the rest of his storytelling had become lax and uninspiring, especially in the key department of creating suspense and piling on the thrilling murderous mystery.The script itself is actually probably one of Argento's strongest with a plot that shows tremendous promise and immense possibilities, but despite all the visual qualities it does lack in multiple departments, especially in one where Dario normally excelled: the killings.
In the end I was severely disappointed by the picture, even though the last five minutes or so were probably worth the wait - the movie I must say does end on a very high note and the mystery solution can come as quite a shocking revelation.Extremely unsure why this movie grades so high amongst other Argento movies, as all earlier films I have seen are vastly superior to "Tenebrae" in every key department.
But in TENEBRE the good story line is used only as a basis for bloody mayhem when in fact it could have been really interesting had some of the characters and the story line points had been fleshed out more (no pun intended).But even a standard 1970s/ early 1980s Dario Argento film is better than the best from Hollywood.
(Information from bbfc.co.uk, the official classifiers in this country.)  So over the last 17 years, one second of this film has become more offensive!I guess it was withheld from video as the film can be seen as promoting violence against women, which was a big issue here in the early 'eighties (even de Palma's 'Dressed to Kill' received a lot of adverse media publicity).Unfortunately, Tenebrae is a boring load of rubbish, totally lacking in scares, pretty tame, laughable, and remarkably devoid of the Argento 'style' that other reviewers indicate makes the film watchable, and that definitely was present in the director's earlier 'Suspiria'.
One of the best things Anchor Bay Entertainment ever did was rescue the films of Italian shock auteurs like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, and the Bava boys from the bootleg ghetto, exposing their greatness to a new generation of fans in pristine letterboxed editions (even the VHS incarnations raised the bar for film's increasing collectibility).
But on top of the requisite stylish kills, the film is infused with a love for the written word, an eye for classic film techniques, and even some sadistic, black-humored satire toward critics who have accused the director of misogyny.Peter Neal (Tony Franciosa--"Death Wish II"), an American writer with a knack for dark mysteries, heads to Rome to promote his latest novel, 'Tenebre.' Soon after his arrival, beautiful girls start meeting bloody, elaborate deaths at the hands of a black-gloved killer.
It may not possess the candy-colored schemes of "Suspiria," but "Tenebre" gets my vote for being the more spellbinding film.Returning to the giallo turf that made his name, Argento also takes cues from American thrillers (the good-humored cop and his female partner; the inclusion of international celebrity John Saxon), while turning the film into a gleefully perverse, warped love letter to classic mysteries (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is referenced several times)instead of making a "movie within a movie," the director has given us a BOOK within a movie, a "whodunit?" running independently underneath the surface narrative.
Through those time periods, Dario Argento was an amazing Giallo film director, who mastered that genre, and artistically bloody style.
If you're a fan of the typical '70s giallo style of storytelling, this won't be a bad thing, but it's hard to escape the feeling that by 1982 he was already a bit past this.I watched this movie a couple of times years ago before this recent viewing, and my memory of the denouement was somehow totally different from what actually happened.
I can never resist an opportunity to watch a Dario Argento film so I was happy when I had the chance to view Tenebre once again; it's been too long.Argento is not only a master of horror but a true master of death and murder, which he proves in this little mystery tale.When American author Peter Neal (played by Anthony Franciosa) arrives in Rome on his book tour for his latest novel "Tenebre" he is shocked when people linked to his book begin to be murdered, and in some instances in the same manner as the book.One of my favourite scenes in the movie is when the hotel owners daughter is dropped off after a night out and is then pursued by a very tenacious Doberman Pincher.
It is also one of first of his stories that aren't ambiguous and confusing.I would always recommend Dario Argento films as he has a style all of his own with a visual style which works perfectly with his movies.
From the writer-director of Deep Red & Suspiria, Tenebre (also known as Tenebrae) marks Dario Argento's return to the very subgenre of horror he does better than anyone else and presents the filmmaker at the top of his game.
Stylishly directed, dipped in blood-soaked violence and keeping its mystery alive until the very end, it remains one of the finest works of his filmmaking career.The story of Tenebre follows an American author who arrives in Rome to promote his latest murder mystery novel, only to find that his book may have inspired a serial killer to go on a killing spree.
Carrying the entire film on his shoulders, Franciosa does enough to make his character likable, Nicolodi does well for the most part but she goes absolutely bonkers in the final moments, Gemma does well with what he's given while Saxon is the weak link here, surprisingly.On an overall scale, Tenebre is a skilfully crafted, cleverly narrated & unabashedly violent example of giallo horror that not only finishes as one of Dario Argento's best films to date but also ranks as one of the greatest works of giallo horror.
This movie is a real twisted one....beginning like a classical whodunit (some bloody murders remaining quite sober yet,a thriller author endangered by a invasive "fan" , the inspector and his deputy trying to put things together, potential suspects disappearing slowly leaving the viewer scratching his hair about who can be the murderer, business as usual), "Tenebre" turns then to complete visual craziness in the last 30 min.
Violent (One of the most recognized Video - Nasties in UK) but excellently made, with unconscious sequences, master electronic score by Goblin and a camera-work of first class, as always, specially in the roof scene, where a camera in a shot goes from a window to the other side of the house through a roof; besides, inspiration comes from true fears when an Argento fan pursue him terribly and even, threaten him of death.
Tenebre is an absolute masterpiece.Dario Argento was the first with this film to describe the strange relationship between a famous horror writer and a serial killer inspired by his books.
While "TENEBRE" isn't Dario Argento's best work, it is still a pretty good film..
It is not a bad movie, it just isn't up there among his better films such as "PROFONDO ROSSO" and "SUSPIRIA".Unlike most 80's horror films which all seem to be clustered into one category - 'schlock', "TENEBRE" narrowly avoids that category by crafting Dario Argento's magnificent camera work and direction into something that is in a league of its own.
The best part of this film is the standard Argento 'plot twist' that is revealed at the end of the movie.
While it isn't exactly "THE SIXTH SENSE" material, most viewers who hadn't already figured it out will be pleasantly surprised.I enjoyed "TENEBRE" for what it was, but it isn't anything extremely special that distinguishes its difference from all the other countless Italian-produced horror films that were churned out during the 70's and 80's for none other than Argento's brilliant camera direction.
The official synopsis for this film is an American writer in Rome is stalked by a serial killer bent on harassing him while killing all people associated with his work on his latest book.We start off with the writer from the synopsis Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa).
Tenebrae should have been packaged in a "yellow" or giallo cover.This is Argento really showing the cinema viewers his ideas on Giallo.Murder mysteries ,super thrillers, somewhat sexy and very violent are Giallo."Tenebrae" has all the elements it takes, like a good recipe for Lasagna!And Dario Argento places everything right in this one.This is his Climax,and a shining horror moment!If such a thing is possible to presume, this is his best!!
It provides everything a fan of this infamous sub-genre could ask for: graphic scenes of violence, some sleazy moments, plot-twists and, since Dario Argento is concerned, excellent photography (hope you notice the brilliant camera-move over the roof) and the usually fitting score.
The film is a return to giallo style that he had last explored in 1976's Deep Red. The plot involves and american writer who is in Rome promoting his new book and a killer who starts killing people in the style of the book.
Co-writer / director Dario Argento does typically energetic work on this entertaining murder mystery set in Rome.
While I was busy fishing around trying to find films from the 80's aside from Friday THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN and other franchise horror movies which are the only ones my friends know about and it drives me nuts whenever a conversation comes up about 80's horror because they only talk about the same films and how scary they were but I'll bet if they were able to see TENEBRE they would've sang a different tune.TENEBRE is by far one the more stylish and probably most vicious slashers I've seen, of course its actually a giallo but for what my friends consider as true horror this film makes all those films look like dog and pony shows, where in other slashers you would simply see a killer stab or chop his victim with an Axe, the killer in this film makes sure his victims are properly dead, its also a little bit on the weird side but that level of weirdness is part of the film's charm and the camera work is very nice especially a certain crane shot from outside a house, one slight problem with this film is the poor dubbing although it doesn't render the film unwatchable but it is little distracting but only before the main plot kicks in, after that the film will have you hooked.Overall, a much better horror film from the 80's than all of the well known horror films put together and when I show this to my friends I will tell them they are about to watch a real horror film from Italy's top director..
Tenebrae is an extremely suspenseful murder mystery by the "Master of Horror" Dario Argento.
Those who have only seen the aforementioned living nightmare and none of Argento's other films might be confused, or disappointed, by this mind-blowing work of art called "Tenebrae." It is a murder mystery, albeit an ultra-stylized one, and almost doesn't fit into the horror genre.
I must say I like the music though, I just think it has nothing to do with this film.TENEBRE is considered by some as one of the best DARIO ARGENTO's films and mainly one of the most violent.