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The Drunken Odyssey

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The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Dario Argento

The Curator of Schlock #329: Tenebrae

07 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Anthony Franciosa, Dario Argento, Giallo, John Saxon, The Curator of Schlock

The Curator of Schlock #329 by Jeff Shuster

Tenebrae

Also known as Tenebre. Someone needs to learn how to spell.

I tried mentioning the coffin filled with ashes to Jervis, but he flew the coop before I could say anything. He left a note behind, something about a sick grandmother. Jervis prepped a rack of lamb in the fridge with instructions on reheating. He even included mint jelly. Mmmmm. Mint jelly. Still, I don’t like being in this mansion all by myself. I hear funny noises at night.

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We’re kicking off another Giallo Month and it’s not like I need an excuse to enjoy these macabre Italian thrillers in the heat of August. Tonight’s movie is 1982’s Tenebrae from director Dario Argento. I have to say if you wanted to get into Giallo movies, Tenebrae would be a great place to start. The man who kicked off the genre returned in 1982 to direct what is one his best films. Also at the helm on the soundtrack side are former members of Goblin: Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli, and Massimo Morante. If that isn’t enough to sell you on Tenebrae, this movie made it on Great Britain’s list of video nasties. You couldn’t even buy a copy of Tenebrae over there until 1999.

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The movie begins with an American writer, Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa), taking a trip to Rome, Italy to promote his latest thriller, Tenebrae. He’s greeted in Rome by his assistant, Anna (Daria Nicolodi), and his literary agent, Bullmer (John Saxon). Bulmer is excited that Tenebrae has remained on the bestseller list for twelve weeks straight and is even more excited about the new fedora he purchased. Seriously, this Bullmer guy is truly obsessed with his hat. This is 1982! Were men wearing fedoras back then? Not that I can remember. Maybe in Europe?

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Anyway, Peter Neal’s arrival in Rome coincides with murder, murder, murder! Yes, there’s a psycho serial killer on the loose. The first murder is a shoplifter named Elsa. The killer tears pages out of Tenebrae and shoves them down Elsa’s throat before slitting said throat with a razor blade. The next murder is that of a young feminist critic of Peter Neal that labeled Tenebrae “a sexist novel.” She also gets her throat slit.

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One segment of this film is real nightmare fuel for those of you out there with dog phobias. A teenage girl named Maria walks home after a date gone wrong and is alarmed by a barking doberman pinscher behind a gate. She tries scaring him off with a stick to no avail and smartly steps away only to be alarmed when the canine jumps the gate and dashes down the street after her. After running through a park and fending off the beast, she sneaks into the garage of the closest house only to discover it to be the home of the serial killer. Yeah, things aren’t going to work out well for Maria.

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Naturally, Peter Neal gets involved in trying to solve who the murderer is since the Italian police department is dumbfounded as it usually is in these movies. I won’t spoil the rest of the movie, but things are not as they seem. Tenebrae is one of Argento’s better movies. I’d put it in his top five.


JOHN SAXON

1936-2020

Saxon

John Saxon is a favorite of this blog for movies such as Battle Beyond the Stars, Cannibal Apocalypse, and Black Christmas. He may be gone from this world, but he will never be gone from The Museum of Schlock. I expect to encounter him in several more unearthed cinematic gems. Rest in peace, John Saxon.


Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Curator of Schlock #12: Phenomena

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Dario Argento, Donald Pleasance, Jefferey Shuster, Jennifer Connelly, Phenomena, The Curator of Schlock

The Curator of Schlock #12 by Jeffrey Shuster

Phenomena

Many will cite Suspiria or Deep Red (Profundo Russo) and Italian director Dario Argento’s cinematic masterpieces. To be sure, those are fantastic films, journeys into the macabre shot in glorious Technicolor, the last of their kind before the process came to an end in the late 1970s. Many think that Dario Argento never achieved such perfection again. They are wrong.

phenomena06

In 1985, Dario Argento’s Phenomena was released, a horror movie about a young girl who had a telepathic powers over insects. The movie was released in North America heavily censored and re-edited under the title of Creepers. The resulting changes destroyed Argento’s vision and many of his fans regard Phenomena as one of his lesser efforts. I would argue that these fans never saw the original cut or were so jaded by their first impression of the film from Creepers that they were unable to give Phenomena a chance.

I was more fortunate. I had never watched Creepers and was able to benefit from the DVD boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, a boom that had several Italian classics being released uncensored for the first time in North America. My view of Phenomena is untarnished by that hack job and Phenomena remains to this day my favorite horror movie of all time.

Jennifer Connelly plays Jennifer Corvino, a young American girl who’s been sent Switzerland by her movie star dad to attend The Richard Wagner school for girls. This would be swell if not for the fact that there’s a psychopath on the loose with a penchant for killing young girls around the same age as Jennifer. In fact, he’s murdered some students at the very school Jennifer has been attending.

phenomena01

It’s also around this time that Jennifer starts having sleepwalking episodes. This is problematic because she keeps sleepwalking on the decaying rooftops of Richard Wagner’s estate while the killer is on the prowl for his latest victim. Eventually, Jennifer winds up at the house of a kindly old etymologist named John McGregor (Donald Pleasance). He’s wheelchair bound, but he has a live-at-home chimpanzee “nurse maid” named Inga to help out. Professor McGregor’s insects are rather fond of Jennifer and he tells her she can stop by anytime.

The following night at school, Jennifer’s roommate Sophie (she’s French!) is murdered by the psychopath. A firefly leads Jennifer to a maggot-infested glove. Jennifer determines that the glove belongs to the killer since one of the maggots psychically shows her the dead body of Sophie. When the maggot matures into a fly known as the Great Sarcophagus, Professor McGregor has the bright idea of sending Jennifer out with the fly to catch the killer. Jennifer travels on the bus a young Danish tourist travelled on before getting her head chopped off by the killer. The idea is the fly will lead her to where the dead bodies are hidden. This sounds like an excellent plan except for the fact that Jennifer may actually run into the “vicious killer.”  Funny how neither of them thought that through. I won’t spoil the end for you, but let’s just say there’s a chimp involved.

Ten Things I Learned From Phenomena

  1. Chimps like to play around with straight razors.
  2. Italians throw out razor blades in trash receptacles where wandering chimps can find them.
  3. Headmistresses don’t like American schoolgirls who sleepwalk and can talk to insects.
  4. Maggots can be a girl’s best friend.
  5. If you find maggots under the soap in the bathroom of someone’s house, get out of there.
  6. If your host tries to feed you poison pills, get out the house.
  7. If every mirror in a house is covered with bed sheets so your host’s son doesn’t have to see his reflection, get out of the house.
  8. If your host flips a switch sealing you into their home by barring the doors and windows with ten-inch steel, now would be a good time to panic.
  9. If you discover the police detective who’s trying to find the killer, bloody and chained to wall in an underground dungeon, now would be a good time to panic.
  10. If you find yourself in an pit of water surrounded by floating body parts while a psychopath laughs maniacally in front of you, now would be a good time to panic.

___________

Jeffrey Shuster

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47) is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of Central Florida.

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