Tenebrae (1982)
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| Umbrella Entertainment (Australia). Region 4, PAL. 1.78:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 2.0. 96 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Dario Argento
Starring: Anthony Franciosa,
John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, John Steiner
Screenplay: Dario Argento
Country: Italy
AKA: Tenebre; Unsane;
Sotto gli occhi dell'assassino
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In 1929, Italian publishing company Mondadori
started publishing a series of crime books that
had garish yellow covers. It is from here that
the Italian thriller/ horror film gets its name:
giallo, the Italian word for yellow. The films
from the early sixties started as adaptation of
these early thrillers, but eventually became a
genre of their own. The main characteristics of
the giallo film take elements from detective stories
and slasher films, with operatic elements and
a large dose of blood, gore, violence and nudity.
While many films from Italian directors can come
under the 'giallo' title, the masters
are truly Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Dario
Argento, son of producer Salvatore Argento, began
his career as a writer for a film journal, before
heading into screen writing. He worked for Sergio
Leone on such films as Once Upon Time
in the West before heading into his own
movies, thrillers that kept in mind his childhood
love of Italian folk lore, the tales of the Brothers
Grimm, but most of all, the writings of Edgar
Allen Poe. Argento is responsible for some of
the greatest horror films ever: Deep Red, Suspiria, and this one -
Tenebrae.
Author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) has come
to Rome to promote his latest novel, titled Tenebrae.
His arrival is marred, however, by a series of
killings that copy those in his novel. The police
are frustrated by the murderer and so Neal, along
with his agent, Bullmer (John Saxon) and his employees
begin their own investigation to uncover the identity
of the killer… Tenebrae is the film that saw
Argento return to traditional giallo after his
sojourn into the supernatural with his previous
two films Suspiria and Inferno,
two chapters of his so called (and as of early
2006 unfinished) 'Three Mothers' trilogy
and then right back into it with his next film Phenomena. With its rich exterior
shots of some exquisite Italian locations, and
an unusually bright palette for a horror film…a
lot of the murders take place in broad daylight, Tenebrae is a pleasure to watch.
Some really great performances by the actors,
and some great bloody effects, particularly a
brilliant axe murder. |
| Video |
| As expected, the picture is has several artefacts,
but they never intrude too much on the picture,
and are only present a few times within the film.
Also once or twice (or maybe more) the chroma noise
present in some of the colors affects the look of
the film, making it slightly grainy. Other than
these small issues, which are probably due to the
age of the film, this 16:9 anamorphic widescreen
transfer is still vivid, and enjoyable to watch.
It is really hard NOT to enjoy this film, no matter
what the quality. |
| Audio |
| The audio is a fairly unspectacular Dolby 2.0
soundtrack, but for its age, suits the film. Obviously
this being a dubbed film with some actors speaking
Italian and others English, some of the dialogue
doesn't match the picture. |
| Extra Features |
| The Audio Commentary is by Director Dario Argento,
Composer Claudio Simonetti and Journalist Loris
Curci. This is an interesting commentary, although,
due to a few Italian accents, sometimes a slight
chore to listen to.
Dario Argento Interview (36 minute 48 second)
is a made for cable interview with Dario Argento
and Dario Niccolodi which was filmed around the
time of Tenebrae's release.
Dario's English is hard to navigate but
all in all it is a fairly interesting feature.
I must warn you though, the interviewer is in
height of eighties fashion…scary stuff!!
An Eye For Horror (56 minutes 49 seconds) is
the constant Umbrella Argento release documentary
that has made it onto every Argento film. It is
not a bad doco, but probably not needed on EVERY
Umbrella Argento release. It features interviews
with many of horror associates (such as John Carpenter,
George Romero and daughter Asia Argento) and features
scenes from many of his films.
Behind the scenes featurettes consists of two
mini features. The first is called Camera Equipment
(4 minutes 27 seconds) and has Argento covering
the aspects of his camera work. The second feature,
Sound FX (2 minutes 6 seconds) shows how some
of the sound effects are achieved in Argento's
films.
Original ending credits/ score (2 minutes 16
seconds) has the Kim Wilde pop song that was used
on the ending of the English version of Tenebrae,
much to Argento and Simonetti's displeasure.
The Theatrical Trailer (3 minutes 15 seconds)
is obviously the trailer for Tenebrae,
which is also featured in the Other Argento Trailers
section of the extras. There are also trailers
for some of Argento's other films, such
as The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, The Cat of Nine Tails, Phenomena, Deep Red and Tenebrae. |
| The Verdict |
Tenebrae is a great giallo, actually
a great film of any genre, and an essential part
of any horror collector's collection, and
this Umbrella release has some great features.
Got something else to say? Spill your guts on the
Digital Retribution Message Forum! |
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TENEBRE is in my opinion his best film.
Dario Argento rules!