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MM31 - Italian Sickos: Giallo of Argento & Fulci
🕑 Added 2024-10-31 11:00:16 +0000 UTCCiao horror-heads. On this episode of the Screamset, we take a trip to the nation of Italy, a country known for its beauty, history, and some of the most brilliant and fucked up horror movies of all time.
First up is Tenebre (1982) directed by Dario Argento. In this quintessential Giallo slasher an American mystery author arrives in Rome to promote his latest novel while serial killer stalks the city, killing women with a straight razor, seemingly inspired by the author’s work.
Then in The Beyond (1981) directed by Lucio Fulci, a young woman inherits a spooky bayou hotel that just happens to have a gateway to Hell in the basement. Flesh is stripped from bodies, acid is dumped on bodies, tarantulas eat a guy’s face, eyeballs are destroyed, and the worst head shot ever depicted in a movie are all contained within this grisly, macabre and otherworldly nightmare.
Hesse and Will talk about gore, misogyny, sexual perversion and meta-textual commentary on the horror genre by itself
The Nick Pinkerton article on Fulci that Hesse sites:
https://www.artforum.com/columns/nick-pinkerton-on-the-genre-terrorist-lucio-fulci-231192/
Comments
Klemke
I always read that Dickie's betrayal was explained by the head wound he is shown to have sustained in the fight with the zombies. Presumably they infected him with their evil or something, and he "goes rabid". It's not much, but that's what happens: Dickie is revealed to be wounded, then he attacks. EDIT: Fulci rules, Argento drools!
Tim O'Connor
*weeping* Where is Vincent Price?!
Andrew
Where’s the next one
Meadow Green
I knew the girls would do Italian horror movies and I’m so glad they did. Excellent choices, though I would have probably done beyond and cemetery man
Tim O'
He was all about seizing the means of blood and guts production
Robert Aitken
showed The Beyond to my flatmate during but got a bit too high off one of her joints right before and was really worried it and the extreme goopiness was going to me actually sick
Frances Mary
The Miskatonic Institute of horror studies has an upcoming online lecture called “'The Screams of His Poor Bride': Daria Nicolodi’s Vengeful Screenwriting and Women’s History" that I am pretty sure is going to be excellent.
Michael Polacheck
The Zanti Misfits.
Drew Mancini
Yes! The theme song! I also did a deep drive into Argento last Halloween, watching Tenebrae for the first time and was like “hey! This is that song by Justice!”
Hardcore Virgin
The morgue scene in the beyond reaches another level…and it is the music that does it. It is like funky dance music and this girl is navigating her mom’s ooze and like dancing with it. It is so fucking bizarre. The blues and pinks too. And the hypnotic flowing of the acid. Reminded me also of Cure. Which I’m surprised you guys didn’t mention. Impossibly overflowing liquids are terrifying! Anyway. My favorite scene from the movie.
J Fitz
The famous crane shot in Tenebre is exhilarating to watch, every time
Karl
In The Beyond every time you hear the creepy piano music, it would cut to the blind woman playing the piano. So it was killing me to think every time the electronica music came on, I was expecting to see it cut to her with a keytar
Dustin Nelson
Giallos are better described as a mix of a slasher with a murder mystery, the violence is usually in big bursts but sparse throughout. The gore isn't exactly the point, beyond making those scenes memorable. Fulci definitely has more gore than Argento in his work.
Dustin Nelson
That's kinda on purpose
Dustin Nelson
Eibon Press, before it was bought by Vinegar Syndrome and got a name change, has licenses to do all of Fulci's stuff in comics, his Gates of Hell saga films were all adapted and reconnected eith each other, since each movie like House by the Cemetery and The Beyond contain one of those seven gates. They have a fully licensed conclusion, Escape The Beyond, I haven't gotten to read yet. There's also a truly crazy adaptation and sequel to Fulci's Zombie ftom them too. Since these were direct buy things there's almost excessivly gory because they can be but were otherwise very cool
Dustin Nelson
Outro track is called "Flashing" from Tenebrae, both movies have great scores
Mike O)))
Fun fact: ex-fiance Jane in Tenebrae is Silvio Berlusconi's ex wife
wailing ken jennings
goblin is way better than justice.....hesse.
Robert Aitken
the guy having success with headshots and repeatedly going back to body shots kills me every time
Dustin Nelson
The Beyond has a sequel in the form of comics
Eric Murphy
I absolutely agree about the spider scene being both fake looking and yet still very unsettling and terrifying.
stinkface
Pretty sure Fulci was a commie actually
Equality State Of Mind
Ok, 20 minutes into Tenebrae was anybody else's head exploding with porno scenarios? Or has Hesse just ruined movies for me?
Equality State Of Mind
Ok, who else got really mad about the Romero-rules zombies? And also the fact that the guy did not learn the rules?
Douglas “Scoop” Reinhardt
This explains why Jacques was so ornery today
Michael S. Judge
that don't sound too bad, soldier
surfman
eating frozen pizza and watching documentary about squirrels, this is considered a good day for me at this point
Saya Clarke
SO hilarious when they were laughing early on at the location of the flashbacks without revealing I thought “hmm the funniest place ever would be rhode island.” holy shit that’s insane 😭
Michael S. Judge
As Claudio Argento said to Alejandro Jodorowsky, when he suggested production of what became SANTA SANGRE: "We make a movie where a man with knife kill a lot of women."
Jim Veil
Cemetery Man is a certified banger. I think I might watch it tonight. Got the 4k a few months ago and haven't watched it yet because I had just seen it in the theater (on VHS).
Tim O'
The doctor guy in The Beyond, the male lead, is doing one of the worst American accents I've ever heard. He talks like an alien. It's like he's trying to do three different regional accents at the same time.
Nick Nobel
"If you show a bomb ticking down, and uhhhh ya know show the characters trying to diffuse it, like, that's uhhhh... something. But if you show that there's a bomb and then you don't show it ever again and you just show that it's, like, there, and show it moving... like that's suspense." -Alfred Hitchcock
James Browning
I highly recommend Alice,Sweet Alice(Communion) as a great American take on Giallo. I watched it this Halloween season and also the film that inspired it Don't Look Now. Also quite good and with some great twists that make a repeat viewing necessary. Shout out to Cemetery Man. An Italian film starring Rupert Everett. Recently restored to 4K finally. Excellent episode! I need to check out Tenebre. The Beyond has always been a favorite.
David James
How did they not talk about Peter Neal riding his bike to JFK along side a car that was carrying his bag?
Robert Aitken
what
Colin C.
Would love an Outer Limits TV Mindset series! The episode they refer to is 'The Zanti Misfits', which scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Some other really good episodes are 'Demon with a Glass Hand' and 'Soldier', both by Harlan Ellison.
Nathan E Simpson
Lol it was fine if you didn’t expect anything but dumb entertainment from it. If you went to the theatre and paid 20$ for a ticket on the other hand…
Jack Theakston
If you think Argento’s use of color is wild, you should see the color films of Mario Bava, who he is imitating.
pepperyams
So much left boob in Tenebre
Pickleball Super Fan
Ciao Bella movie heads
surfman
Movie talk: "Baby Driver"was insufferable and has to be one of the most overrated films of the last decade.
MCL
I wasn’t a feeble pervert until I watched Society
JRRRG
Ciao ragazzi! Great episode, just one small thing I'd like to add: Veronica Lario, who plays Peter Neal's ex-fiancée in ‘Tenebre’, was Silvo ‘Bunga Bunga’ Berlusconi's wife from 1990 to 2010 (and has three children with him). I think that should not be forgotten when talking about the many horrors of Italy... Also, check out Fulci's smuggler action movie ‘Luca il contrabbandiere’ (‘Contraband’) - there's a good headshot there too (and a disgusting rape scene). And Fabio Testi in the leading role!
surfman
I've never been able to get into giallo. It seems like the Italian version of American gore like the Saw movies. Gore in and of itself isn't scary to me.
AltPub
"At least two wolves chased down and killed a teacher who was jogging on a road last year outside a rural Alaska village, according to a report released Tuesday by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game." https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/dna-samples-confirm-wolves-killed-southwest-alaska-teacher/2011/12/06/ (Dec. 6, 2011)
Erik Weissengruber
This title sums up the auteur/audience relationship in Giallo: “Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key.”
Robert Karnick
I just want to know how long Peter Neal was carrying around that Pee-Wee Herman joke razor waiting for an opportunity to use it
Alex Kies
Saw Tenebre on film once and the guy behind me laughed like Max Cady EVERY time a woman died
Zach H.
Tony Franciosa in Tenebre is the right kind of over the top. Just the right level of asshole.
T4Tina
“Metatextual” I really gotta cancel my subscription to these pigs. Any hint of socialism left years ago.
DongleDog
Please watch Torso. Favorite Giallo
Anomalie
Tenebre was gorgeous, I miss real lighting and shadow in movies
Garth Hillsborough
Deep Red was my first Argento and has a special place in my heart because of that. Genuinely chilling.
SLEAZOIDS podcast
The Beyond - best movie ever?!
etienne
oh is that the one where Justice took the Phantom riff, hellyeah
Torgeir Tannenwald
God dammit 2 of my favourite movies from my youth! I wrote a paper about Lucio Fulci in media class at high school. Was half hoping youd go for the lne with the shark vs zombie scene and the popping eyeball but I think The Beyond is definitely the right choice for quintessential Italian horrors
NYCM&AHole
#firechriswade for this being late
Tim O'
Argento also made Suspiria '77, which has some of the wildest use of color and light I've ever seen, plus a blind piano player getting eaten by his seeing-eye dog. These movies are insane, but they're so good.
Hardcore Virgin
Stuff me with love
