Detention - rewatch and spoilers

If you're looking for something less spoiler filled, please jump out of here and over to my original review of the film found here: http://horrorsho.blogspot.com/2014/10/detention-2011.html 


_________________


I recently re-watched 2011s wild and wacky gem DETENTION Directed by Joseph Kahn and I still love the film to death. I was trying to sort out why and I believe the reason is obvious on my second viewing - it's the movie I would have loved to make. Horror, comedy, strange goings on, trippy meta plot twists. It's the Malcolm movie that was never made.


Kahn and Mark Palermo wrote the film and I bet they had a blast doing so. Packing comedy, horror, science fiction, and so many references to books, music, and decades of style and fashion into one film makes this a kinetic and ultra-fast paced wonderland of...stuff. However, maybe that's what turns people away from it?



Let the spoiling begin!

I love how the film starts out with a basic concept that we've seen time and time again - most recently in films like MOST LIKELY TO DIE. A strange looking killer dressed in ((insert kitschy costume here)) starts killing off people in interesting ways. We've seen it. Over and over. However even that execution is unique in Detention. Sweet camera moves, zippy writing, and interesting graphics whip through the movie scape like mad. The roller coaster ride concludes with an ultra-violent attack and a big finish that catapults us up and out to meet our main character, then zooming along to the credit sequence - a thing of beauty that makes me so happy. :)






The IMDB blurb for the film is incredibly boring and does NOT do justice to the plot:
As a copycat killer named after movie villain Cinderhella stalks the student body at Grizzly Lake High School, a group of co-eds band together to survive while serving detention.



Sure, that's in the film, but it leaves out UFO sightings, human test subjects, body and mind swapping, time travel, and more. I said in my original review for the film that this was a film for "smart people", but I didn't mean it in a swarmy or pretentious way. Not at all.

I was merely saying that there are folks who want the film described by IMDB. They want people to be shoved into a situation and killed off in creative ways as they watch on, eat their popcorn, and cheer on the violence. And, those films have their place for sure. People love them - that's why we have...what? 47 SAW films right now? They even stopped trying to craft a story with them now. They just drop people into a space and start strapping iron masks and four power strips worth of gadgets onto them before slipping them into something that compresses them after shooting fire into their butts....or whatever.

Detention has some of this basic, killer on the loose for sure. There are some comical killings in here that are really...out there. But, the addition of all the other elements makes this - again - more along the lines of REPO MAN from back in the day. A film cherished and viewed over...and over...and over again by my friends and I. Strangeness pours from Repo Man like water from a fountain and Detention has the same, wondrous sense of play and fun.

Time machine? Sure!
Mind swapping through time to win a talent show? YES!

The film presents a playground for the viewer to wander through. A place where anything can and will happen. I loved that.

The actors make the witty writing and shotgun deliveries work.

Shanley Caswell is gold, working the misunderstood, angry Riley lead role wonderfully as she clumps through her life on her bum leg - at odds with everyone and everything. She went on to be in the Conjuring in 2013.





Josh Hutcherson's cool, beloved Clapton Davis character only works because he seems to be that guy. The cool, good looking guy that everyone knows and likes. It seems his acting and good looks paid off - I see he's in all three of the HUNGER GAMES movies.






And Dane Cook is a fantastic "secret sauce" as he manages to rope it back a bit as the school Principal tossing angry, fruck my life quips at students here and there until the films titular detention wrap up.



Every character in the film - from the strange, outspoken Canadian GORD to the "Hipster Thief" - rocks their screen time no matter how long or short it is.

And lastly, the fucking style of the film makes me insanely jealous of the filmmaker's craft. It's just amazing. The cuts and camera angles are grand. The overall pace keeps rolling and rolling along and we only pause long enough for the occasional title card introducing another bizarre aspect of the story and it's characters.


Big props to Christopher Probst, the director of photography, as well. Fantastic work!



I was surprised to see....well...it TOTALLY makes sense, but....Joseph Kahn Directed the Taylor Swift BAD BLOOD video! HA!




It looks like he has another film due out in 2017 as well. A film called BODIED that IMDB has down as:  a progressive graduate student finds success and sparks outrage when his interest in battle rap as a thesis subject becomes a competitive obsession.

Sure!



The reviews for this make me sad, really. It's METACRITIC score is a mere 45 and IMDB has it at 5.8 out of 10. I'd easily give this a 9 out of 10 stars. No question.

Did you like HEATHERS,  REPO MAN, DEAD ALIVE (BRAINDEAD), TUCKER AND DALE v EVIL,  or JOHN DIES AT THE END? Then you need to track down DETENTION at once. It's currently on SHUDDER (US) and is also available on Amazon for streaming as well.

Seen it? Loved it? Hated it? Let me know! 

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

I made time to watch I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and I'm glad I did. Let me start off by saying a BUNCH of people are going to HATE this film. It's been my experience that when a film is a slow, slow burn people detest it. When it takes it's time and drifts around a bit with no jump scares or super loud music ques to pop them away from time to time, they moan and grumble about it being boring like a petulant three year old in line at the grocery store.

However I love these films. I sink in and snuggle in to them like I'm huddled in a warm blanket. Films like The Innkeepers and other Ti West fair and lovely, novel-like dreams like The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh make me incredibly happy in their quiet, calm pace. It really is a little like reading a good book to me. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is just that in spades.


The film tells the tale of Lily (Ruth Wilson), a nurse taking care of an elderly writer named Iris Blum (the wondrous Paula Prentiss). The house was built ages ago and has a secret. Standard stuff here, of course, but the cast of six makes it interesting. It's a gothic haunted house tale, but the delivery is what makes it something I found to be all at once creepy and beautiful. Prose opens the story and should act like a weeding out process. If the glacier-like pace of the intro bothers you, just wrap it up and stop watching because the whole of the film is the same way really.

Lily putters around the house and takes care of Iris, but slowly comes to realize that there's something other than the two of them present in the home. A small mystery for Lily to look into while she tries to keep herself busy, things rapidly escalate and twist into something surprisingly effective.

And....thank you Oz Perkins for your grand story and simple direction. We're allowed to roam through the old house with Lily - sweeping along bright hallways and empty rooms, but are never smacked around with bombastic scores, audio assaults to underline horror elements, or hyper-kinetic camera moves to emphasize distress. We're just shown what we are meant to see. And that in and of itself is very creepy, brooding, and gloomy in a wondrous, gothic way. Netflix knocks out another fantastic original offering!

I was locked onto the screen the whole time - my phone face down and away so I would not miss a frame. It looks like five out of the eight reviews on METACRITIC (at the time of me writing this) agree that the film is well worth a watch with the other three seeming to be in the camp of the three year old I discussed in the opening paragraph. :::grin::: 

If you want a great story in the vein of classic haunted house stories of the past - along the lines of the fantastic works of M. R. James, please give I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House a watch and let me know what you think.  Currently available on NETFLIX.

Horror Podcasts List - Updated for 2016

Hello All! 
I've added some podcasts onto my original list I made and taken some off that I don't listen to anymore. Hope you find it helpful in your search for horror podcasts! ~M~

I listen to a fair share of podcasts. A lot, really. I fill my chore hours with podcasts to take my mind off of the task at hand...and to drown out the voices in my head. heheheh  I took a look at my growing list of podcasts recently when I found myself running short on iPhone space and thought, "Wow...that's a lot of horror podcasts in there. Maybe I'll spread the word about some of the ones I like today."

So, here is the current list of items on my phone.






United Nations of Horror
http://www.unitednationsofhorror.com/
Like the Faculty of Horror Podcast listed below, the UNH podcast is a more in-depth look at the horror genre with carious roundups of films and news related to the main topic of discussion. They are also an "international podcast" with hosts based in the UK, Germany and the United States which makes it interesting as well. It's nice to get knowledge and viewpoints from other areas of the word.

They do the usual "What have we been watching" segment, a brief overview of items related to the main feature that they plan to discuss, then the main feature roundtable with the films plot run through by one of the members so they can talk about the various elements that make the film up. They also have special segments from time to time that focus on the headliner as well.
You can also find little side channels of podcasts on their page:
ACTION ZONE (action films)
THE (B)AD SIDE (a pay per listen coming soon, I believe)
and, for those so inclined...
SQUARED CIRCLE OF WRESTLING   :)  (for wrestling fans)

"The United Nations of Horror is a podcast featuring a group of hardcore horror movie fans from all over the globe coming together to discuss all things horror including but not limited to movies, television shows, books, video games and much more. Each episode will feature a main topic and may also include contributions on a variety of horror related topics."

Streampunk
http://www.streampunk.show/
The MONDO MOVIE PODCAST duo is BACK with the STREAMPUNK PODCAST! A great podcast idea - they review genre and more that is currently available for streaming through the usual suspects. This makes things much easier when you're trying to play along at home. You can usually stream through AMAZON, NETFLIX, or some other mainstream media servers so you can have easy access to the films being talked about.
Nothing better than listening to two guys who love genre movies and movie history talk movies! 





 

Lore
http://www.lorepodcast.com/
Another grand podcast for lovers of real world horror, LORE focuses on true horror tales and mythos from all over the world. Ghosts, happenings, and real world monsters such as serial killers are discussed in a very interesting and tight fashion. The research is fantastic and host Aaron Mahnke (a fiction writer) has a fantastic voice and grand writing style.

Man...there are some CREEPY things that happen in our world! 
"Lore is an award-winning, critically-acclaimed podcast about true life scary stories. Each episode examines a new dark tale from history, and presents it in a style that's been compared to a campfire experience. With over 3,200 5-star reviews and 2 million monthly listens, that's clearly a good thing.  New episodes are released every two weeks, on Mondays.  Our fears have roots. Lore exposes the darker side of history, exploring the creatures, people, and places of our wildest nightmares.  Because sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction."



Night of the Living Podcast
http://nightofthelivingpodcast.com/
As with HAMMERED HORROR below, this podcast feels like hanging out at a friends house on a Friday night and talking about movies over beer and pizza. Super fun and very silly at times, the multiple host podcast covers what the folks have been watching and the main feature, but also do a fun segment called STRAIGHT TO VIDEO RUSSIAN ROULETTE where one host is selected Russian Roulette style to watch a straight to video movie and report back on it the following show.

Humorous and fun, this is a great podcast for horror shocks and goofy giggles. I have been brought to tears laughing at times. :) A lot of fun!

"Night of the Living Podcast is a weekly show hosted by six friends from Cincinnati, Ohio. Each week a randomly selected podcaster reviews a film for our “Straight-to-Video Russian Roulette” segment. In “The Main Attraction” segment, the entire NOTLP Crew discusses a horror or sci-fi genre feature."



Alice Isn't Dead 
http://www.nightvalepresents.com/aliceisntdead/     
Another fab story podcast by the makers of WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE. (listed below)

It's like THE NIGHT STALKER meets Bruce Banner wandering around in the Incredible Hulk TV show...with a dash of X-Files.

I'm totally hooked. It won't be for everyone - the delivery is not standard, linear storytelling, but I'm riveted by the situations and story weaving that goes on within it.

"A truck driver searches across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead. In the course of her search, she will encounter not-quite-human serial murderers, towns literally lost in time, and a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman."

Uncanny County
http://uncannycounty.com/
More fantastic, odd tales! I love it! So many creative folks putting out wondrous art!
This one is special to me. It involves an area called Uncanny County and every podcast is a story about the area. Robots, killer clown demons, Twilight Zone style twist of fate tales....this podcast has a little bit of everything. And, the fun part is, if you don't happen to love the podcast one episode, you can just wait and see what they have to offer for the next round.

Archive 81
http://www.archive81.com/
I dig this podcast, but the benchmark set by THE BLACK TAPES PODCAST isn't really fair for it. Another ongoing story podcast here. This one deals with a man going though and archiving a set of tapes off in a bunker-like facility. He's supposed to record himself at all times. The man who has set him on his way for the task calls in from time to time to check in on him...making sure he stays on task.
As the tapes are played, you find out more of what's been happening...and you have more things happening to our archivist.
Interesting and atmospheric, this podcast and story line is well worth a listen.
"Three months ago Daniel Powell vanished.  These are the tapes he sent me.  If you know anything, please contact me at archive81podcast@gmail.com  New episodes will be released every other Wednesday."

THE BLACK TAPES
http://theblacktapespodcast.com/ 
This falls under story podcasts and I love it. THE BLACK TAPES is a paranormal serial, really, going over the Black Tapes - a series of cases of a paranormal de-bunker with an interesting past.

The Black Tapes is a weekly podcast from Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, and is hosted by Alex Reagan. The Black Tapes Podcast is a serialized docudrama about one journalist's search for truth, her enigmatic subject's mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both. 
How do you feel about paranormal activity or supernatural? Ghosts? Spirits? Demons?
Do you believe?




DARK DISCUSSIONS
http://www.darkdiscussions.com/ 
Another cool group discussion about horror films and related topics. They are a lively bunch with a vast horror movie viewing history to pull from. Good conversations and some funny banter.




THE DRABBLECAST
http://www.drabblecast.org/ 
Not strictly horror, this story podcast offers up some fantastic literature readings. It's a "smart" podcast as well with some quick and nimble writing.

The Drabblecast is a weekly podcast featuring flash fictions from a variety of genres. Its singular message is that of off beat, funny, eclecticism. It is a paying fiction market, accepting submissions. The Drabblecast is the winner of the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Parsec Awards for Best Speculative Fiction Audio Magazine.





FACULTY OF HORROR
http://www.facultyofhorror.com/ 
THE FACULTY OF HORROR podcast is rather interesting in it's overall approach. It's more like a horror class in college with a bent towards women in horror and the roles of women in horror in various horror films and collections of horror imagery and tropes. They really do a grand job and it's always an interesting listen.

Tackling all things horror with a slash of analysis and research, horror journalists and occasional academics Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West are your hosts for brain plumping discussions on all things that go bump in the night.
Produced independently in Toronto, Ontario The Faculty of Horror is your best source for classic and contemporary horror film discussions that will haunt the libraries of your mind!

HAMMERED HORROR
http://www.hammeredhorror.net/ 
I used to LOVE the old MONDO MOVIE PODCAST and I was really sad when it ended. Listening to to fun English gents talk horror was a hoot. Well, HAMMERED HORROR brings it all back with two highly entertaining English gentleman talking and laughing about horror films whilst sipping adult beverages from time to time adding to the wild nature of the podcast. I love it. It's one of those, "MAN! These guys seem like they would be fun to hang with!" podcasts. :)



HORROR ETC PODCAST
(sadly, no more, but still worth a listen)
http://www.horroretc.com/ 
These two may not put out podcasts regularly, but the content is well worth the wait in most cases. I keep them in my podcast list and I'm pleasantly surprised when I see a new podcast in the listing. They are just super busy, which I completely understand. One of them even makes actual horror movies, which I can get behind completely!  Very entertaining horror discussions.




HORROR NEWS RADIO
http://horrornewsradio.com/ 
I'm relatively new to this podcast, but I dig it so far. Another group situation with lively conversations. What I've noticed so far is that these folks don't always agree on each others opinions and they are NOT afraid to let each other know about it! hehehehe  I've enjoyed people having debates on execution and the like - it makes it a more lively podcast indeed!





HYPNOBOBS / HYPNOGORIA
http://www.hypnogoria.com/html/podcast.html 
I love this podcast. It's fantastic. Jim Moon really knows his subject matter and I look forward to the podcast content every time. He covers a wide variety of offerings as well, which makes things interesting and highly entertaining. He covers film, literature, authors and more. His research is fantastic - a comprehensive coverage of the subject at hand for sure. One of my all time faves - especially when he does Christmas Ghost Story readings around the holidays!




KNIFEPOINT HORROR
http://knifepointhorror.libsyn.com/ 
Another favorite of mine, this horror story podcast is fantastic. It's presented in a very interesting way as well. Hardly any music or background sound effects. It's like you've walked into a room where someone is waiting for you. You sit down and listen to their story - a true telling of an even or happening in that person's life. Some of them are really chilling. Fantastic podcast.

THE NO SLEEP PODCAST
http://www.thenosleeppodcast.com/ 
For those who prefer a little more production in their story telling, there's the NO SLEEP PODCAST. Great acting and presentation for some truly creepy tails. Very NIGHT GALLERY in feel, these tales really do promote insomnia! :)

In the spring of 2010, a new forum appeared on Reddit.com. It was called “Nosleep” and the concept of this forum (or “subreddit”) was to be a place for people to post original scary stories about frightening experiences. It was an online version of telling spooky stories around the campfire.
A year later, as Nosleep was growing at a rapid pace, one member named Matt Hansen proposed the idea of doing a podcast where some of the top stories from Nosleep would be narrated in audiobook style. The response was quite positive and over the next few months a small group of members endeavored to put together what would come to be known as The Nosleep Podcast. On June 13th, 2011 Episode #1 was released.




PSEUDOPOD
http://pseudopod.org/ 
A wide variety of horror tales can be found here. PSEUDOPOD has been around for a long time and you can see why when you listen. It's really one of the best horror story podcast offerings out there.

WARNING: This is a podcast of horror fiction. The stories presented here are intended to disturb. They are likely to contain death, graphic violence, explicit sex (including sexual violence), hate crimes, blasphemy, or other themes and images that hook deep into your psyche. We do not provide ratings or content warnings. We assume by your listening that you wish to be disturbed for your entertainment. If there are any themes that you cannot deal with in fiction, that are too strongly personal to you, please do not listen.




THE SCREAM CAST
http://www.thescreamcast.com/ 
Horror discussion on the hip (...but not lame hip) side, these guys play well together and present a lot of interesting info and banter for sure. Lively and entertaining horror discussion. 

The ScreamCast is a podcast hosted by Sean Duregger, Brad Henderson and BJ Colangelo. It began as a celebration of one of our favorite Horror flick label, Scream Factory. Since then, however, we’ve moved into celebrating the many other boutique horror labels like Synapse, Vinegar Syndrome, Cult Epics and more.
With special guests, celebrity interviews, top 10 lists and reviews we celebrate all things retro, cult and fringe in horror!

 
THE SCRIPT
http://thescript.podbean.com/ 
These folks focus on the script of films and cover a wide variety of topics and films, not just horror related. They manage to focus on the script without being too dry about it, which is grand. This could be a super dry, saltine cracker of a podcast, but they manage to keep the conversation lively and interesting, bouncing from the film overview to how the script is structured. Very cool stuff.




 
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE
http://commonplacebooks.com/ 
This is one wild podcast. It's played out like a small town radio station broadcast about the ULTRA-FRUCKING STRANGE goings on in NIGHT VALE, a location that one could look at as the place where every NIGHT GALLERY, TWILIGHT ZONE and RICHARD MATHESON story originates from! hehehehe  I love it! It's strange and fun and funny and the production is tight and crisp. ALWAYS entertaining. ALWAYS strange.

"The new dog park is now open. Remember, there are no dogs allowed in the dog park. Do not talk to the hooded figures that you may see in the dog park. Stay away...from the new dog park."   :)

And, podcasts I'm just starting to explore:

 

Small Town Horror http://www.smalltownhorrorpodcast.com/

This story podcast tells the tale of a man who played a small town, night scares game when he was a teen, but it actually worked and he was taken away by someone or something for a period of time. However, while he thought he was away for days, no one thought he'd been away longer than a few hours. He heads back to the small town where it happened to investigate after his Father passes away. Of course, this is fueled by a package arriving for him...that was sent by his Father days after he passed away. 

Everything is there in this story podcast. Interesting story, good pace for the most part...  I'm just waiting it out to see if the actor flow gets a bit better. I think the same thing happened when THE BLACK TAPES started - it takes a while to get everyone rolling. I do like the podcast - it's holding my interest. 

Found Footage Files

http://foundfootagefiles.org/

I'm not a found footage guy. I dislike it as a whole. However, there are some nuggets here and there. I just want to have to find them myself. 

Enter the FOUND FOOTAGE FILES podcast! hehehehe

They cover all things found footage. It's been helping to weed out the MEH! and get to the good stuff. They have a very cool, conversational style that sits well with me. Check it. 

"Found Footage Files is a movie review podcast that looks exclusively at films shot in the "found footage" or handheld camera style."

 

The Night Time Podcast

http://www.nighttimepodcast.com/

More goodness for lovers of real life strange tales, this podcast is really very engrossing. He tells the tale of the event - a UFO sighting some family members had and a missing persons case are the two I've heard so far, but then he actually speaks to the people involved. This aspect has been very interesting. (Though, it was very difficult to listen to the Mother of the missing person talk about her ordeal) I love that it's not done in a prying or upsetting way. It's conversational interview style and is presented in a calm, clear manor. 

Fans of real world mysteries and odd happenings will love this.

Remakes: The Thing

Whew, THE THING. THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD.  Both films shaped my love of horror films for different reasons and both were equally amazing and powerful works in my mind.

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD - 1951
Howard Hawks really brought the  John W. Campbell short story "Who goes there?" to life with his Direction. There are Howard Hawks moments throughout the film and it's SO WONDERFULLY 50s. (( I ALWAYS mess this up.  Christian Nyby was also a Director on this film, but I always leave him out. Sorry Chris. :)   ))
Quick dialog and some grand play with the camera and character interactions makes this one of the biggies from my childhood. Mom would make a huge bowl of popcorn and we'd sit and watch the afternoon movie back in the ye old 1970-somethings and we'd never miss THE THING when it was on.

You know the story. A team of scientists in a remote, arctic outpost pair up with the Air Force to investigate a U.F.O. crash site. They discover an alien occupant and bring it back to the base to check out. Said occupant thaws and mayhem ensues as the small outpost wages war against the alien to save the planet from being taken over.

There are little things in here that make me smile time and time again. Conversations are like machine gun fire - rattling off quickly and smoothly with some cute, 1950s moments that are just awesome. Some good writing there. Then there are things like doors opening and closing. Watch the film again. You'll see doors opening and closing, people going in and out and people talking about doors throughout. But why? Oh...you'll find out! HA! And the James Arness monster makeup is grand.

The story goes that test makeup was done on a stand-in offsite before shooting started. Jack Pierce did the makeup, I believe. When the effects artist got the perfect THING, he tossed the stand-in into the car to drive him over to the studio to show the execs. On the way over, a women in another car looked over and started SCREAMING at the top of her lungs in her vehicle. The makeup artist knew this was the one after that.

I just love this film.






THE THING - 1982
Now, I went a long while wanting to kill every remake with fire. They could never make me happy.
But....wow. Walking into the theater, sitting down and having this film unfold before me like it did - even with pages and pages of FANGORIA magazine pre-press committed to memory - just completely blew our minds.

Here you have two people (my Mother and I) who not only loved the original, but had all these huge,  emotional ties to it as well. The film had to be amazing to make us come anywhere close to liking it as much as the original film. We sat there at the opening copter scene and were interested. This was different and we were ok with it and wondered where it would lead.

Turns out it lead to some of the most impressive effects work we'd seen and we'd seen a lot being genre film lovers for years and years. Rob Bottin took things up to screaming standards with his practical effects work and blew us away. It was fantastic.

The script was grand as well, taking the original storyline and adding some super details and game changing plot points into the mix that made this an update well worth sparing from the flames of hatred. They basically kept the whole of the story and added this mystery element of who was good and who was bad in that ramped the game up to new and fantastic heights.


And Carpenter was SPOT ON POINT with all his work on the film with a cast that took everything and played it real and deadly serious. That's why this remake stands out among many as a work that can not only stand on it's own, but one that people really can't see being without in the horror community.



And, this is what I really want out of a remake. I really don't mind them anymore, but...make an effort. That's all I ask. Try something interesting. Update the sucker with something cool and new. Maybe do some writing. :)

I suppose I should take a look at the 2011 THE THING (...that we couLd not come up with a better name for)  but, I don't really wanna. :)

I'll be looking at some other remakes that do just that. And...some that don't, but give it a shot.

Our recent MANIAC compare and contrast takes a look at the remake.   Take a look if you have not already.

Tenebre

I recently had a very pleasant movie surprise.

I was talking to a friend about films the other day and giallo films came up in the conversation. Giallo - or "yellow" - films are thrillers, getting the giallo name based on the cheap, crime thriller paperbacks in Italy that traditionally had yellow covers. 

He was looking for some good Argento to watch to round out his Italian horror giallo genre card. I told him he should go old school for sure, leaving more recent Argento strictly alone. I made mention of TENEBRE, SUSPIRIA and DEEP RED as a sort of perfect threesome for this sort of thing. Of course, INFERNO would be grand as well.

Then I looked over a copy of TENEBRE because the plot was fuzzy and I realized that I actually never saw it! I had seen clips and documentaries reviewing the film, but I never really saw the film from start to finish. This was a fantastic win, actually. I thought I was all done with Argento new watches from the "good old days" , yet here was something that I had not been able to catch up on.  I wasn't disappointed as I watched, though I did know who the killer was and that was a rather large drag. The clips I saw let the mystery go and I wish I had the chance to try to sort it out myself. No spoilers here, however!  

The plot is classic giallo mystery. Author Peter Neal is kicking off a book tour for his new book TENEBRE, traveling from New York to Rome for a few interviews and speaking engagements. His trip sets off on a rocky start when he finds out that his travel bag has been ransacked - clothes shredded and items broken. Things get worse as a series of murders take place and mysterious notes are left for the author that refer to the murders and quote passages from his book.

Who is the crazed killer? Is it a strange interviewer in Rome? His estranged lover from New York? Or, could it be that Peter Neal has a new and completely insane lover of his books that he has yet to meet?

Classic giallo! I loved it. And the Goblin score (YouTube link below) fits so well here. It's another amazing, swooping music piece that is instantly recognizable.



We have all the Argento / giallo tropes here. First person, "camera as killer" perspective, the black gloved murderer, mysterious goings on and lots and lots of female violence, sadly. Mr. Argento was no feminist. Women are brutally and violently extinguished along with a few men in a two to one ratio and the blood flows freely. However, unlike some films with a over the top amount of violence, this film actually backs the violence with story. It's no "set 'em up and knock 'em down" film. It has a plot and a mystery that is rather good when I think about it. You have to watch it to see what I'm getting at.

Argento was at the top of his game in this film. The camera work is fun (...save a VERY long tracking shot at minute 28 or so. Wow....so long...) and the pace is sound. The plot makes sense, really. The story behind it is rather good. This was the best time for Argento work - circa 1970 to 1980.

BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE set things off well in 1970. It's a bit long and Argento didn't quite polish things, but it's a fantastic watch. CAT O' NINE TALES (1971)  and FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971) worked well. However DEEP RED really got the Argento spin popping. The style behind the camera work, the story and the attention the the giallo tropes made Deep Red sing. Argento branded the film with his unique and twisted art.

SUSPIRIA (1977) took things another step forward with some additional visual style choices and character work that set Dario off into GOD MODE when it came to the creepy, sick and twisted giallo genre. INFERNO (1980)  followed suit, but took things into very strange territory. Sadly, MOTHER OF TEARS didn't follow Inferno directly, thus ruining the THREE MOTHERS TRILOGY. When Mother was made in 2007, the Argento magic was lost. Hell, I think the film might have managed to top the MOTHER TRILOGY off well if Dario made it in 2005. DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? stayed with me for a long time in a GOOD way. Mother of Tears might have been great if it was made during that time frame.

But...I digress.

A classic shot that is seen as one of the cornerstones of this film

TENEBRE was the feature to follow Inferno and it really shows. We don't have magic or the supernatural here. It's just a good 'ole giallo mystery. (The supernatural does return in 1985's PHENOMENA, however.)

I loved Anthony Franciosa as Peter Neal. He was grand and channeled ROD SERLING from time to time in his delivery of lines. :) We have the usual Italian actors and actresses that are dubbed over, but it's nt distracting. And, the ever awesome John Saxon plays a major role here as well, which is worth the price of admission alone! Oddly, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was made in 1969, but he looks exactly the same years later.

And.....I developed another HORROR CRUSH on Veronica Lario. Hubba Hubba!!!  :) Sadly, aside from a few television roles, the only other movie she was in was a film called SOTTO...SOTTO. Yes, I plan to track this down. heh

The violence towards women is rough at times - be warned. But, oddly, it's not as mean spirited as some of today's "torture porn" varieties. I think it's due to the fact that the violence is there in addition to the story instead of weak story points whipped up to get to more violence.

Like a good mystery?  Check this one out for sure! Fun stuff!