Giallo: The Italian Horror Movies

Giallo in Italian means yellow, and is a reference to the cheap yellow paperback horror books sold in Italy during the mid 20th century. Named after that yellow cover art, when refers on cinema, “giallo” describes the Italian sub-genre of horror films inspired by these novels.

Following the tradition of the American pulp fiction, these films as an addition, incorporate baroque scenes of violence, excess, and gore. Many “giallo” were not initially well-received in the U.S., however, as the films were often poorly dubbed and re-edited.

Most of the “giallo” plot basis is an unknown killer who preys beautiful women. Butcher knives, ropes, and razors are used instead of guns in an atmospheric baroque background where the killer would only be seen in quick shots as a dark mysterious figure, often wearing black gloves and clothing. Many times an antagonist who tries to solve the murders appears, and when the killer is finally found he commits suicide or accidentally killed by one of his victims. Another “giallo” cliché is the use of nightmare and dream. Psychic visions is the director’s way to twist the audiences thinking patterns and brake the linear storyline into a puzzle of cinematic images.

While the golden age of “giallo” films is considered to be the decade from the late 60s to late 70s, the origins of this sub-genre can be found back in 1956. This year the director and sculptor Riccardo Freda made the film “I Vampiri” (”The Devi’s Commandment” internationally). The plot was about some young women who abducted and having their blood drained. The director left the project just in its ending, thus the film completed by a cameraman named Mario Bava. Bava little later became one of the best known Italian horror directors and he is credited now as the godfather of “giallo” films.

Four years after “I Vampiri”, Renato Polselli directed “The Vampire and the Ballerina”. While that film passed unnoticed, the same year released Bava’s debut film “The Mask of Satan” (”Black Sunday” in the U.S.). The plot was about a witch who returned from the grave to seek revenge, and fortunately this film was a hit in Italy and abroad while critics pointed Bava’s intricate use of shadow and light.

Through the rest of the 60’s other maestros contributed to the Italian horror. In 1962 Riccardo Freda (under the pseudonym Robert Hampton) directed “The Terror of Dr. Hitchcock” which followed by the sequel “Ghost” in 1963. “Castle of Blood”, “The Virgin of Nueremburg” and “I Lunghi Capelli Dela Morte” (The Long Hair of Death) were all directed in 1964 by Antonio Margheriti.

Bava’s black and white thriller “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” released in 1963, and now is considered as the first true “giallo” film. The American re-tiling as “The Evil Eye” obscured the obvious debt to Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. The American version re-edited to utilize footage not included in the European release. This re-edition was also an attempt to drive the movie into a more comedic path but several of the changes in “The Evil Eye” only serve to confuse matters.

Bava went on with other interesting horror films such as: “Black Sabbath” (1963), “What!The Whip and the Body” (1963), the film that cemented the popularity of the genre “Blood and Black Lace” (”Six Women for an Assassin” 1964) , “Kill, Baby, Kill” (1968), “5 Dolls For an August Moon” (1970) and “Bay of Blood” (”Twitch Of The Death Nerve”, 1971).

Although Mario Bava was the pioneer with no doubt, the one who brought “giallo” in Italy and soon worldwide into the horror mainstream is Dario Argento. A longtime friend and student of directors like Bava and Sergio Leone, Argento crafted an ultra-stylish cinema with a new level of beauty, horror and over the top violence. He was always more interested in exploring visual symbology throughout his movies, than retaining a certain narrative structure.

Argento’s debut film “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage” (1970), followed by “The Cat o’ Nine Tails” (1971) and “Four Flies on Grey Velvet” (1972) which close his memorable Animal Trilogy. His two later works “Profondo Rosso” (Deep Red, 1975) and “Suspiria” (1976) entered “giallo” films into their golden age, while “Inferno” (1980) and “Phenomena” (1985) are also some of his classics.

Other “giallo” maestros and some of their worth to mention movies are:

Lucio Fulci : “Don’t Torture A Duckling” 1971, “A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin” 1971, “The Psychic” 1977, “The New York Ripper” 1982.

Aldo Lado: “Short Night of the Glass Dolls”1971, “Who Saw Her Die?” 1972.

Antonio Bido: “The Bloodstained Shadow” 1972.

Umberto Lenzi: “Seven Blood-Stained Orchids” 1972, “Spasmo” 1974, “Eyeball” 1974.

Massimo Dallamano: “What Have You Done to Solange?” 1972.

Sergio Martino: “The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh” 1970, “The Case of The Scorpions Tail” 1971, “Your Vice Is A Locked Room and Only I Have The Key” 1972, “Torso” 1973.

Argento’s assistant director Michele Soavi directed also his own films: “Deliria” 1987.

Mario Bava’s son, Lamberto Bava: “La Casa con la scala nel buio” (A Blade in The Dark) 1983, “Demons” 1985, “Demons II” 1987.

The soundtracks of “gialli” most of the times are impressive. Great Italian composers contributed such as Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Nora Orlandi, Fabio Frizzi, Bruno Nicolai, and the progressive rock band Goblin that contributed in most of Argento’s movies.

Slasher Hollywood productions of the late 70s-early 80s such as Halloween, Friday The 13th etc, were influenced directly by “giallo” cinema. Brian De Palma’s thrillers like “Phantom of The Paradise”, “Dressed To Kill” (1980) “Body Double” (1984) and “Raising Cain” (1992) were influenced by the “giallo” genre, when the inspiration of other Hollywood directors is obviously connected with the “giallo” cinema (Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instict” 1992, David Fincher’s “Seven” 1997, and Quentin Tarantino’s “DeathProof” 2007).

The 90’s was the decade of deterioration for “giallo” cinema. Mario Bava passed away in 1980, Lucio Fulci died in 1996, and Dario Argento tried his hand at Hollywood with disappointing results. Only few Italian horror movies screened during this decade and the one really worth an eye is the significant “Cemetery Man” (aka “Dellamorte Dellamore”), directed by Michele Soavi and starring Rupert Everett. The plot is about a cemetery caretaker whose corpses deny staying into their graves.

And the deterioration continues until now. The new millennium found Argento’s movies lacked of inspiration and visual power while Sergio Martino transited in Italian television and Lamberto Bava preferred making movies for children. Since 90s the mainstream Italian cinema turned into a different path, with directors like Giuseppe Tornatore and Nanni Moretti while the explosion of the Asian horror market gave another hand to the leeway of the “giallo” genre.

“Giallo” fans can still choose from hundreds of “classics” while some new releases are coming up time to time on screen. The most recent Argento’s work is named… ”Giallo”, and just premiered (25 June) at Night Moves in the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival (17-28 June) in Scotland, but the first critiques are not what we can call cheering…once again.

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