Tenebrae

Although director Dario Argento is synonymous with the giallo - that uniquely Italian category of sexually violent thriller - there's still an ongoing debate as to which particular film is his best.  And most opinions seem to revolve around which particular Argento one ran across first.  Was it the methodical, controlled artist behind The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Deep Red?  Or the anything-goes, heavy-metal madman responsible for Creepers and Trauma?  1982's Tenebrae actually combines both hemispheres of the director's twisted mind to create a giallo that happily veers off the rails from time to time, yet remains relatively logical throughout.

American crime novelist Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) is on a publicity tour of Italy when he's questioned by police about the vicious murder of a female shoplifter whose mouth is stuffed with pages from Neal's latest book, Tenebrae.  Although he's not yet a suspect, the writer takes it upon himself to investigate with the help of his personal assistant (Daria Ncolodi) and self-absorbed agent (John Saxon).  Soon the bodies begin to pile up, all victims of a killer who seems to be targeting "deviant behavior."  And the closer Neal gets, the more dangerous it becomes for those around him.

 

Dipping back into the genre after the financial failure of his overtly supernatural thriller, Inferno, Argento takes a uniquely self-reflexive approach to the material, pointing the blame for much of the onscreen carnage at the very author of the work itself.  Tenebrae is full of naked women killed in exceedingly brutal fashion, but the film curiously attempts to fight back against the giallo's label as a misogynistic playground for perverts.  The argument isn't very well presented, but - as pointed out in the extras - it's a turning point in Argento's career, pushing him towards female protagonists and a different take on the genre.

 

These moments aside, most of Tenebrae focuses on what the director does best:  operatic murder sequences, multiple red herrings and a music score that drills its way into your brain.  There's a certain recycling of ideas here from both Argento's previous films and the lesser-known work of others (point in fact, the final twist is lifted almost straight from 1971's The Bloodstained Butterfly).  And one can see that the director's attention drifts from time to time, resulting in brilliantly off-the-wall non-sequiturs like the dog attack sequence or the showy over-the-roof shot that seems to exist just to keep him interested.

 

Yet, that's exactly why fans of Argento stand by him through his successes and failures; there are always one or two moments worth the price of admission.  And Synapse Film's latest release of Tenebrae – a two-disc 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray set - presents the film in its best possible light, working from a color corrected restoration from the original camera negative.  There's still a bit of '80s grain inherent in the source (as there should be) but every single frame, especially during the nighttime scenes, looks astonishingly good, each pixel polished up with  Dolby Vision HDR.   If you needed an excuse to upgrade, look no further.

 

But there are a slew of extras too,  including three audio commentaries, alternate opening credits,  and the 90-minute documentary Yellow Fever:  The Rise and Fall of the Giallo, featuring interviews with over a dozen prominent critics and filmmakers who use Argento's work as a through-line to discuss the genre as a whole.  Keep digging and you’ll turn up even more, like archival featurettes, interviews, trailer and image galleries.

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