Dario Argento Week: Tenebre

Welcome back to the nightmares my fine readers.  Day 3 of Dario Argento Week and as was mentioned in Inferno's review, the continuation of the Three Mothers will not be until 2007 with The Mother of Tears.  So we will walk away from witchcraft, mutilations and the like and head back into some Giallo territory that started with Deep Red.  Our story is about an American novelist who is in Rome and he is being toyed with by an insane serial killer who is wiping out anyone attached to our writer or to the book that is published.   Kooky, ain't it?  This is Tenebre.

Art critic goes over the deep end.

Peter Neal: Let me ask you something?  If someone is killed with a Smith & Wesson spoiler...  Do you go and interview the president of Smith & Wesson?





Our film opens with a leather gloved individual reading aloud a passage from a book and it almost seems like he will justify his evil acts from this thriller murder novel.  As it was pointed out our novelist does murder thriller novels and they are quite popular in Europe.  While in Italy, Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa of A Face in the Crowd, The Long, Hot Summer, Valentine's Day, Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife, Death House and Ghost Writer) catches up with his agent Bullmer (John Saxon of Black Christmas, Enter the Dragon, Gunsmoke, Fast Company, The Electric Horseman, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Falcon Crest, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and No Escape No Return)  as they are plugging the book  Tenebre in Rome which has been on the best seller for 12 weeks.
Unbeknownst to Neal, his ex-wife Jane (Veronica Lario of Sotto... sotto, Lavedova e il piedipiatti and Bel Ami) has been secretly following him in order to throw a major wobbler his way via public outcry. His assistant Anne (Daria Nicolodi of Deep Red, Beyond the Door II, Phenomena, Opera, Notes of Love, Scarlet Diva and Mother of Tears) has all of Neal's goings on wired, his hotel room stocked with a few nicer liqueurs and in general is indispensable.

I just....  conditioned...  my....  hair.

At the hotel, Neal is met by Captain Germani (Giuliano Gemma of California, Corleone, Even Angels Eat Beans, The Desrt of the Tartars,  Closed Circuit, The Warning and Mad Love) a homicide detective and his partner Inspector Altieri (Carola Stagnaro of Dark Eyes, Opera, Phantom of Death, Dial: Help, Fun Jump, 500! and The Murder of a General) came to Neal assuming he knew a murder victim based on her wounds alone.  Not the brightest cops to say the least.   They point out how the murder is almost exactly as it is depicted in Tenebre with pages of the book crammed in her mouth and it disturbs them.  Of course they are not so bothered to show the girl's murder crime scene photos to Neal.  I think I would have demanded a scotch neat after seeing that gruesome series of snaps.    The police want to work with Neal to capture the killer, who is obsessed with his work.  Bouncing ideas off is one thing but they basically want to dangle Neal out like a carrot for this psycho mule.

From a creepy phone call that sounds like a madwoman, this lunatic seems to systematically killing off people that Neal has associated with or been involved with the deaths always the same fashion including the pages of the book stuffed in their mouths.  When will it end and can the killer be found and brought to justice?  Make no mistake, this will keep you guessing.

A few notes about the film now.  as every director has a trademark or two, Argento's main ones are a victim crashing through a window in almost every movie as well as a character having a memory jog of usually some tragic portion of childhood or harmful memory.  This film's inspiration was after Dario Argento was repeatedly stalked by a fan.   As in many of his films the killer's hands have a close up shot wearing black leather gloves.

Get me my agent!  I thought I was working with Fulci!