Venerdì nero

Dark Friday is another exceptional example of greater Euro B Cinema, old school, even though relatively a later one, this movie also confirms Aldo Lado's extraordinary gift for visionary and always compelling, sophisticated, complex, and, amazingly edited, shots composed of rich chromatic visuals, so stunningly formidable to seem more like belonging to a masterful Bernardo Bertolucci's film, than to a more modest genre, late dark "Giallo", with thrilling and erotic moments, all extremely tastefully shot, and, pertinent to the core of a tight, complex, and, intricate story that, doesn't always completely comes together at the end, but, that still manages, with exemplary mystery and twists, decadent touches and truly arousing scenes, to achieve an incredible crescendo, confirming this film a real example of virtuoso's filmmaking, and, nailing perfectly this thrilling social commentary that is also a pitch black, hard boiled tale of luxury, and, morbid, manic obsessions, very well appointed to a certain well known group of rich young and gorgeous misfits, so called "Black Aristocrats" a term defining in Italy, and, especially in Rome and Venice, where the story is primarily taking place, the remains of a certain fascist, monarchic, often depraved and vicious youth, coming from old, and, of course corrupted wealthy, privileged backgrounds that used to be 'titled' in the old Italian Monarchy, which had been prohibited by the Republic, right after World War 2, however, its same class, apparently because of their roots, managed to stay illegally at the power, somewhat hiding their origins, while, even, among them still using such titles like Prince, Count or Marquis, and, very often the new generations born after such abusive and sick families, would aggressively use such old, and abused privilege as a form of intimidation and even of corruption or just of the same abuse of power against anyone, discriminating more as a form of deadly game and bored illness, and, without apparent motive! These "terrible friends", who seem to know all each other's and way too well, are most of all atrociously bored, and, secretly, but not even so much, either hating their families, regretting their past, or sarcastically judging it with cruel detachment, and, always mostly involved with hard drugs, like opiates and heroin! A sad scenario of a youth spending enormous amounts of money into nonsense or celebrations of vices of any kind and standing, just playing dangerous games with each other, in order- it seems- to kill time. They are apparently devoted to incest and very strange, often sadomasochistic's sexual practices, or other atrocities, and, while often publicly condemning homosexuality, are almost all, at the same time, bisexually attracted to one another, and, often playing orgies or breath taking scenes, where inevitably, at least one of them, turns out at the end to be the designated victim of a design even to cruel to be serious, yet "cleverly thought" just to create the amusement of the stronger wolves in the group, especially when we see how truly heart broken or in despair, one of them can be easily reduced by his same friends! They are all living, carrying often unforgiving secrets, and, feeding their dissolution with devouring passions, often all manifestations of an endless thirst for lurid, and, prohibited habits or desires they seem to live just in order to satisfy, to the point they could bring to mind a certain reminiscence with the fascinating, if ill and deadly, world of vampires (and, in fact, they could all be a group of vampires just coming out by one of Anne Rice's most sickening and cruel tales, as well!) just ready to betray each other, or to even kill, in order to satisfy that ultimate thrill, and, to somehow so find a few days of peace or sleep. An atmosphere always "suspended", ecstatic, and, drugs induced, that reminds very much of Hawks' film version of "The Big Sleep", these horribly "great friends", at one tragic point, decide to kidnap a couple of innocent and morally correct young women, just guilty of being "boring", shallow, and, of not wanting to play their ultimate deadly, depraved games, that quickly begins with subtle, but, cruel psychological violence, and, develop slowly into sexual abuses, to switch into tortures of any kind, until.. The film succeeds perfectly to portray, with few, but, extremely stylized touches, the lives of such degenerated, decadent, desperate rich youth, brought up with no love or morals, no example of democracy, or integrity, but, just with anger and abuse, excess and hate. And, Lado is great, also with the help of a savvy casting (especially notable are a blond and 'damned" Arcangeli, ex model Boals, and, the gorgeous, enigmatic Savoy, but, also all others are great!), a refined use of incredibly real gorgeous homes, and, clever shooting of a few, but, unforgettable exteriors sequences, great costumes, and, superior, dark cinematography, often dramatized by the use of unsettling colors, sudden fogs, or the use of sinister images, where dark reds, gold and black are the dominant tones, opposing each other's in some unusual, conceptual artistic games of shadows and mirrors, and, must cite too, with a musical comment, reminiscent of certain Morricone's classic themes of the late 1960's more dramatic pictures, (again) Lado manages to create a terrific portrait, if deliriously cruel, and, bravely never captivating, it is always repulsive, in its almost esoteric beauty, re-creating convincingly a certain youth that, at the end, seems to be born without almost a reason to live, but, only to represent evil and all the agony of a slow decadence, paying for centuries of injustice and corruptions at the highest level of power, politics and even of the Roman Church! Troubling,enigmatic, elegant, but.. not for the faint of heart! Intense!

This thriller by Aldo Lado tells the story of two young women who accidentally meet three young people of the high society. The two men and their female friend lure the unsuspecting girls into a house by the sea, where they start to play a mean game with hem by first irritating them before terrorizing and attack them. Meanwhile, the boyfriend of one of the girls starts searching for them. Needless to say that people die before the film comes to the end.

In the 1970s, Aldo Lado made three very cool thrillers (La Corta Notte Delle Bambole di Vetro, Chi l'ha Visto Morire? and L'Ultimo Treno Della Notte), in all of which the decadence of the high society is a important topic. In Venerdì Nero (this film's Italian title), it's the main topic. The three tormentors seem to be friendly and well educated people at first, but as soon as they are alone with the three girls, they show their real face. They're not evil as such, but the decadent lifestyle has fed their depravity, and so they want to do with the girls whatever they want, always thinking of their sadism as a game. As soon as the first person dies, however, the fun is over even for them.

This is another interesting film by Aldo Lado, and as in his above mentioned films, he delivers some subvert social comment. And even though the ending doesn't convince completely (which was also a bit of a problem in the wonderful Chi l'ha Visto Morire?), Venerdì Nero is a thrilling movie with some really mean moments of sadistic terror (if not gory horror) that is more intelligent than many other rather low budgeted thrillers of the 1990s. Rating: 7 out of 10.

Mixed bag that could have been something. The lack of budget really hurts this one.

It has a strong script - much stronger than most of these kinds of films. It's very similar to Lado's earlier Night Train Murders only not as good. The first third of the film is terribly slow and marred by some god awful acting.

The middle of the film is the absolute strongest section - filled with real tension and suspense of a deadly cat and mouse game. It reminded me of Michael Haneke's Funny Games.

The ending was pretty standard stuff - nothing memorable there. But again, the script was quite strong, and the middle of the film really shined. I believe that with a bigger budget and better actors I would have really enjoyed this one. As is, you're better off skipping this.