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With The Case of the Bloody Iris, director Giuliano Carnimeo and writer Ernesto Gastaldi constructed one of the quintessential giallo films from that genre’s peak period in the early 1970s. Though it may lack the operatic excesses of Dario Argento’s “Animal” trilogy, the 1972 film is meticulously assembled with a keen eye to visual stimulation, and conveys its commentary about matters of race and gender at an almost subliminal level. What’s more, the filmmakers knowingly tinker with some of the iconic tropes of the giallo.

The Case of the Bloody Iris’s narrative centers around a 20-story Genovese apartment complex of Brutalist architectural design. Most of the action takes place in three neighboring flats. These settings emphasize the alienation of modern urban existence, as well as the kind of creeping paranoia that stems from living packed in tiny cubes on top of each other. The opening set piece...

Most gialli are focused on the aesthetic, making sure all the black boxes are checked - black gloves, black hat, black, black, black – and that the tropes are trotted out in a fairly predictable (yet entertaining) fashion. Stemming from procedurals, it makes sense for a strong structure to support the weight of red herrings and redder victims. And then there’s The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972), a giallo that loves the form so much it can’t help but be affectionate towards it, resulting in something closer to comedy than horror. The result is surprising and wholly entertaining.

Released in Italy in August, The Case of the Bloody Iris (Original Italian title: Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer? Aka What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing on Jennifer's Body? – a very giallo title if there ever was one) was met with positive reviews, especially...

A young woman enters a crowded high-rise apartment elevator. She doesn’t notice the man next to her slipping on a pair of flesh-colored rubber gloves. Soon, they’re alone, and the mysterious stranger overtakes her with gleaming blade in hand. Brian De Palma’s twisted 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill took a page from this opening scene in Giuliano Carnimeo’s 1972 giallo The Case of the Bloody Iris (directed under the pseudonym Anthony Ascott). Carnimeo also borrows things, looking to Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and Dario Argento’s playbook for the guise of his murderer and several stylistic choices. Giallo queen Edwige Fenech stars in the Ernesto Gastaldi-scripted story (also known as What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing on Jennifer's Body?) which pairs her with genre icon George Hilton again, months after the release of All the Colors of the Dark. There’s a...