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Four years after tackling the life of Italian horror maestro in Fulci for Fake, writer-director Simone Scafidi returns to the technicolor world of Italian giallo filmmakers with a retrospective look at arguably the greatest of them all: Dario Argento. Dario Argento: Panico gives genre fans an extensive, if not somewhat shallow, portrait of the master filmmaker from his early career as a film critic and screenwriter to his decades-long success as genre royalty.

The film begins with Argento on his way to a hotel — a mainstay of his screenwriting process — where he sets out to write his newest screenplay. The car ride to the hotel is playfully tense as Scafidi intercuts similar moments from Argento’s films accompanied by an anxiety-inducing score, ultimately showing the ominous German dance school from Suspiria before revealing Argento’s temporary abode. Calm and serene, the beautiful wellness retreat nestled in the lush Roman countryside...

There are really three Dario Argentos in Simone Scafidi’s new documentary, Dario Argento Panico, and together they form a kind of Unholy Trinity. There is Dario Argento the artist (Father)––passionate, industrious, destructive; Dario Argento the man (Son)––generous, bookish, vulnerable; and Dario Argento the cinematic style (Holy Spirit)––savage, operatic, phantasmagorical. And perhaps the most enjoyable––and certainly the most novel––part of Scafidi’s film is that he allows these three personas to co-exist, creating a disguised giallo whose central question is not “Who committed the murder?” but “Who is Dario Argento?”

Scafidi’s portrait of Argento the man is, for the most part, sympathetic and in many ways rather ordinary, though there are occasional flashes of insight. We hear about his life in Rome during World War II; about his relationship with his father, the producer Salvatore Argento; and about how he used to sit quietly...

The first trailer has dropped for the documentary Dario Argento Panico, set to stream on Shudder Feb. 2nd.

In the secluded ambiance of hotel rooms, Dario Argento crafted his greatest cinematic creations, seeking solace from the outside world to delve into his nightmares. Now, he finds himself in a hotel room to return to the very setting that ignited his creative fervor to conclude his latest script and participate in an intimate interview, all while being followed by a film crew documenting his life for a movie about his illustrious career.

From director Simone Scafidi, check out the filmmaker’s exploration of the Giallo Horror Maestro.

To commemorate the release of Dario Argento Panico, Shudder and the IFC Center will present “Panic Attack: The Films Of Dario Argento,” a series of films celebrating the works of the Giallo horror maestro, revealing his profound impact on horror and his lasting influence on cinema.

Genre icon Dario Argento is the focus on the documentary Dario Argento Panico, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival back in September – the same time we got our hands on the trailer embedded above. Today, Deadline reports that Dario Argento Panico has been acquired by the Shudder streaming service, and they’re planning to start streaming the in film the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand on February 2nd.

Before we reach that date, the documentary is set to have its U.S. premiere at the IFC Center in New York during their theatrical retrospective Panic Attacks: The Films of Dario Argento, which is set to run from January 31st through February 8th.

Directed by Simone Scafidi and produced by Paguro Film, Dario Argento Panico is said to offer an insightful journey through the life and legacy of the legendary Italian filmmaker,...

After helping to pioneer Italy’s budding giallo genre throughout the 1970s with influential titles like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o’ Nine Tails, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, and Deep Red, Dario Argento took a brief sabbatical from the lurid thrillers to explore supernatural elements in Suspiria and Inferno. When the latter failed at the box office, he made a triumphant return to gialli in 1982 with Tenebrae (sometimes spelled Tenebre; originally released in the US as Unsane).

While his American contemporaries were trying to come up with inventive instruments of death to propel slasher films, Argento was designing more lavish ways to film his kill scenes. Suspiria remains his crowning achievement, but Tenebrae finds the filmmaker bringing his honed visual panache to the giallo sandbox in which he made a name for himself. The result stands not only as one of Argento’s strongest efforts but also a landmark giallo work.

Genre icon Dario Argento is the focus on the documentary Dario Argento Panico, which is having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival – and with that premiere to take place this Saturday, September 2nd, a trailer for the documentary has arrived online! You can check it out in the embed above.

Directed by Simone Scafidi and produced by Paguro Film, Dario Argento Panico is said to be an immersive deep dive into the creative process and life of Argento. It features exclusive interviews with the legendary filmmaker and insight from other acclaimed directors like Gaspar Noé, Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn about his impact on the horror genre and generations of other directors.

Fiore Argento, Asia Argento, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Lamberto Bava, Luigi Cozzi, Michele Soavi, Claudio Simonetti, Marisa Casale, Cristina Marsillach, Floriana Argento, Franco Ferrini, and of course Dario Argento himself also appear in the documentary.

The Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox is home to a variety of unique horror content, from originals and exclusives to cult classics and documentaries. With such a rapidly-growing library, there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

Here are five recommendations you can stream on Screambox right now.

Pool Party Massacre

Summer is well underway, and if you’ve already exhausted all the seasonal classics, Pool Party Massacre can fill the void with a comedic send-up to ’80s slashers like Slumber Party Massacre and Sleepaway Camp (both also on Screambox). Written and directed by Drew Marvick, the 2017 low-budget indie embraces the era with 80 minutes of over-the-top characters, campy performances, and cheesy practical effects.

The titular party isn’t very festive; it’s more like a small gathering of vapid, Real Housewives rejects that barely tolerate one another while lounging by the pool. One by one, a character excuses themselves — including, in one instance,...

Welcome to the Ghostface Glossary, a guide to every horror reference and nod throughout all six films in the Scream franchise thus far. Click the link to see previous articles.

After a lot of pausing, rewinding, and zooming in, as well as researching, we’re catching all of the many horror-specific references Williamson, Craven, and Co. included in this beloved postmodern slasher franchise. If we’ve forgotten any glaring ones, kindly let us know.

“Who gives a fuck about movies?!”

“Forget about the movies— the movies don’t matter.” Jason Voorhees, Patrick Bateman, Frank Zito. Now Ghostface. New York City may be the most exciting city in the world, but it can also be one of the scariest, and it was only a matter of time before Scream migrated from sleepy Woodsboro to the East Coast, giving much-needed kinetic energy and gritty set pieces to the long-running, postmodern slasher franchise.

Dario Argento is back, baby. The Italian "Master of Horror" has a decades-spanning career in the horror genre, enjoying especially great notoriety in the 1970s and '80s with his visually striking and exquisitely violent giallo films. From the Animal Trilogy — "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" (1970), "The Cat o' Nine Tails" (1971), and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" (1971) — to his Three Mothers Trilogy, consisting of "Suspiria" (1977), "Inferno" (1980) and "The Mother of Tears" (2007), to once-banned Video Nasties "Deep Red" (1975) and "Tenebrae" (1982), Argento's work has influenced modern genre filmmakers from Eli Roth to James Wan. Argento has...

The post Dark Glasses Teaser: The Gruesome Return of A Giallo Giant appeared first on /Film.

Prior to the advent of the so-called “eco-vengeance” genre, Italian cinema used animals, or at least the symbolism they naturally encapsulate, in the most disparate contexts, from those coherent with their nature to more unusual and weird derivations. With regard to the singular use of animals in Italian cinema, a reference is certainly owed to Dario Argento’s first films—L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo, Il gatto a nove code, and Quattro mosche di velluto grigio—which were followed by huge commercial success that encapsulated what Argento had learnt from Alfred Hitchcock and the Nouvelle Vague, as well as from the literary heritage of Raymond Chandler, where animals appeared in the titles embodying the characters’ gestures, modus operandi, and personalities—the animal as a metaphor representing the diabolical “human” nature. Although the presence of animals in the titles is often justified, of course, by some narrative solution or gimmick,...

Happy Wednesday, everyone! For today’s edition of Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, we’re focusing on one of the most important aspects of cinema: the music. And what better way to enjoy your favorite horror and sci-fi soundtracks and scores than to listen to them on vinyl? Here’s a look at some stellar releases from 2020, as well as a few other vinyl offerings that genre fans would love to discover under the tree this year.

Mondo:

Halloween: 40th Anniversary Edition - Original Soundtrack Vinyl

The Invisible Man - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2Xlp

Videodrome Main Theme 7-inch

They Live – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP

Sei Donne Per L'Assassino (Blood And Black Lace) - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP

Freaked – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2Xlp

A Nightmare On Elm Street - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Vinyl

Ghosthouse - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP

Back To The...

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...

Hollywood Vampires: The Birth of Midnight Movies on L.A.'s Sunset Strip is a three-part series of essays by Tim Concannon.Once Upon A Time On The Sunset STRIP1969 on the Sunset Strip was a period of dislocation, dissipation and dissolution from which the Hollywood of the Seventies emerged. A movie theatre adjoining Santa Monica Boulevard, where the Underground Cinema 12 film festival held sold-out midnight shows attended by thousands of Freaks, is an overlooked catalyst of L.A.'s underground scene, alongside Pandora's Box, the club recreated in Riot On the Sunset Strip (1967) and which was the focus of the November 1966 Sunset Strip disturbances.Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood—which is woven around the Manson family murders in 1969, though it isn't focused on them—is situated in the same unsettling hinterland between film stardom and savage violence that Peter Bogdanovich's Targets touches on as well.

FM (1978) will be available on Blu-ray July 2nd from Arrow Video

The airwaves crackle with the delectable sound of smooth rock in FM, a riotous comedy about the heady world of late-70s Us radio.

Michael Brandon (Four Flies on Grey Velvet) stars as Jeff Dugan, the ultra-cool program director at Q-sky Radio, La’s number one rock station. Dugan encourages a free-wheeling culture at work, employing an array of eccentric DJ personalities: Mother, a husky, world-weary ex-hippie; Eric Swan, a mad-cap romantic looking for love, and The Prince of Darkness, a cool cat who keeps the night-time airwaves alive. But when the station’s future is thrown in to jeopardy by corporate bosses looking to cash-in, the Q-sky troupe are forced to batten down the hatches and turn up the volume – will a fully-fledged rock ‘n’ roll rebellion save the day?

Legendary cinematographer John A. Alonzo directs this slickly-produced rock film,...

TV didn’t always upend the horror formula; but when they would add a couple of different colors to the mix, the result was usually at least interesting. Such is the case with Deadly Messages (1985), which throws the whole palette at the screen for a very messy, but entertaining distraction.

Originally broadcast February 21st as part of The ABC Thursday Night Movie, the telefilm could not have picked a worse night to premiere: in addition to CBS’ solid lineup of Magnum, P.I. and Simon & Simon, NBC had the biggest block on the air – The Cosby Show/Family Ties/Cheers/Night Court. Oh well. For the six other people not watching that, they were left with a goofy and breezy murder mystery come Ouija board spookfest.

Let’s pull apart our sun kissed faux TV Guide and see what the spirits have to say:

Deadly Messages

A woman being stalked...

Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria is now in U.S. cinemas and opens in the U.K. on November 16, 2018.Luca Guadagnino was a 10-year-old student at summer camp when he became transfixed by the poster advertising Dario Argento’s Suspiria, excitedly drawing versions of the key iconic bloodied ballerina image in his school notebook. But it wasn’t until he was 13, after seeing the actual movie broadcast on Italian television, that he knew for certain the terrifying tableaux of fantasy, fascination and fear would somehow feature in his future. And now the Oscar-nominated director has fulfilled his obsessive childhood dream of repurposing the cult shocker that so scarred his psyche in those formative years.But that has been the potent legacy of the original Suspiria for an entire generation of horror aficionados ever since it was released to huge global acclaim and box-office success to become continually listed as one of...

Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” may prove to be one of the most confusing, if not polarizing movies of the year. The bloody mind-bender features multiple “secret” performances from Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson and a challenging, elliptical score from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke to boot.

But amid all the deliciously vexing things about the film, one of the words you may have heard thrown around in reference to it is the word “giallo.” As in, “Suspiria” is a remake of Dario Argento’s giallo horror classic.

So what the heck is “giallo” and what does it have to do with “Suspiria?”

Also Read: 'Suspiria' Film Review: Luca Guadagnino's Misguided Horror Remake Falls Flat

In short, a “giallo” film (plural is “gialli”) is essentially an Italian exploitation film. They’re hyper-stylized crime movies that often include gory murders, erotic themes and masked killers with black leather gloves. As is...

When Showtime announced their lineup for their Masters of Horror anthology series back in 2005, one thing became clear pretty quickly: the show was going to focus almost entirely on American masters of horror. With the exception of Takashi Miike’s “Imprint” in season 1 and Norio Tsuruta’s “Dream Cruise” in season 2, the only episodes directed by a non-American are the ones directed by the great Dario Argento, the Crown Prince of Italian horror. And for those of you keeping score of these Italian horror designations, Mario Bava is the Godfather, Lucio Fulci the Maestro, Bruno Mattei the Fool. Everyone has their role to play.

Season 1, Episode 4: “Jenifer”

Director: Dario Argento

Original Air Date: November 18th, 2005

Argento’s first Masters of Horror offering, called simply “Jenifer,” is another highlight of the series and arguably the best thing the director has made since Trauma in 1993. Based on a 1973 comic book short story by Bruce Jones,...

An ambassador, Neil Wardh (Alberto de Mendoza), and his wanton wife, Julie (Edwige Fenech), arrive in Vienna for business in the midst of a vicious killing spree that has everyone in a panic. Julie's return to the city rouses memories of former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov) and their sadomasochistic relationship. It also helps that her husband is utterly dull, busy, and inattentive. The restless Julie has a dark secret that only Jean knows about: blood frightens her, but it also arouses her unimaginably. Julie's cruel ex-boyfriend stalks her and sends unnerving love letters, but she finds comfort at swinging parties and in the arms of another man, George (George Hilton). As the city's body count begins to rise, and a mysterious caller threatens to expose her adulterous and kinky secrets, Julie suspects she's next and that Jean is behind the murders and madness. She escapes to Spain with George for a fresh start,...

We're back again with the third chapter in our ongoing feature on vintage Italian cinema thrillers, and since we've previously covered titles from Lucio Fulci (Don't Torture a Duckling) and Mario Bava (A Bay of Blood), it's time we examined a film from the final member of the genre's “Big Three,” Dario Argento. While Argento's most beloved work is unquestionably the stunning 1977 horror classic Suspiria, which was set in a dreamlike supernatural world, he was previously most famous for his pioneering approach to the giallo genre, beginning with the stylish The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – the huge success of which earned him the nickname “The Italian Hitchcock,” a handle he didn't particularly care for at the time. After that film, audiences craved more thrillers with Dario's eccentric touch, leading to what is loosely described as his “Animal Trilogy,” in that all of the titles include the name of an...

The horror community in general, and fans of European cult horror cinema in particular, have been buzzing like crazy about Peter Strickland's meta-horror film Berberian Sound Studio, which made the festival rounds last summer. Reactions were mixed, to put it mildly, but the flick got a lot of people's attention – especially regarding its faithfulness to Italy's golden era of giallo cinema, a time when directors like Mario Bava and Dario Argento created nightmarish thrillers and murder mysteries with their own brand of disturbed logic and surreal imagery. A critical element of any good giallo is the music, with bands like Goblin breaking free of symphonic and jazz scores and into the domain of progressive rock, with heavy electronic elements that were fresh and new at the time. Berberian recreates the look, feel and sound of that era (the title is a reference to '70s avant-garde composer Cathy Berberian...

The third and final day of the Fantasy Film Weekend started and although I was tired there was plenty to look forward to. The first film would be Red Sonja, which was an easy one to start off with. I knew that the highlight of the day would of course be The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and the Masks screen talk with Andreas Marschall. It was nice to know that the end was near of course as tiredness was starting to become normality and my brain needed some serious rest.

Red Sonja

Red Sonja is a film that can no way be called good, but it has it arguably has its place in cult history. Not many films would pair up Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen in a Conan the Barbarian setting but this is obviously what they were looking for. Conan is of course superior but to...

Fantastic Films Weekend, Bradford

This horror and sci-fi festival would rather sift through the cultural debris for classic trash than scrabble for the latest offerings. There's a rare chance to see 1970's notorious rabid-hippy bloodbath I Drink Your Blood in its fullest grindhouse glory, for example, or neglected Dario Argento horror Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971). Still too highbrow? Then how about 80s heroines like Grace Jones's Vamp or Brigitte Nielsen's Red Sonja? And a Troma triple bill? How low can you go?

National Media Museum, Fri to 17 Jun

Anthony Burgess And Cinema, Manchester

It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Clockwork Orange, and this celebration of Burgess's great dystopian (Mancunian?) novel spreads the net a little wider than simply Stanley Kubrick's legendary movie. There's a fine "making of" documentary, and a one-hour intro to the film on 29 Jun, plus Andy Warhol's lesser known (and altogether lesser,...

The National Media Museum in Bradford is, from 15th – 17th June 2012, set to play host to the 11th Fantastic Films Weekend, giving horror, fantasy and sci-fi fans in the North their annual fix of thrills and spills.

This year the festival will focus on schlock, women in horror and sci-fi, and feature a festival first – a Cinerama screening of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. Other highlights will include an evening of giallo treats new and old, family fun with Coraline 3D and live make-up demos, and a Hammer strand packed with rare and premiere Hammer screenings.

Special guests will include Renée Glynne who worked for many years as continuity/script supervisor for Hammer before going freelance. Her work includes The Nanny, Legend of the Golden Vampire and The Quatermass Xperiment, the HD premiere of which will be screened following her screentalk. She will be in conversation with Hammer archivist,...

One of the most polarizing films amongst his fans, The Stendhal Syndrome is Dario Argento’s first film shot in Italy after his foray in the United States with Trauma and Two Evil Eyes. Argento loosely adapts Graziella Magherini’s novel of the same name into a psychological thriller that is unlike anything else in his canon.

Asia Argento stars as Anna Manni, a police officer in Rome who is sent to Florence to investigate a series of rape/murders that have baffled the authorities. Following a tip, she goes to the Uffizi gallery in Florence where she succumbs to the titular syndrome, and hallucinates herself into a painting before passing out and hitting her head.

“The Stendhal Syndrome” is an actual medical condition named for the French writer Stendhal where people are afflicted with headaches, dizziness, hallucinations and fainting spells after being exposed to great works of art. After recovering from this episode,...

Last week’s installment of Foreign Objects took a look at the third film in Dario Argento’s so-called “animal trilogy,” Four Flies on Grey Velvet. Why start with the third film and not the first? No reason. But today we’re continuing with the theme and covering the second film, The Cat o’ Nine Tails. Don’t worry about continuity though as the three movies are in no way related. A burglary at a local genetics institute catches the eye ear of a blind retiree, and when people associated with the incident start dropping dead he teams up with a reporter to try to crack the case. The duo discovers an elaborate chain of events surrounding the lab’s recent discovery of a genetic marker that may indicate criminal tendencies and a drug that may cure it. Is someone killing to protect the discovery… or are they killing to hide the fact that they’re a...

I’ve spoken before about the highs of Dario Argento’s early career and how it sits in direct contrast to the abysmally depressing filmmaker he’s become in the last two decades. But his filmography doesn’t have a timeline clearly separating the good from the bad. His best work remains the five features he made from 1975 to 1985 with everything before and after that period being a major mixed bag. And that includes 1971′s Four Flies on Grey Velvet. A rock drummer finds himself stalked by a masked killer out to frame him and make his life miserable, but who’s doing it and why? And more importantly, how will it affect the sales of his upcoming album? “I’ve made a decision. Sticking it out here is better than going to prison.” Roberto (Michael Brandon) is a professional drummer with a budding music career and a lovely wife named Nina (Mimsy Farmer) waiting for him...

Dario Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet is a film with a strange hold over horror film fans built mainly upon the fact that for a very long time it has been very difficult to get a hold of. It wasn't until the last two or three years that the film finally arrived on DVD, and even then, it was not in the greatest condition. Recently, whatever legal entanglements that have hamstrung this film's journey to home video have begun to clear and both the UK's Shameless Screen Entertainment and Germany's Koch Media have announced Blu-ray editions of the film to hit the European market. First out of the gate is Shameless with their 40th anniversary Blu-ray edition, and I must say, it is pretty...

A newspaper reporter and a blind puzzle expert team up to try and solve a string of murders.

Dario Argento's sophomore effort has proven something of an elusive beast over the years, never gaining the positive recognition lavished on the likes of his massively influential debut The Bird With The Crystal Plumage or breakout hit Deep Red. As the middle part of his Animal Trilogy, it's neither as satisfying as its predecessor or as viciously outlandish as the recently-reissued Four Flies On Grey Velvet. It is, however, a...

★★★★☆ The third film in Dario Argento's patchy 'animals trilogy', Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) is one of the filmmaker's most stylistically satisfying films. Following his astonishing debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and the weak Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), the film has been unavailable for many years due to disagreements with Paramount, with Shameless Entertainment now presenting a near-immaculate restoration to mark the film's 40th anniversary.

Read more »...

Drive

Director Nicholas Wending Refn's film is more defined by what it doesn't do than by what it does. The plot – wafer thin and corny as hell – is the sort of thing normally dressed up by one-liners, explosions and rapid-cut editing to disguise just how laughably trite it is.

On paper, this could be yet another Hollywood action movie, but Refn is slow and serious where others are fast and furious. The minimal story of a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver and becomes a hero to the woman he loves is pared down even more into something that aims for the stark simplicity of Michael Mann's debut movie, Thief, and Walter Hill's The Driver, two classics which make up the bulk of Drive's DNA. Ryan Gosling tersely plays the driver (and that's how he's credited, not with a name but with a profession) as a black hole.

[Many people, including myself, have been dying to find out if this release would be region free, and word has come down from mission control at Cult Labs (link below) that Four Flies on Grey Velvet Will be an All Region disc! Get yer wallets out, people!]Several months ago we shared the announcement from Shameless Screen Entertainment that Dario Argento's long unavailable Four Flies on Grey Velvet was coming to Blu-ray and DVD.  Today's announcement gives more details on that release, including some very welcome news regarding some of the films rarer footage.  It seems that about 40 seconds of the film has been missing from various versions of the film, but Shameless have acquired this footage and are going to be including it in...

Dario Argento's second giallo, The Cat O'Nine Tails, suffers only mildly from the sophomore slump after the dizzying debut of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Argento, himself, ranks it among his least favorites, and the least of the "animal trilogy", which also included Four Flies on Grey Velvet. I have to say, Cat is a bit more straight forward than his other films, but it has its strengths and is a worthy addition to the giallo genre. Arrow Video have provided a special edition worthy of the film with several worthwhile extra features and a very solid A/V presentation. This disc is at least the equal of the Blue Underground Us disc, if not better for the inclusion of new bonus material.Italian master of...

Several months ago we shared the announcement from Shameless Screen Entertainment that Dario Argento's long unavailable Four Flies on Grey Velvet was coming to Blu-ray and DVD.  Today's announcement gives more details on that release, including some very welcome news regarding some of the films rarer footage.  It seems that about 40 seconds of the film has been missing from various versions of the film, but Shameless have acquired this footage and are going to be including it in this version.  The footage in question is not in the best shape, so it is in Sd, but it will be available either via seamless branching or separately.  This is awesome stuff.  The extras also sound pretty great, including exclusive interviews and the original English audio...

The term “giallo” initially referred to cheap yellow paperbacks (printed American mysteries from writers such as Agatha Christie), that were distributed in post-fascist Italy. Applied to cinema, the genre is comprised of equal parts early pulp thrillers, mystery novels, with a willingness to gleefully explore onscreen sex and violence in provocative, innovative ways. Giallos are strikingly different from American crime films: they value style and plot over characterization, and tend towards unapologetic displays of violence, sexual content, and taboo exploration. The genre is known for stylistic excess, characterized by unnatural yet intriguing lighting techniques, convoluted plots, red herrings, extended murder sequences, excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and unusual musical arrangements. Amidst the ‘creative kill’ set-pieces are thematic undercurrents along with a whodunit element, usually some sort of twist ending. Here is my list of the best giallo films – made strictly by Italian directors, so don’t expect Black Swan, Amer or...

For the horror buff, Fall is the best time of the year. The air is crisp, the leaves are falling and a feeling of death hangs on the air. Here at Sound on Sight we have some of the biggest horror fans you can find. We are continually showcasing the best of genre cinema, so we’ve decided to put our horror knowledge and passion to the test in a horror watching contest. Each week in October, Ricky D, James Merolla and Justine Smith will post a list of the horror films they have watched. By the end of the month, the person who has seen the most films wins. Prize Tbd.

Justine Smith (11 viewings) Total of 31 viewings

Purchase

Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told

Directed by Jack Jill

This movie is very fun, not so much scary as gleefully depraved. The film revels in it’s childhood attitude,...

Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) (1970)

A.K.A. Blade of the Ripper

Directed by Sergio Martino

Inspired by the often-imitated Les Diaboliques, director Sergio Martino (also known as Italy’s Roger Corman) proves once again why he does giallo better than most. Starring giallo queen Edwige Fenech (What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing on Jennifer’s Body, The Case of the Bloody Iris, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, and many more) and George Hilton (The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, The West Is Tough, Amigo), the film is a fashioned and engrossing thriller with impressive Italian locations, beautiful authentic interiors, awe-inspiring cinematography (by Emilio Foriscot and Floriano Trenker) and excellent sound design (Note the use of a heartbeat effect during a tense life-or-death scene is fantastic). A number of elements have been lifted...

Graphic murders meet 70s Italian chic, in a film that exemplifies the Giallo horror genre that become so popular under the helm of director Dario Argento, amongst others. The Cat O’Nine Tails is released on Monday for the first time on Blu-ray, read on for our review…

The Cat ‘O Nine Tails, Dario Argento’s second feature as director, stars James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes; The Valley of Gwangi), Karl Malden (On the Waterfront; A Streetcar Named Desire) and French actress and singer Catherine Spaak (Hotel, La Ronde) in a classic Giallo tale that begins when a break in at a genetics lab leads to a spiralling vortex of bloody murder. Strange circumstances surrounding the crime pique the interest of a journalist (Franciscus) and a blind crossword compiler (Malden) whose sharp ears have overheard talks of blackmail. However, all those assisting the would-be investigators in their...

Shameless Screen Entertainment have today announced plans to release Dario Argento’s classic film Four Flies on Grey Velvet to mark the 40th anniversary of its production, and twenty years after the film disappeared from the public eye. Shameless are reportedly aiming to release the film, remastered in HD, from the original negative by the original lab!

It’s all a-buzz at Shameless! After two years of behind the scene negotiations via their “Italian connection”, Shameless Screen Entrainment is proud to announce that they will soon release the missing Argento opus: Four Flies on Grey Velvet – or, fact fans, what more accurately should be called Four Flies of Grey Velvet – as per the literal translation of Quattro Mosche Di Velluto Grigio.

It doesn’t stop there, Shameless have put their investigative caps on and – pending the availability of the original filmmaking team – they intend to discover for their fans what...

Some very exciting news for Argento fans (and I know there are a few round here). Shameless Screen Entertainment are to release Four Flies On Grey Velvet, the third film in the director's 'animal trilogy', via DVD and Blu-ray on 11th December 2011. "To mark the Fortieth Anniversary of its production, and twenty years after the film disappeared from the public eye, Shameless Screen Entertainment are aiming to release the first ever worldwide Blu-ray of Dario Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet - remastered in HD from the original negative by the original lab. It's all a-buzz at Shameless! After two years of behind the scene negotiations via their "Italian connection", Shameless Screen Entrainment is proud to announce that they will soon release the...

Here’s the full Underground Film Links post for today, 22 links in total:

According to Cineflyer, filmmaker Deco Dawson has issued a Cease and Desist Order to the The Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art for screening a film entitled The Lotus Eaters credited to artist Marcel Dzama, to which the museum has complied. At the heart of the matter is that Dzama’s film is really Dawson’s own Film(dzama), but with the proper credits cut off that attribute the film to Dawson. A strange and sad case.The Brooklyn Downtown Star newspaper profiled underground film couple Penny Lane and Brian Frye about their work-in-progress documentary Our Nixon, which is put together out of home movies made by the original Watergate gang.Rodney Perkins reprints his review of the return of Coffin Joe in José Marica Marins’ Embodiment of Evil, which will be released on DVD/Blu-Ray this week.

For those of you as yet unfamiliar with the genre the “giallo” (plural “gialli”) is a 20th Century Italian genre of literature and film that gets it name from its literal meaning (“yellow”) in reference to its origin as a series of cheap paperback novels with trademark yellow covers. From its birth back in 1963 with Mario Bava’s “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” (“La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo”) the genre has given birth to such colourfully monikered fare as Luciano Ercoli’s “The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion” (1970), Mario Bava’s “Twitch of the Death Nerve” (1971), Sergio Martino’s “Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have The Key” (1972) and Pupi Avati’ s “The House With Laughing Windows” (1976). Such masters of the genre as Mario Bava (and his son Lamberto), Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino have delighted fans since back in the 1970′s...

These first two links to the website Cineflyer I had on the site earlier in the week, but I want to make sure they get read. One is an interview with film curator Brett Cashmere about his new series investigating Canada’s little-known Escarpment School movement. And the other is an interview with Escarpment School member Philip Hoffman. And, by the way, Bad Lit’s Screening section has all kinds of interesting information, so please check out those posts even if you don’t live in the city in which those Screenings take place. Searching for “underground film” articles every week sometimes brings up interesting results in ways I don’t typically think of the term. Anyway, doing so this week led me to this piece on Donna Magazine about the “green movement of Iran” being celebrated at the 10th International Diaspora Film Festival. Jack Sargeant reprints his nifty profile...

A Blade in the Dark is a film by Lamberto Bava (Demons, son of Mario Bava) which fits in perfectly in the Giallo tradition of filmmaking. You have all the necessary components: an unknown killer, a series of unexplained deaths, a theme song anchoring the film and a twist as to who is the culprit. What is most clever is that Bava here makes his protagonist a musician working on a film score so the repetition of the theme is naturalistic most of the time and can't get annoying. While if you watch it you may notice a slight similarity to Four Flies on Grey Velvet but there is a decided...

John Cassavetes' artistic legacy is largely built around his role as the prototypical American indie filmmaker with works like Shadows, Husbands, and The Killing of A Chinese Bookie. In spite of his directing prowess, Cassavetes mostly made his living as a film and television actor. He was in a lot of great stuff including Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen. He was also in a lot of dodgy stuff like Incubus.

One of his more obscure roles was in Machine Gun McCain, a 1969 Italian gangster film directed by Giuliano Montaldo. Blue Underground has pulled this film from the depths of obscurity with a new Blu-Ray release. It's an interesting choice because Machine Gun McCain doesn't have the punishing ruthlessness of similar films by Fernando Di Leo or Sergio Sollima. Ultimately, it is a strong but minor work whose biggest draws are the performances of Cassavettes and his cohort Peter Falk.

By Todd Garbarini

It has been said that if you want action films, look no further than Asian and American cinema; and no one makes a mystery or a satire like the British. The same can be said about the French when it comes to love stories, and while our Seine-strutting amis can also whip up slapstick comedies like few can (think Louis De Funes donning a beard, black hat, and impersonating a rabbi), they rarely fail to deliver captivating examples of both of these beloved genres.

Patrice Leconte, best known to American audiences for Monsieur Hire (1989) and The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990), gives us The Perfume of Yvonne (1994), now available on DVD from Severin Films. Based on the 1975 novel Villa Triste by Patrick Modiano, the film introduces us to Victor Chmara (Hippolyte Girardot of Manon of the Spring among many others), who is recalling the events that transpired in his...

Clearly one of the benefits of living in New York City is the sheer amount of amazing film screenings that happen year-round. Last weekend the Brooklyn Academy of Music (a.k.a. Bam) presented three films by the Italian Master of Horror, Dario Argento.

Friday was designated to one of his early giallo works, Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971), the third installment of what fans have come to refer to as the director’s “Animal Trilogy”. Until its recent American DVD release, 4 Flies’ had been almost impossible to see and had been floating around strictly in bootleg form for years. I however was fortunate enough to catch a decent print of it at an Ennio Morricone retrospective at the Film Forum back in February of ’07. Due to the fact that I have already seen it projected and because it happens to be one of my least favorite Argento films, I...

New York City-area fans of Dario Argento will have two chances to check out the maestro’s movies on the big screen next month. Most notably, Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Avenue) will be presenting screenings of a rare Technicolor print of his 1977 masterpiece Suspiria.

These showings will take place Friday-Sunday, September 11-13 at 7:30 and 9:30 nightly. The adventures of Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) in a haunted dance academy won’t look better than this! Go here for ticket information. The previous weekend, Brooklyn’s BAMcinématek at the Bam Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Avenue) hosts Dario’s Inferno, a mini-retrospective of three of Argento’s features. 1971’s Four Flies On Grey Velvet will be showing Friday, Sept. 4 at 6:50 and 9:15 p.m.; Suspiria plays Saturday, Sept. 5 at 3, 6 and 9 p.m.; and 1980’s Inferno screens Sunday, Sept. 6 at 3, 6 and 9 p.m. Go here to purchase tickets.

• Dimension Extreme and Genius Products have issued cover art for Dorothy Mills, the evil-girl chiller they’re releasing February 10. And Paramount Home Entertainment released cover art and details for the Tales From The Darkside: The First Season boxed set, coming the same day, that we first reported on here.

Dorothy Mills, in which a psychiatrist travels to an island off the coast of Ireland to investigate the case of a teen who has tried to kill a baby and discovers the dark secrets surrounding her, is presented in widescreen with Dolby Digitial 5.1 sound and comes with a making-of documentary; retail price is $19.99. Darkside, a three-disc package with 24 episodes in fullscreen and mono sound, plus audio commentary by George A. Romero on the “Trick or Treat” pilot episode, retails for $39.99.

• Anchor Bay Entertainment has set a Feb. 24 DVDebut date for Walled In. Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s story of a young engineer...

This July 11th- 24th, the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood will become a true grindhouse -- Italian style! The infamous theater’s got a massive programming schedule of classic spaghetti westerns, crime films, giallos and a lot more, all from Italy’s golden age of cinema!

Featured will be 35mm prints of Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet, The Bird With Crystal Plummage and Deep Red, Umberto Lenzi’s Assault With a Deadly Weapon and Almost Human, Joaquin Romero Marchent’s Cut-Throats Nine (which, as we told you about here, is being remade by Rue Morgue editor-in-chief-cum-filmmaker Rodrigo Gudino) and a helluva lot more!

This is your chance to see these films the way they should be seen: on the big screen with an audience. Check out the full schedule for Italian Grindhouse: Assault of the Deadly Celluloid right here so you don’t miss a thing!

- Johnny Butane...