Yellow

I had the opportunity to see this wonderful short at the Terror Film Festival in Philadelphia this passed October and I was simply amazed. My girlfriend and I instantly saw that Semih Tareen was emulating Mario Bava and the next 6 or 7 minutes are bliss for fans of the maestro's work. Everything from the lighting, to the plot to the excellent music paid tribute to one of cinema's most underrated minds. If this is any indication of what Mr. Tareen is capable of, he will be a household name before long. If it plays at a fest near you, see it. And if it isn't, then it is definitely worth seeking out. It is as good as any film of this length can aspire to be.

What a waste of 6 or 7 minutes. It's nice that he credited where he got his lighting style for this short film from, but it seems to be an unworthy 'tribute' otherwise. Mario Bava is easily one of the more influential people on genre filmmakers, particularly those working in horror and fantasy, but sadly it seems not all of his fans paid attention to his movies aside from his trademark 'lollipop lighting'. The music does feel like leftovers from Goblin (music for several of Dario Argento's films -- another filmmaker inspired by Bava, but one who actually learned enough to make some great films of his own), but I'm not going to complain about amateur music in a low budget student film.

I just don't see that Tareen seems to have learned much from the giallo genre -- which allegedly inspired this short film -- other than 'the killer wears leather gloves and sometimes takes a knife out of a non-cluttered area' (a drawer in this case, though nowhere approaching the type of weapon fetishization seen in films such as Argento's brilliant Deep Red). Granted, it's a short film and has little running time to develop much of a story, but it never really felt much like even so much as a giallo scene to me, even compared to the C grade efforts of some of Italy's lesser hack filmmakers. He should re-watch Bava's Telephone segment from 'I Tre Volti della Paura' for ideas how to make a giallo film with a short runtime. This seems more like an American slasher movie scene with interesting lighting than something truly giallo-influenced and titled.

I hope Tareen will re-watch giallo films to better understand them and/or read an online article on the genre (technically more of a 'filone') if he intend more homage to them. I'd suggest the Kinoeye article for starters. I also suggest he read the essential Tim Lucas book to better understand Bava, his work and his themes.