Tenebrae (Shadows)By Attic Girl
After his supernatural horror hits Suspiria and Inferno, Tenebrae was Argento’s return to the original giallo, the form that started his career. It tells the story of a successful American writer, Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) who arrives in Rome to promote the launch of his latest book Tenebrae.
After meeting up with his literary agent and publicist Bullmer (John Saxon, shamefully underused) and his loyal assistant Anne (Daria Nicolodi) he finds himself involved in a murder investigation. A young woman who tried to shoplift a copy of Tenebrae from a bookstore is found murdered, pages of the book being stuffed in her mouth. It’s the first of a series of murders, each inspired by the killings in the novel.
Investigator Germani (Giuliano Gemma), a keen reader of murder mysteries, enlists the author’s help in finding clues as to the identity of the killer, especially since Peter is receiving threats from the murderer. Along the way, many suspects are discovered and the number of murders rises...
Interesting to know, is the story behind Tenebre’s conception. In 1980, Argento was in L.A. to pitch a different film to MGM studios. Back in his hotel he got a call from an enthousiastic fan that had seen Suspiria. The next day, the man wanted to meet Argento to discuss the film, but Argento didn’t take up the offer. Soon after that, the caller was threatening to kill him and Argento went to the police, who concluded the man was a crank. Nevertheless the caller continued, even going as far as telling that although the police were involved he’d have the director’s skin anyway. From this incident, the central part of Tenebrae’s story – the artist whose work inspires murder as homage – was born.
The film contains genuinely creepy moments, for example when a young girl is chased around the neighborhood by a vicious doberman, catching up with her at several points, before she stumbles upon the killer’s mansion and accidentally gets trapped. The whole time you fear the dog will kill her, but then the killer shows up and finishes her off... a nail-biter!All of the deaths are bloody and graphic, but not really shocking. Slit throats, blood-colored walls, axe dismemberments... by the end of the film, the entire cast is neatly exterminated. The finale is not only incredibly gory; it also offers 15 minutes of pulse-pounding suspense!
Many have blamed Argento to be hostile to his female characters, and cleary most women in this movie are not exactly sharp as a razor. Being chased by a killer, throwing pieces of paper at him isn’t the most effective way to scare him off! And if I would hear a creepy voice inside my apartment saying ‘pervert... filthy, slimy pervert’, I surely wouldn’t take of my shirt promptly, but hey, that’s just giallo I guess...
Tenebrae is suspenseful throughout and keeps you guessing who the guilty party is. The plot has some holes here and there because Argento often cheats and double-crosses like mad to conceal the killer’s identity... but don’t think, just panic.
