Tenebre (1982)

* spoilers *

Famous author Peter Neal goes to Rome to promote his newest murder mystery novel only to find someone has recreated the murders in real life down to the motivation. He receives a letter after each murder, but investigators have no idea who it might be. Could it be his vindictive and cheating fiancee or the man she's cheating with, Peter's own agent? Or could it be the man himself?

Tenebre is the best giallo film I've seen by far because the mystery aspect is so well handled. The complex story has many possibilities and different story lines that are all expertly handled and intertwined. Beyond the author, there are a number of suspicious people: his cheating fiancee, his lying agent, and book reviewer Christiano Berti. I had no idea who the killer was and it's a bit more complicated an answer than one might think. The murders reflect those in Neal's book, where the killer is digusted with sexually "aberrant" behavior such as promiscuity or homosexuality. The kills themselves are strikingly beautiful in their presentation, contrasting with the brutality of the act and the bigotry behind it. They are always shown from the point of view of the unknown killer. Throughout the film, another set of scenes from an unknown point of view are shown, in a different time and place than the murders. A man is humiliated by a beautiful woman and a pack of handsome, buff admirers. Later, the woman is killed horrifically in revenge.

Peter Neal is a successful author who seems like a nice person. As the film goes on, there are definite red flags going up. A female reporter who knows him personally questions him about the misogyny apparent in his book. He deflects by weakly arguing that they are friends and citing his support of the equal rights act. Instead of taking it as a critique of his work, he takes it as an attack on his character. This behavior is basically painting the reporter as the unreasonable aggressor, typical of bigoted people trying to deflect critique of their bigotry. Another red flag is when he and a friend investigate the murders on their own. Why would he do this, putting himself in harm's way, when he has no idea what he's doing? Peter is later shown to be the person from the flashbacks, showing that he is indeed a misogynist and a murderer. The flashbacks have a definite sexual nature in both the emasculating abuse towards him and in the murder he later commits. It shows that the bigotry and misogyny reflected in his novel is his own, an interesting plot point from Argento.

The themes and the world in the film give the film so much more depth than most giallo films. Metafiction is always something that draws me in when done well. Only small excerpts of the book are read on film, but the murders and situations tell its story, eerily reflected. The themes of his book are discussed thoroughly and make my inner book nerd happy. There are also numerous doubles throughout the film in almost every character, various objects, and situations in the background. Many scenes have characters directly reflecting each other. It foreshadows the ending and gives cohesion to the film. Even the world this story is set in isn't what you would expect. Instead of the recognizable parts of Rome, Argento opted to use the suburban areas with a twist. Some devastation has happened to kill a noticeable amount of people, especially in the homeless and low income populations. That's why crowds are sparse and most people shown are wealthy and well dressed. I wish this was talked about even in passing a little more explicitly in the film, but it's a unique alternate near future for sure.

Tenebre is my personal gold standard for giallo films with Torso close behind. You do have to get past the things typical to the subgenre that can be distracted such as overacting and bad dubbing. These things only bothered me in the beginning until the story drew me in. The complexity and depth of this film delighted me and are unlike any other film I've seen in the subgenre. Even the title refers to a Catholic prayers accompanied by the successive extinguishing of candles. It's not really mentioned in the film, but reflects the murders and the reason behind them. I'm more excited than ever to dive more into other giallo films and giallo influenced films.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins