I think many of us in Britain and the States etc are sometimes guilt of having a very fixed and narrow view on what makes a giallo. I've seen some people get all narky over someone labeling Suspiria a giallo, yet I don't think such comments can be simply dismissed as a classic newbie mistake.
For Italian audiences, the term "giallo" is used to refer to any kind of thriller, regardless of where it was made. Thus American, British or other western thrillers such as Psycho, Vertigo or Peeping Tom are, for Italian-speaking audiences, examples of gialli. For English-speaking audiences, the term has over time come to refer to a very specific type of Italian-produced thriller which Italian audiences have historically referred to as "thrilling all'italiana" (in other words, thrillers in an Italian style) or, sometimes, "spaghetti thrillers". So, for Italian audiences, the term "giallo" denotes a broad genre (the thriller), and the term "thrilling all'italiana" denotes the specific subgroup of films (a subgenre) that have come to be known by English-speaking viewers as gialli.
The film subgenre that emerged from these novels in the 1960s began as literal adaptations of the books, but soon began taking advantage of modern cinematic techniques to create a unique genre which veered into horror and psychological thrillers. |