Tulpa (2012)
Heralded by cover reviewers as a homage to Hitchcock, it isn't.
Tulpa is a modern stab at the classic giallo thriller. This wholly Italian production brings the old 70's giallo staples of sex and violence kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Director Federico Zampaglione takes many classic giallo traits and influences and mixes them into his film. The killer decked out all in black, even hat and gloves, several nicely staged graphic murders, one straight out of Dario Argento's
Opera, and an attractive heroine in Claudia Gerini who reminded me of Michelle Pfeiffer with her looks.
Tulpa is a moody piece. It's definitely not fast paced but it is intriguing. Gerini plays a successful business woman by day who visits a private club by night and partakes in various sexual activities until she soon realizes those she rendezvous with turn up dead soon after.
Not as stylish as say,
Amer (2009), but nor is it as pretentious either with it's linear plotting. The mood is set with an evocative score and dark red lighting throughout especially the club scenes. There's a certain neo-noir ambiance to it all which i enjoyed, more so than the rather basic story. What the film lacks is the classic police investigation, in
Tulpa i'm afraid it just doesn't exist, the film concentrating solely on Gerini, although that's no bad thing. It's worth noting that as with all the classic gialli heroines, Gerini has no inhibitions about taking her clothes off, ha,ha.
Finally thrown into the mix is a feel of the occult. The Tulpa of the title being something conjured through the mind during the club's rituals. In this respect the whole production reminded me of Polselli's
Delirio Caldo (1972). Not everything works, (the plot is a little too simplistic at times for example), in fact it's rare in giallo cinema if it does, but the overall feel of
Tulpa is that it's a film that should be of definite interest to long time lovers of Italian murder mysteries.