What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

EYES OF A STRANGER – Kevin Wiederhorn's slasher film is a queasy affair which matches a murky atmosphere of vague sleaze against TV movie style stiffness. It's not all that splattery, but Tom Savini is lurking in there somewhere with a fish tank decapitation and a couple of throat slashings. Most of the brutality is textural, a bit like 'Don't Answer The Phone', or even 'Maniac', both of which are harder and nastier than 'Eyes...', but which have that same creepy, voyeuristic ambience. It's about a news reporter who's on the case when it transpires that a rapist-murderer might be living in the apartment opposite. Her lawyer boyfriend doesn't believe her, and her life is kept on hold by the responsibility she feels towards her deaf / blind sister, a nice debut (I think) by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She does the only sensible thing in a film like this and goes detective, turns the tables etc etc 'Eyes of a Stranger' is quite tense in places, and manages to conjure an ominous vibe thanks in part to that early eighties staple, the post-Carpenter bass synth drone, and to its numerous shadowy, neon lit passages of strip clubs and night scenes. That said, Wiederhorn doesn't really imbue his film with much forward momentum, and it suffers from a slightly static feel. Worth watching for fans of that gloomy early eighties vibe and a film which might leave some feeling a bit sullied although it's actually quite light in terms of what it depicts. By the way, no-one could accuse Kevin Wiederhorn of hubris – a fair amount of screen time is given over to characters watching his earlier flick 'Shockwaves'! Nice contrast with the broadcast news footage, Kevin – headlines are one thing, but we know what's really happening in the world.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

That's not a giallo though!

Well that's debatable as it's included in the giallo book Blood and black lace and features an unknown killer who they are trying to find using insects.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Well that's debatable as it's included in the giallo book Blood and black lace and features an unknown killer who they are trying to find using insects.

I guess... although I've always seen it as more of a supernatural horror. It certainly includes some of the standard giallo trappings though.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

B&BL also says Phenomena fails miserably.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Well that's debatable as it's included in the giallo book Blood and black lace and features an unknown killer who they are trying to find using insects.

As you do!

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Well that's debatable as it's included in the giallo book Blood and black lace and features an unknown killer who they are trying to find using insects.

It's a supernatural horror like Suspiria and Inferno, both of which also include giallo aspects, but aren't gialli.

Those giallo books are really inconsistent with what they do and do not include - Troy Howarth's includes Stage Fright which has no mystery or investigative element whatsoever (it's just a slasher), and yet does not include The Short Night of Glass Dolls which is a murder mystery with an amateur detective and with a giallo score by Morricone and giallo style and cinematography, poster and title, and the protagonist is even struggling to remember clearly throughout the film.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

It's a supernatural horror like Suspiria and Inferno, both of which also include giallo aspects, but aren't gialli.

Those giallo books are really inconsistent with what they do and do not include - Troy Howarth's includes Stage Fright which has no mystery or investigative element whatsoever (it's just a slasher), and yet does not include The Short Night of Glass Dolls which is a murder mystery with an amateur detective and with a giallo score by Morricone and giallo style and cinematography, poster and title, and the protagonist is even struggling to remember clearly throughout the film.

That's part of the beauty of the very loose definition of 'giallo' and how loose/broad you want to be with the definition, or constrict it to perhaps a dozen films.

Stage Fright does feature a mystery killer, whose identity isn't revealed until the third act, always a staple of a giallo, and which differentiates it from slashers like the Friday 13th (sequels only), Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween films, as the killer's identity is known from the very beginning. If you want to go by that, the Scream movies are post-modern gialli, also featuring an inept detective!

I guess there are 'pure' gialli and then other films which are more giallo/slashers or even supernatural gialli (Inferno, Phenomena etc.).

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I'll put my view on them.

Films such as Suspiria, Inferno and Phenomena aren't gialli. The latter as it's a supernatural film and the two others as they are films about witchcraft.

The main aspect, in my opinion, regarding giallo or not, is a giallo is Italian in origin. Therefore films like Scream, Friday the 13th are American and purely slasher films. The American film nearest a gialli is probably Basic Instinct as that ticks every single giallo box except being Italian made.

You never actually see the killer, apart from their hands or body shape in giallo cinema. In the American slashers and indeed Stagefright you see the mask constantly.

Going back to it's roots the giallo was a crime, mystery or thriller with horror and erotic aspects.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Rather than suggesting anyone is wrong in how they define giallo i'd say a film fits the criteria for me if it's got several of these aspects to it -

Italian made
Crime
Mystery
Thriller
Suspense
Erotica
Knife wielding maniacs
Fetish
Salacious murders.

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The American film nearest a gialli is probably Basic Instinct as that ticks every single giallo box except being Italian made.

De Palma's 'Dressed to Kill' as well