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TENEBRAE, aka Unsane

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TERROR EYES
THE TOOLBOX MURDERS
 
TENEBRAE 
aka Unsane (US), Sotto gli Occhi dell’Assassino (It.), Tenebre (It.); Sigma Cinematographia, Italy, 1982; 110 min  
 
A triumphant return to the giallo for Dario Argento, Tenebrae is a superb horror-thriller and his best film since Deep Red (1975).
    An American crime writer (Tony Franciosa) arrives in Rome to publicise his new novel ‘Tenebrae’, only to find himself increasingly involved in a series of copycat killings seemingly inspired by his latest work. Under suspicion himself, he and his agent (genre regular John Saxon) take up the case.
    With so many twists it’s hard to keep up, and with gaping holes in the plot so big you could drive a Ferrari through them, the film occasionally strains the audience’s credulity to breaking point. Nevertheless, the film is more coherent than either Suspiria (1977) or Inferno (1980) which means it ranks among Argento’s more accessible features. Utterly absorbing, many aspects of the film confirm Argento as one of the few practitioners in the genre with genuine originality of vision.
    Like all of Argento’s recent work, Tenebrae is technically brilliant. The cinematography in particular (Luciano Tovoli) is often nothing short of breathtaking, with the spinechilling preamble to the spectacularly gory murder scenes and the killings themselves deserving special praise. The climax will leave you gasping.
    The film marked the beginning of a productive association between Argento and Lamberto Bava, son of the director — Mario Bava — whose reputation as the king of Italian horror Argento has undeniably inherited. The younger Bava, a highly competent director in his own right as Macabre (1980) had showed, worked as Argento’s assistant on Tenebrae. Argento later went on to produce Bava’s stylish and unforgivably underrated Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1986).
    The R-rated American version of the film, released as Unsane has almost ten minutes of mayhem excised and is to be avoided at all costs.
 
Dir. Dario Argento; Prod. Claudio Argento; Scr. Dario Argento, George Kemp; Star. Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi; With Christian Borromeo, Guiliano Gemma, Veronica Laric, Ania Peroni, Carola Stagnaro, Lara Wendel 

UK Vid. Videomedia, QRT 101 min (unrated), Beta, VHS & V2000
Director Dario Argento
 
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