Tenebrae (1982, Italy)

A Dario Argento whodunnit thriller with plenty of gore, but not much plot and improbable dialogue. Don't watch the film if you can't stand the sight of blood.

A successful novelist has gone to Rome for a press conference; about the time of his arrival, a woman is killed with an open razor and pages from the author's book are stuffed into her mouth. The police want to talk to him and keep in touch, because they are sure that more murders are planned. They are right, and many grisly and bloody killings follow.

There is a strange flashback sequence in which the transsexual actress Eva Robins appears as "Girl on Beach"; there are some men with her, and she partially strips; violence ensues but it is ambiguous whether she is assaulted. Is she the killer, now wreaking revenge?

The film was released under a lot of alternative titles, always a bad sign. It was Unsane in the USA; Tenebre (as well as Tenebrae -- an anglicised version of the Italian); and Under the Eyes of the Assassin; Sotto gli occhi dell'assassino was the original Italian title.

Tenebre means shadowy, or gloomy in Italian.

HF November 2004

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