I had thought there was a dedicated Giallo thread here, but a search turned up nothing.
I have spent a good portion of the summer exploring the movies of Dario Argento (favorites have been Susperia and Four Flies on Grey Velvet), and I have enjoyed the atmosphere, music, and visuals greatly. I saw one Bava anthology movie in the past (Black Sabbath), so I know that I need to explore him next, especially Blood and Black Lace--along with Lucio Fulci.
What Giallo films are your favorites? Now that I have seen many of Argento's early works, where should I go next?
Not a huge genre fan but a definite dabbler. As you mentioned - Bava is a great next step, and I'm probably a bigger fan of his than I am of Dario.
Also recommended;
Torso
All The Colours of the Dark
Lizard In A Woman's Skin
Strip Nude For Your Killer
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Seven Blood Stained Orchids
Blue Underground / 88 / Shameless Entertainment have made all of these in decent editions.
Watched this recently and enjoyed it a lot: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074287/
Cool giallo film from a director who is not primarily known for that type of movies.
Thank you both, I will look into these.
Giallo films are great- nave a couple of hundred, but miss the way the Italian film industry worked.
Many actors and directors were hired hands and worked for the money.
You will find better long term enjoyment looking for different types of films from familiar names.
Lenzi- mostly known for zombie/cannibal films did great giallos with actress carolle Baker and later with crime thrillers.
As a cheeky aside, check the names of Richard ramirez projects in 90's for giallo
Don't know where you are based but look at shameless, 88 films, severin films for good giallo.
There still seeems to be a huge wave of re-releasing all the old classics from the days of good old VHS. There are so many great Giallo flicks, especially the more obscure and sleazy ones. Some of my top ones are:
Giallo A Venezia (sickest kills & bizzarre athmosphere, from nearly comical to ultra scary and evil....love it)
Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (One of the lesser known Sergio Martini ones w. Edwige Fenech)
Death Walks On High Heels & Death Walks At Midnight (Killer flicks, belong to creme-de-la-creme of the Giallo heaven)
Malastrana (also a bit underrated, love Mario Adorf and his italian 70´s flicks in general, great conspiracy story)
Amuck (wanna see Rosalba Neri & Barbara Bouchet taking a hot shower ? Here you go. Sleazy as fuck killer Giallo!!!)
What about all the great Poliziotti flicks ? Anyone into ? Italian B-movies are a world to discover...I still can´t get enough, especially in todays woke shit society. Time to watch "Violence for kicks" again and again...
There's the classics like Black Christmas, Blood and Black Lace, Suspiria... those are all good. But I also enjoy just watching random ones I've never heard of and giving them a shot. YouTube and Tubi have a ton to choose from. Some favorites:
Arabella Black Angel
The Sister of Ursula
Dial: Help
I need to start writing the titles down though because I've seen some other good ones but never remember the damn names
Tubi is excellent. Arrow Player had a decent selection of both giallo and poliziotteschi last I checked
Quote from: Balor/SS1535 on August 07, 2022, 09:26:41 PMI had thought there was a dedicated Giallo thread here, but a search turned up nothing.
I have spent a good portion of the summer exploring the movies of Dario Argento (favorites have been Susperia and Four Flies on Grey Velvet), and I have enjoyed the atmosphere, music, and visuals greatly. I saw one Bava anthology movie in the past (Black Sabbath), so I know that I need to explore him next, especially Blood and Black Lace--along with Lucio Fulci.
What Giallo films are your favorites? Now that I have seen many of Argento's early works, where should I go next?
Try his later work too, if you haven't already. Argento is THE master. I used to love giallo a lot but what remained as the most memorable was always Argento.
Do you like Hitchcock? which was shot for TV is quite underrated. Too bad we won't be able to see any more stuff from him given his age.
I believe whole heartedly that Argento perfected the Giallo formula with Tenebrae. Why? Well, much of the time Argento's giallos don't exactly work as pieces of narrative cinema, and I think you could make a case that he's a superior visual artist or even art director than he is as a director. Suspiria, Phenomena, Deep Red, etc.. Beautiful, sumptuously colorful and violent images but I honestly forget the plot as soon as I'm done watching them. Suspiria isn't even truly a giallo, given that Giallo films differ from horror by always shunning supernatural elements for crime, mystery and investigations. Tenebrae, however, HITS. It makes use of a simple whodunit structure with a nice if easy to foresee end of film twist but manages to imbue the simple narrative with much thematic contemplation on wounded masculinity, misogynistic rage, and buried memories. A visionary film.
Also love Bava's Blood and Black Lace, Aldo Lado's Short Nights of Glass Dolls, and Fulci's a Lizard in Woman's Skin
Quote from: Antiyou on September 26, 2023, 05:21:20 PMQuote from: Balor/SS1535 on August 07, 2022, 09:26:41 PMI had thought there was a dedicated Giallo thread here, but a search turned up nothing.
I have spent a good portion of the summer exploring the movies of Dario Argento (favorites have been Susperia and Four Flies on Grey Velvet), and I have enjoyed the atmosphere, music, and visuals greatly. I saw one Bava anthology movie in the past (Black Sabbath), so I know that I need to explore him next, especially Blood and Black Lace--along with Lucio Fulci.
What Giallo films are your favorites? Now that I have seen many of Argento's early works, where should I go next?
Try his later work too, if you haven't already. Argento is THE master. I used to love giallo a lot but what remained as the most memorable was always Argento. Do you like Hitchcock? which was shot for TV is quite underrated. Too bad we won't be able to see any more stuff from him given his age.
I have not watched much post-1980 Argento, so that would be interesting to see. I have a copy of the big monograph the film museum in Turin did, and
Do you like Hitchcock? soundled like one of the more interesting ones---even just for the name alone!
Quote from: AdamLehrerImageMaker on September 27, 2023, 01:11:36 AMI believe whole heartedly that Argento perfected the Giallo formula with Tenebrae. Why? Well, much of the time Argento's giallos don't exactly work as pieces of narrative cinema, and I think you could make a case that he's a superior visual artist or even art director than he is as a director. Suspiria, Phenomena, Deep Red, etc.. Beautiful, sumptuously colorful and violent images but I honestly forget the plot as soon as I'm done watching them. Suspiria isn't even truly a giallo, given that Giallo films differ from horror by always shunning supernatural elements for crime, mystery and investigations. Tenebrae, however, HITS. It makes use of a simple whodunit structure with a nice if easy to foresee end of film twist but manages to imbue the simple narrative with much thematic contemplation on wounded masculinity, misogynistic rage, and buried memories. A visionary film.
Also love Bava's Blood and Black Lace, Aldo Lado's Short Nights of Glass Dolls, and Fulci's a Lizard in Woman's Skin
The other aspect of
Tenebrae that I loved was Argento's abilty to film the architecture of the film. The scene where he moves from within one room, climbs the exterior, and then returns to another part of the house was breathtaking when I saw it for the first time.
There's really a lot of stuff worthy to be watched. Just to name some besides the most famous ones and those already mentioned: Umberto Lenzi's "Almost Human" (in Italian "Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare") is a masterpiece of the genre as well. Moreover, all Lenzi's movies are very good if you are a fan of B-Movies/Genre Movies. Another random pick which comes to my mind and has not been named so far is "Le Orme" directed by Luigi Bazzoni, Armando Crispino's "Macchie Solari" and "L'etrusco uccide ancora", Maurizio Lucidi's "La vittima designata" and obviously the great "The House with Laughing Windows" of Pupi Avati, probably one of the scariest Italian movies ever with a unique distressing and somehow quite "authentic Italian" atmosphere. And, of course, all the Giallos with Edwige Fenech main character are mandatory, with a personal marked preference for "All the colours of black".
Quote from: flatline-ejaculation on September 22, 2023, 02:44:37 PMAmuck (wanna see Rosalba Neri & Barabara Bouchet taking a hot shower ? Here you go. Sleazy as fuck killer Giallo!!!)
I missed this one and that actress combo is of course a strong teaser!
I guess you mean "All the colours of the dark" w. Edwige Fenech. Also a Giallo that has inspired me a lot. The surreal athmosphere, the satanic obession and the trippy story is just awesome. A lot of known actors who all do great, Edwige especially. A must see, a must have!
I am a bit back to business as far as the world of old-school exploitation cinema is concerned.
Any suggestions of hidden gems of the Giallo world ? Anyone into italian - greek or italian - turkish co-productions ? Some are also weird and sleazy as hell. If this world goes full armageddon-style, I will not leave without having some nostalgic sessions of sleaze n violence on screen.
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Five Dolls for an August Moon, Short Night of Glass Dolls (same director of the cult-classics Who Saw Her Die? and Last Stop on the Night Train), The Case of the Bloody Iris, and also Valerii's My Dear Killer (an almost forgotten jem) should be worth checking out.
Being italian I watched all this stuff years and years ago, and I'm not sure if all these titles are available in english in any format.
Death Walks At Midnight and Death Walks On High Heels by Luciano Ercoli were some good proper giallo flicks. I've got an uncut DVD set that has both films and perhaps the music as bonus. It's been a long while since I've revisited those, but a worthy recommendation.
There's many entertaining films outside the obvious classics. I watched quite a lot gialli lately but had to stop after they started to get mashed up in my head, all Ivan Rassimovs and George Hiltons looping in every film...Anyway, I would highly recommend Antonio Bido's Watch Me When I Kill and The Bloodstained Shadow. They are not usually ranked that high, but I think Watche me... was very bleak and well done. Bloodstained... has great locations and likable main couple, it's a solid giallo.
Strip Nude for Your Killer is worth seeing just for the most miserable sex scene ever filmed: fat, impotent guy tries to cheat her wife with a prostitute, but fails to get an erection and starts to cry mommy in the middle of the act! Then he wanders around his apartment, crying, with a sex doll on his hands. He even talks to the doll "You are the only one I can have sex with". Amazing...
The two Death Walks films were a bit boring for me. ...at Midnight was the better one of the two. But it's more like a crime film than giallo. Anyway it stars stunning Nieves Navarro and there's a cool gang of bad guys.
Autopsy was a great surprise. Morbid and unique atmosphere. Morricone's eerie music is similar to The Short Night of Glass Dolls.
Killer Must Kill Again was also one the better ones. Unique plot, very dark and interesting characters. It's also surprisingly well directed by Luigi Cozzi, even though he's more known of his trashier efforts. I would definitely buy this on Blu-ray if it gets released some day.