TENEBRAE aka SOTTO GLI OCCHI DELL'ASSASSINO SHADOW TENEBRE UNSANE (1982) 101 mins SIGMA CINEMATOGRAPHIA ; ITALY

After a brief leave of the murder mystery genre, or 'giallo' as they are called in Italy, Dario Argento returned to the black gloved killer motif of his earlier work. With this said, Argento's leap back into this territory yielded an amazing film in my opinion. Tenebrae is simply brilliant. The Master pulls out all the stops here to deliver plenty of what you would expect. This is perhaps the strongest contender for Dario's best screenplay outside of 'The Bird With The Crystal Plumage'. For sheer delight of all the senses we have plenty to gorge ourselves upon. Visually there is plenty of swirling camera tricks and wonderful murder sequences to keep the eyes happy. The screenplay is a bit challenging on the brain in terms of the usual fare Argento writes. Just when you think you know who the murderer is, another red herring pops up and it all starts all over again. (I watched this film with my grandmother and it was bothering her and she finally said 'Ok, who did it?'. Needless to say, I didn't tell her, and she rather enjoyed the film!). The accompanying score by Goblin is a masterwork in many respects and your ears will thank you later! Since you can't smell film, Argento knows this and there is a sense of 'touch' with this one I believe. Anyone who has seen it can attest to the end sequence, there is plenty of 'ouch' material here. Many critics give this film more credit than Argento's other work, excepting 'Suspiria' but still not enough in my opinion. Sure, some of the dubbing is awful, but that is the case with anything foreign most of the time. And yeah, I know the plot has holes so big you can trip in them. But with a film this great you just have to look over the little flaws and look at the big picture to fully enjoy this. Anyone who is turned off by explicit gore be warned this may be a little much, but if you can watch the evening news you can handle this.

reviewed by Derek Botelho

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