Tenebre (1982)

Director:

Dario Argento

Writer:

Dario Argento (writer)

Release Date:

February 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Terror Beyond Belief

Plot:

An American writer in Rome is stalked by a serial killer bent on harassing him while killing all people associated with his work on his latest book.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Death | Serial Killer | Police | Author

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Anthony Franciosa	...	Peter Neal
Christian Borromeo	...	Gianni
Mirella D'Angelo	...	Tilde
Veronica Lario	...	Jane McKerrow
Ania Pieroni	...	Elsa Manni
Eva Robin's	...	Girl on Beach (as Eva Robins)
Carola Stagnaro	...	Detective Altieri
John Steiner	...	Christiano Berti
Lara Wendel	...	Maria Alboretto
John Saxon	...	Bullmer
Daria Nicolodi	...	Anne
Giuliano Gemma	...	Detective Germani
Isabella Amadeo	...	Bullmer's secretary
Mirella Banti	...	Marion
Ennio Girolami	...	Department Store Manager (as Enio Girolami)

Also Known As:

Sotto gli occhi dell'assassino
Tenebrae
Under the Eyes of the Assassin
Unsane (USA)

Runtime:

110 min | USA:91 min (edited version) | 101 min (director's cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | New Zealand:R16 | West Germany:18 (cut) | Sweden:(Banned) | Italy:T (edited TV version) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Sweden:15 | Australia:R | Canada:R | France:-16 | Germany:16 (cut version: 2002) | Italy:VM18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | USA:Unrated (director's cut) | West Germany:(Banned) | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Iceland:(Banned) | Finland:K-18 (2005) (uncut) | Finland:K-18 (1988) (cut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Sigma Cinematografica Roma

Trivia:

The films poster shows an image of a woman with her throat cut. The UK release attempted to censor the violent image by placing a red bow around the neck in the image!

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the pre-credit sequence where the killer is reading the book. On long shots the writing is in Italian, but on the close up shots, its in English.

Quotes:

[First lines]
Narrator: "The impulse had become irresistible. There was only one answer to the fury that tortured him. And so he committed his first act of murder. He had broken the most deep-rooted taboo, and found not guilt, not anxiety or fear, but freedom. Any humiliation which stood in his way could be swept aside by the simple act of annihilation: Murder."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Devil's Muse (2007)

Soundtrack:

Take Me Tonight

One of Argento's best.

I first saw Tenebr(a)e under the moniker "Unsane" (which is supposedly missing ten minutes of gore and some extensive camera-work). I really enjoyed the film, so I bought the rerelease print from Anchor Bay, and I must say, the restored, uncut, letterboxed print looks and sounds wonderful.

There's no need to go into the plot other than to say Anthony Franciosa stars as American horror novelist Peter Neal and, while he's in Rome on a book tour, murders are being committed by one of his crazed fans. I read somewhere that Argento is king of stringing together a plot and cheating audiences just so they can't guess the identity of the killer, and with this as evidence, I agree 100%. It's nearly impossible to figure out this plot before it's fully explained.

Luciano Tovoli's camera-work/cinematography is brilliant, especially the luma crane shot (which goes up one side of a building, over the roof and down the other side in one unbroken taken). There's also an extremely well-photographed and directed sequence featuring a girl being pursued by a rabid Doberman. Now they would do those two scenes with computers, and I think that obliterates the charm of the hands-on film-making process.

In short, this film puts Hollywood thrillers like "Copycat" "The Bone Collector," and "Se7en" to shame, and it's apparent all three films stole ideas from this one (and from other films in Argento's oeuvre).