Tenebre

Rating:
Summary: Perversions of a dangerous mind...
Review: Two thumbs up for one of the most underestimated movies of Dario Argento! Excellent suspence, brilliant plot, effective introspection of the main and secondary actors, nailbiting soundtrack and horrible mutilations mix up together in a "twist of the death nerve" up to the very last sequence, a neverending scream which will rock your cradle, preventing you from falling asleep...
Another great product from Anchor Bay Entertainment, with a widescreen presentation (1.85.1) and two audio tracks: Italian in mono and English in DS 5.1. Don't miss the interesting audio commentary by Dario Argento, music composer Claudio Simonetti and journalist Loris Curci. The extra features comprise the theatrical trailer, two behind-the-scenes segments, one of which deals with interesting audio effects, and the alternate end credits music, strongly disapproved by the Maestro.
One of Argento's best movies and one of the best ABE product, uncut and uncensored (check Veronica Lario's arm amputation, a blood bath missing even in the European versions of the film!)

Rating:
Summary: Argento's magic
Review: Tenebre is a wonder film, in all aspects. If you can, find the Italian version, it is truly a delight, but the dubbed version is also very good. Tenebre stands out as Argento's best, with beautiful camera work and an intoxicating score by the Goblins, Argento's band. One scene to look out for is a two and a half minute tracking shot that peers into the home that is the place of a double murder. It wonderfully caresses the screen as the camers explores the house, traveling across the roof, into the windows, and into the house as a point of view shot. It is beautifully done, and Dario Argento works his magic with a tight plot line and beautiful mise en scene. Of course the special effects lacked, as all horror movies usually do, and some of the pace was slow, but a worthy movie all in it's own right.

Rating:
Summary: axe me
Review: long time argento fan, has to be one of my favs, violent , bloody, and artistic. deffinetly a classic in my eyes

Rating:
Summary: Gore, blood, great sound and very good picture! Enjoy!
Review: I watched "Tenebre" before and wanted to view it again before writing my review. Recently I observed a very disappointing Image Entertainment offering of a Mario Bava film ("Hatchet for the Honeymoon") so I wanted something that would stimulate my senses - right away!

My system roared back to life when I chose and played "Tenebre". The surround sound is excellent for the 1982/1983 film and the picture alone I would rate probably --> 3 stars. There is plenty of color in the murder scenes. As always, I do not review the movie, directing, or acting, as I prefer to give readers tips on the quality of the DVD. As such, I highly recommend that you add this DVD to your Dario Argento collection; it's quite thrilling. Please note that Anchor Bay DVD's do not play well or at all on older DVD players or drives. Since I upgraded to a 16x drive, all my Anchor Bay DVD's play smoothly including "Tenebre".

A behind-the-scenes feature of sound effects is quite interesting. I could also listen to Dario speak about his films, in Italian, all day long. Of course, I need the translation or subtitles to help. There is a brief interview with Dario on this DVD with an audio translation.

There is plenty of blood and gore in this film for those who love it. Sounds too! Also noteworthy is a scene featuring a mature, voluptuous and solid woman who kneels down in front of a group of young men that are only wearing white pants. It's quite sensual. For whatever reason, one of the boys hits this woman. Later he is restrained and this beautiful but rough lady stomps on his face and puts the high heel of her red shoe into his mouth. It's a very exciting and thrilling scene! You will enjoy this scene very much as you figure out what it means to "Tenebre".

Rating:
Summary: All I can say is "Whoa!"
Review: Dubbed the Italian Hitchcock by his American fans, Dario Argento is one of those filmmakers who is completely uninhibited with his use of the camera and gore effects. He sets himself apart from other filmmakers by setting himself free upon the world he creates and showing it to us in the greatest possible detail. His camera movements are always purposeful and stunning, and he always adds the right amount of lighting and atmospheric music to make up for the poor post-sync dubbing. (Sometimes watching an Argento movie is to relive the best follies of the Godzilla films as you watch people's mouths move totally out of place from the dialogue.)

"Tenebre" is one of those movies that stays under your skin for long after you've watched it. It has a tense plot, decent acting, and a climax of such shocking violence that we're left with the image of blood spraying a grotesque mural on a wall burned into our brains. Argento's darkest side gets unleashed in this film. His creativity was obviously at the top if its form when he thought of the camera move that scales the entire exterior of a house up to the top floor, moving into a close up on the roofing tiles, and then back out to a medium shot on an intended victim standing in a window. This shot creates a great deal of tension, even with the bad music playing in the background. (The DVD shows a behind the scenes featurette about the creation of this one memorable shot.)

The plot of the film is too ridiculously simple to take a long time to explain. In fact, other films have used it since then. "Basic Instinct," for example, is about a serial killer who murders her victims in the same fashion as is written in novels by her favorite author. "Tenebre" came out before "Basic Instinct", and has almost exactly the same plot, minus the gratuitous sex scenes and lesbianism. I wonder if Ezterhas was an Argento fan. Doesn't matter. Argento's film buries "Basic Instinct" with a style Paul Verhoeven can't hope to match. It rises above most of Argento's other films as a classic of the pulp horror genre. A word of warning, though: Do not eat anything before you watch it.

Rating:
Summary: One of Argento's best
Review: This easily ranks among my top 5 from Dario Argento.

This gem tells the tale of a horror author Peter Neal and his newest book, Tenebre. The book is deemed by some to be sick and sexist (since the victims in the book are females). However, a homicidal fanatic is killing people in the same fashion of the book! The movie definately has the stylish touch of Mr. Argento. Also, I found the cast to be rather superb (John Saxon is in it, and he always gives a good performance). A nice surprise ending too (though it would be somewhat copied in Stendhal Syndrome). Definately worth watching. Hell, buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Great giallo flick from Dario Argento
Review: Great giallo flick and one of the best moments of Dario Argento with the thriller gender. Here Argento demonstrates visible mastery in delivering a good suspense following the best "Hitchcock" style,adding to this his own personal visions and ideas, like his great and daring camera movements and the blood baths so common in his horror pictures.Good acting by the cast,especially from the always reliable John Saxon and Anthony Franciosa.The story,a kind of mix between "Psycho" and the stalking-serial-killer theme,is developed to perfection by the director,who finally is able to create a picture with heart.I say that because Tenebre has a believable story (about a novelist writer who is stalked by a serial killer while promoting his last book, called 'Tenebre') and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats guessing, and differently from other Argento's films(namelly his horror movies) Tenebre is well-written and doesn't rely only in style or camera tricks. I'm an admirer of Mr. Argento, but unfortunatelly I believe that his most famous pictures could have been a lot better than they actually are if their scripts were revised at least once by a good writer. That being said,it's nice to see that Argento is returning to the "giallo" recently,scoring another great gem, the Max Von Sidow vehicle "Sleepless".

Rating:
Summary: Arguably Argento's best
Review: In his long and illustrious career, Dario Argento has focused on two subgenres of the horror film: the supernatural thriller and the giallo. For his best supernatural thriller, see "Suspiria." For his best giallo, see "Tenebrae."

I found "Tenebrae" to be much more enjoyable than "Deep Red," the 1975 pic most people consider to be Argento's best. "Tenebrae" has few of the gaps in pacing evidenced by "Deep Red"'s unedited bilingual version, and it also has an arguably more likeable lead--Anthony Franciosa playing Peter Neal, a successful American author on a book tour in Rome, a man who suddenly finds himself at the epicenter of a series of kinky murders committed by a fan apparently obsessed with Neal's most recent bestseller ("Tenebrae," which means "darkness" in Italian.)

So many faces familiar to Eurohorror pop up here: Daria Nicolodi as Neal's assistant who may or may not survive the bloodbath; John Steiner (also in Bava's "Shock" and the infamous "Caligula") making a bow as a nosy book reviewer; John Saxon as the cynical literary agent; Ania Pieroni, she of the gorgeous eyes and killer body, getting killed for being a promiscuous shoplifter. These engaging actors are thrown into a film filled with sexual tension, mystery...and murder. Lots of murder. The body count here is lower than, say, a "Halloween" or Jason movie, but the killings themselves are so memorable and done in such an artistic way--such an Argento way--that they instantly make one's top ten list.

It goes without saying that Argento's camera gymnastics are amazing here, including a two-minute louma crane shot covering the entire exterior of a building. If there are any drawbacks, it's that the color is rather washed out; most interiors are white on white, and as one critic once said, "Even the nighttime scenes are bright." If one is looking for Bava-inspired Argento colorization, watch "Suspiria" or the underrated "Inferno" instead.

In summary, "Tenebrae" is a must-own for all serious giallo fans.

Rating:
Summary: Argento's On A Roll
Review: Argento takes a break from the supernatural to return to his giallo roots. Many fans consider this one of his best and I'd agree with that. As I said before, it's a return to giallo, so the plot isn't 100% original, but it has some original ideas put into it. Plus, with the way Argento films his movies, does it really matter what it's all about? Tenebre is an awesome whodunit slasher flick that actually manages to keep you in the dark about the killer's identity. It's also got some of his most stylishly orchestrated murder scenes(you know which one I mean in particular). I've noticed upon repeated viewing that alot of modern so called "horror" films have freely borrowed from this film. That's an old story coz most Italian horror films have had their ideas stolen for modern horror. But, no matter how young and pretty you make the cast or how much you MTV it up for today's AD&D audience, no one can get close to Italy's style. And it's probably impossible to get anywhere near Argento's in particular. This leaves me totally flabbergasted by the rumors of a Suspiria remake! Think about that for a second, will ya-THERE ARE RUMORS THAT SUSPIRIA IS GONNA BE REMADE BY AN AMERICAN STUDIO!!!

Rating:
Summary: one of argento's best
Review: I've seen 7 of his movies total after being very impressed with
the first movie I watched by him suspiria. Out of Suspiria, Phenomena, Deep Red, Stendhal Syndrome, Sleepless and Inferno I would have to say this is one of my favorites. I even own the soundtrack its great !@#