PREVUES OF COMING ATTRACTIONS VOL. 1: GIALLORAMA (2008) *** ½

Fans of ‘70s giallos rejoice!  This is the trailer compilation you’ve been waiting for.  It also makes for a good primer for people who are looking to get into the genre.  Some of the biggest directors who made their mark in the genre are represented (Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, and Umberto Lenzi are among those who are featured more than once) and familiar faces like George Hilton, Edwige Fenech, and Claudine Auger pop up time and again. It’s also in chronological order, which is nice because you get to see how the genre grew wilder and more exploitative over time. 

The trailers included in this collection are:  Evil Eye, Blood and Black Lace, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Death Walks on High Heels, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Short Night of Glass Dolls, Slaughter Hotel, Carnage (AKA:  Twitch of the Death Nerve), The Black Belly of the Tarantula, The Cat O’ Nine Tails, The Fifth Cord, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, All the Colors of the Dark (under the alternate title, They’re Coming to Get You), The Case of the Bloody Iris, Torso, What Have You Done to Solange?, Who Saw Her Die?, Death Smiles at Murder, Spasmo, Eyeball, Autopsy, Deep Red, Strip Nude for Your Killer, The Dark is Death’s Friend, The Bloodstained Shadow, The Pyjama Girl Case, Tenebrae, The New York, Ripper, Murder Rock, Stage Fright, Trauma, and Sleepless.

Throughout the running time, you can see flashes of what makes giallos so much fun:  Killers in black gloves, POV camerawork, beautiful women, and odd, memorable, and longwinded titles (usually featuring an animal).  Many trailers use trippy colors during the title sequences that add to the overall luridness of the films.  A few are even shown in their original Italian language, which helps to give them a different flavor than a lot of the trailers on these kinds of compilations.

I do kind of wish they had dug a little further back in the archives and found some more obscure titles.  As it is, it just kind of plays like a greatest hits collection of what the genre has to offer.  That’s not really a criticism though, just an observation.