LET’S GET PHYSICAL: TENEBRAE (1982) ***

FORMAT:  4K UHD

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on July 17th, 2007)

This is one of Dario Argento’s best from the ‘80s. It’s wrongly mistaken for Argento’s Third Mother movie (the other two being Suspiria and Inferno), but it only uses the title of The Third Mother. Anthony (The Finder of Lost Loves) Franciosa stars as an author whose latest book Tenebrae inspires a serial killer to start offing people close to him. Throats are slashed with a straight razor and people have pages of the book shoved into their mouths. There’s also a Doberman attack and a particularly brutal axe murder. John (Battle Beyond the Stars) Saxon co-stars as his scheming agent and the director’s wife Daria (Deep Red) Nicolodi (whose voice was dubbed by Theresa Russell) also appears. The excellent score is from the former members of Goblin. Franciosa and Saxon were also in Zombie Death House together.

AKA: Unsane.

QUICK THOUGHTS:

Tenebrae was something of a “getting back to basics” exercise for Dario Argento.  It’s an old-fashioned giallo, as it features a black-gloved killer and simple, but effective kill sequences.  It was also Argento’s first giallo after the American slasher boom, so it’s interesting seeing how the violence stacks up to those films of the era.  Speaking of violence, Tenebrae is at its heart, a statement about the way violence and the arts become intertwined, and how the media want to put creators on the hook for their creations’ actions.  Although it feels a little slight compared to something like Suspiria or Inferno (the pacing dawdles coming down the homestretch), it remains a strong second-tier Argento flick, and honestly, most directors can’t even come close to that on their best day. 

4K UHD NOTES:

Having only seen Tenebrae on pan-and-scan VHS and on a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack DVD, watching it in 4K was something of a revelation.  Although the film isn’t quite as stylish as some of Argento’s most memorable works, the colors looked vibrant in 4K (especially the blood), and the pulsing soundtrack sounded terrific.  Frankly, the movie hasn’t looked or sounded this good since… well… probably ever.