Tenebre (1982)

Pretty Good

Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Argento madde a couple of "weirder" movies with "Suspiria" and "inferno", and I don't know if it was the circumstance around the latter film, but with "Tenebrae", he returned to something rather traditional. If you're a fan of the typical '70s giallo style of storytelling, this won't be a bad thing, but it's hard to escape the feeling that by 1982 he was already a bit past this.I watched this movie a couple of times years ago before this recent viewing, and my memory of the denouement was somehow totally different from what actually happened. I think maybe I somehow got its wires crossed with Argento's much earlier "Four Flies on Grey Velvet", where the character the audience mostly followed was a musician. Here it's a writer of horror/crime thriller novels. he's played well, but everyone seems a bit underused, somehow, and this goes especially for guys like Saxon and Steiner, who seem barely present but for a few scenes. The story also commits the worst offense of the bad mystery novel: the killer turns out to be someone we have barely spent any time with in the story, and thus the reaction is less one of surprise than one of "oh, that guy? Huh...."Or is it? This being a giallo, there's a weird twist at the end. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me and I think I like the memory of the story I had a little better. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone though, so i won't explain. Sorry!You know that with a vintage Argento film, you are going to get lots of stylishness, possibly at the expense of substance, and this is no exception. I happen to think "inferno" was possibly his best movie, and rather than contribute to the atmosphere as they do in th at film, i think maybe the excesses do hurt this movie a little bit. There are scenes that drag on seemingly for the sole purpose of letting us hear more of Goblin's admittedly cool funky/disco music. Specifically, and this is something commented on by many -- a really, really long shot that goes all the way around a building that will seem totally pointless unless you are really willing to just embrace the film on its own terms and are happy to let Argento take you on this slightly superfluous tour. The music is cool, but for the first time, doesn't always seem to fit and can even be a bit distracting. At first I thought maybe this was because Goblin started to embrace 80s electronic music here and I wasn't as into that, but in the intervening years I think I've found more affinity for such music, and no, I guess there's just too much of it sometimes here.So, all-in-all, this is a nice throwback to the glory years of the giallo (those being past and done, largey, by '82, i think), complete with a story that doesn't seem to totally hang together. A neat murder story, but I definitely prefer "Deep Red", and for sheer fever dream madness, "Inferno" can't be beat.

This cult classic from Dario Argento has been more popular than ever since its theme song was sampled heavily by the French electronic band Justice in the song "Phantom Part II" for their debut album "Cross". The music isn't the only good thing about this film. There's lots of gore, sex, suspense, and some corny dialogue (i saw the American dub) that can be a bit funny. There's also some long tracking shot during the movie too. Worth a DVD rental, for sure.

Tenebre marks Argento's transition to mediocrity.It features a neat premise, rather fresh back then, a few sly bits, decent main performances, and yet for the first time the Master seems incapable of working his old magic.A sequence halfway through sums it up: a minor character's demise is depicted in an excruciatingly long set-piece, clocking at little less than ten minutes, with a chase, a couple of dog attacks and the coup de grace by an axe-wielding killer. It's strangely toothless stuff and, apart for the use of Argento's trademark "killer POV camera", lacking any particular visual flair.Quite interesting on a meta level is a moment where the main character, a writer, awkwardly defends himself against allegations of misogyny caused by the treatment of female characters in his works - allegations repeatedly faced by Argento himself in his career.5,5/10

As a long time Argento fan I have seen most of his work, but for some reason this film has been off my radar until recently. I have to say though after a recent viewing (I have now seen it twice), this may be a masterwork. Susperia and Deep Red may have street credit, but for my money, THIS is the one that is the true giallo.It keeps the viewer wound up until the end. It is TRUE suspense. I am a grown man, who has seen all matter of exploitation, but true tension takes skill and that is exactly what Argento delivers in Tenebre. As the film moves on the suspense and levels build so high as the mystery of the whodunit unravels I literally had to get up and take a peepee break. If you are a fan of Argento and haven't seen this you must now. Also fans of Hitchcock and De Palma would be interested.The film is a high wired dance of the macabre. With excellent photography as usual from this bunch, featuring a 2 and half minute tracking shot which took 3 days to film. There are occasional times when plot elements seem far fetched, but that's a giallo for you. You have to suspend very little disbelief to enjoy this one, and when you do, you are thrust right into the jaws of an angry barking dog. See this.