It’s time to conclude my Dario Argento season until the remaining films are out on Blu-ray or the ones that that have been released are re-released and are readily available in the UK. Here is my Tenebrae Blu-ray Review.
Hopefully Arrow Video will re-release The Bird with the Crystal Plumage & Phenomena.
- Tenebrae (1982)
- Genre: Horror Thriller
- Written & Directed By Dario Argento
- Music By Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli & Massimo Morante
- Cinematography By Luciano Tovoli
- UK Rating 18
- Released By Arrow Video
- Starring Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, Giuliano Gemma
Plot
Successful author Peter Neal finds himself caught up in a series of murders upon arriving in Rome. The first victim is murdered in a similar way to one described in Neal’s latest book Tenebrae, the victim having their throat cut and mouth stuff with pages of his novel.
A note is left for Neal under the door of where he is staying. The police are already there and briefly interview him and ask him to let them know when he receives the next note.
Neal is drawn into finding the identity of the killer as one of the notes he receives appears to threaten his life.
The plot is very good and keeps you guessing as to the identity of the killer cleverly throwing in a red herring of two along the way.
Style / Direction
The overall look of the film is good; Argento employs a couple of nice camera tracking shots. One sees the camera climb slowly up the building peering through windows at the two female occupants and continues over the roof and back down the other side again looking through the windows.
Pretty neat and really emphasises the feeling that someone is out their peering in or stalking the occupants.
The murders are not as elaborate as his previous films, more straight forward slasher killings. However the camera work in capturing these moments are classic Argento, all very stylishly captured.
Music / Audio Effects
With every Dario Argento film you simply have to mention the music as it is always a key component to his films. The music in Tenebrae is no exception, it creates the perfect mood as we the viewer see through the killer’s eyes.
Acting / Characters
Good performances pretty much all-round with the best coming from Anthony Franciosa as author Peter Neal. He seems the perfect choice to play a successful author, a great piece of casting.
Conclusion: Tenebrae (1982) Film Review
Tenebrae is at heart a classic slasher flick. That said add in Dario Argento’s style of filmmaking and you have an incredibly well shot film putting this at the top of its genre.
With the murders count rising you begin to run out of potential suspects but again Argento still has plenty of surprises left in store for the viewer.
Both plot and direction make this a thoroughly enjoyable horror experience, if you know what I mean!
If you’re a fan of Dario Argento take a look at these reviews:
Conclusion: Tenebrae Blu-ray Review
Tenebrae Blu-ray Review (1982) – The picture quality at times looks absolutely perfect, crisp, clean print with vibrant colours. However occasionally when switching between scenes, like the dream like scene on the beach, the picture quality suffers from a lot of film noise or grain effect. To be fair it looks like work has been done here to lessen the overall impact.
I think the restoration team have probably done the best job that they could achieve and overall I say the Blu-ray is very good. There are no speckles or flickers to worry about.
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Good job!
Extras
Documentary:
- Screaming Queen: Daria Nicolodi Remembers Tenebrae
- The Unsane World of Tenebrae: An interview with Dario Argento
- A Composition for Carnage
- Goblin: Tenebrae & Phenomena Live from the Glasgow Arches
- Original Trailer
- Poster
- Tenebrae Booklet
- 4 Sleeve Options
- Arrow put together a fabulous set of extras as they tend to do with most of their big releases. Top marks!
Tenebrae (1982) blu-ray is available now from Amazon.co.uk.
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Popcorn Cinema Rating: Tenebrae (1982)
MOVIE RATING: MUST SEE
BLU-RAY RATING: VERY GOOD
EXTRAS: EXCELLENT
POPCORN CINEMA: RECOMMENDED
Tenebrae (1982) Film Trailer
For those of you yet to see the film I’ll leave you with a little taster with a trailer…
Summary: Tenebrae (1982) Blu-ray Review
Movie title: Tenebrae (1982)
Duration: 101 mins
Director(s): Dario Argento
Actor(s): Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, Giuliano Gemma
Genre: Horror, Thriller
- Movie Rating
- Blu-ray Rating
- Extras
Summary
Argento delivers with plenty of style plus some shock and gore!
