Tenebre (1982) from Tuna
Tenebre (1982) is a nifty whodunit thriller by Dario Argento. 
After doing several pure horror in a row, he returned to his real love, suspense thriller, but with lots of gore. Dario loves to push the envelope, and create effects that have never been done on film. He was asked in an interview if he felt guilty because people have trouble sleeping after one of his films. He said, "No, I love it. That means the film affected them." 

NUDITY REPORT
see the main commentary
 An American author of a murder mystery, Tenebre, flies to Italy on a promotional tour. Someone starts murdering girls, and sending notes to the author. The killer also stuffs pages from the book into the first victim's mouth. I don't want to reveal more of the plot, as I recommend this one. This new uncut dubbed version is very watchable.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1

  • Full-length director commentary

  • behind the scenes material
The color palette used in this film is more modern than most of Argento's films. but his expertise with the camera is still evident.  Mirellia D'Angelo and Lara Wendel have good see-throughs, an Unknown lesbian shows breasts several times in a long scene, and Eva Robins shows his breasts in a lengthy flashback. 

Leonard Maltin reviewed the 91 minute butchered version first released in the US and awarded 2 stars. Argento was furious about the censored version. . The gore may put off some mystery fans, but I think both horror and suspense fans will enjoy this one..
 

The Critics Vote

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.2 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+.

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