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Italian Horror Films

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Outside of devoted cult audiences, many Americans have yet to discover the extremely stylish, relentlessly terrifying Italian horror genre, or the films of its talented virtuoso, Dario Argento. But before Carpenter's Halloween and the Friday the 13th films ushered in the new wave of bloody horror slasher films in the United States; Italian film-makers like Mario Bava, and Dario Argento were re-inventing the horror genre. Now, with these films out on DVD, with original director cuts--they are must-sees for horror afficionados!


Black Sunday (The Mask of Satan)

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Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan) (1961)

The reigning masterpiece of Italian horror cinema, Mario Bava's Black Sunday remains one of the most stylishly photographed of all horror films, ranking with any other black-and-white film of lasting repute. This was the master cameraman's official directorial debut, and his striking compositions are the work of a genuine artist in peak form. Loosely adapted from a story by Nikolai Gogol, this chilling vampire tale begins in 17th-century Moldavia, where the evil Princess Asa (Barbara Steele) is executed for witchcraft and vampirism, along with her brother Javutich (Arturo Dominici). Two centuries later, a pair of traveling doctors discover Asa's crypt and inadvertently revive the evil princess, whose scheme of vampiric revenge is aimed at her own identical descendant Princess Katia, an innocent beauty (also played by Steele) whose lifeblood will ensure Asa's immortality.Influenced by Universal's classic horror films of the '30s and British Hammer films of the late '50s, Black Sunday (released in Italy as The Mask of Satan) is a dark fairy tale, with horror queen Steele as the definitive embodiment of erotic horror. With shocking violence (tame by today's standards) and visual emphasis on tombs, secret passages, ominous castles, and unseen forces, the film offers a wealth of memorable imagery and inventive technique. Redubbed, rescored, and harshly edited for its American release in 1961, Black Sunday is presented on DVD in the original English-language director's cut of The Mask of Satan, never before available in the U.S. The perfect movie to watch on a dark and stormy night, this timeless classic is the Citizen Kane of horror films, entirely worthy of its lofty reputation.

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Deep Red (1976)-DVD

Dario Argento's masterpiece whch some refer to as the "Psycho" of Italian cinema. Vivid, horrific imagery in this thriller driven by haunting memories, offering combined the horror and suspense of Hitchcock's films, with modern European attitudes, settings and generous amounts of gore.

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Suspiria (3 Disc Limited Edition)

Dario Argento's assault the senses and nervous system with mood, atmosphere, illusory gore, garish set production, a menacing camera, and perhaps the creepiest score ever created for a movie.

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Baron Blood-DVD (1972)

In Italian director Mario Bava's sumptuous Technicolor Gothic horror classic an American student Peter Kleist travels to Austria on summer holiday to learn more about his family roots. By reciting an incantation on a piece of ancient parchment, he succeeds in scaring up a genuine ancestor--Baron Otto von Kleist, a 16th century sadistic nobleman whose appetite for cruelty earned him the nickname "Baron Blood." Before Peter can reverse the incantation, the parchment burns...How many innocents will die before Peter learns how to send the evil Baron back to the hell from whence he came?

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Tenebre (1987)-DVD

After several excursions into supernatural horror, Dario Argento returned to the homicidal frenzy that made his reputation with this mystery that plays more like a grown-up slasher movie than a detective thriller. . From the simple beauty of a straight razor shattering a light bulb (the camera catches the red-hot filament slowly blacking out) to an ambitious crane shot that creeps up and over the sides of a house under siege in a voyeuristic survey that would make Hitchcock proud, Argento turns the art of murder into a stylish spectacle.

 


The House with Laughing Windows (1976)-DVD

This exquisite masterpiece of Italian horror seethes with menacing atmosphere and diabolical plot twists guaranteed to haunt your dreams. Never before released in America, "The House with Laughing Windows" (La casa dalle finestre che ridono) is the crowning achievement of internationally hailed director Pupi Avati and has been restored to its full gothic glory from the original camera negative.


Blood and Black Lace (1965)-DVD

Though the original Italian title translates to "Six Women for an Assassin," the American title, Blood and Black Lace, is far more evocative of the psychosexual nature of this elegant slasher picture. Mario Bava's stylish exercise in mayhem lovingly delivers every elaborate killing with dreamy assurance.

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Playgirls & The Vampire-DVD (1963)

Made in 1960, Piero Regnoli's "The Playgirls and the Vampire" is one of the earliest Italian horror films, a hilariously awful movie about a busload of showgirls and their disreputable manager who break down outside a spooky castle after running out on their hotel bill. Little do they know the hospitable count who owns the castle is a vampire. The girls wander around in various states of undress and practice their tacky "dance routines" while the count eyeballs them and his spinsterish housekeeper mutters snide remarks. One girl falls prey to the vampire and comes back in the nude! Wearing nothing but fangs, she attempts to vampirize the manager. The heroine becomes the object of the vampire's lust because she resembles his long lost lover. Of course it all wraps up neat and tidy. There's no gore but lots of cheap lingerie and atmosphere. This is a wonderful example of sixties EuroTrash at it's most silliest. The print is good and the soundtrack adequately clear so you can relish the cheesy dialogue and psuedo-atmospheric sets. No budget, bad acting, bad dubbing and the script sounds like it was made up as they went along. Servicable b&w photography works well, the ENERGY is there and the earnestness to put over a Gothic horror movie in a spooky castle despite the frequent lapses into tasteless cheesecake...a true Euro-shlock classic.

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