TENEBRE - "Darkness" (1982)

 The Saturday Night Special this week is another one of those non-stop laugh fests from the twisted mind of the Maestro Dario Argento!

 The original title was "Tenebre" but they changed it over to "Tenebrae" so you English speaking peoples could understand it better!

"Tenebrae" has a religious connotation but is also Latin for 'Darkness.'

"Tenebrae" has quite a cast that includes Anthony Franciosa as famed author Peter Neal. Over the course of his fine career, Anthony, also known as Tony, starred in at least five different TV shows from the 60's to the 80's including ""Valentine's Day," "The Name Of The Game," "Search," "Matt Helm," and "Finder Of Lost Loves."

Peter Neal has gone to Rome to promote his new novel called "Tenebrae."

There are so many pretty girls in this film that's it's hard to keep up with them!

Usually by about the time you get acquainted with a character, they get murdered in some grisly fashion usually including a straight razor or an axe!

John (The Evil Eye, Queen Of Blood) Saxon has the role of Peter Neal's agent!
With 198 credits under his belt, John is still working today, and has two new films in pre or post production!

The stories about the filming of "Tenebrae" could be made into a movie themselves, like the one about why Daria Nicolodi had the role of Anne, and how her new found relationship with her co-star Anthony Franciosa irritated the Hell out of her main squeeze Dario Argento!

 

Lara (Satan's Wife) Wendel is lovely as ever in the role of Maria Alboretto, an innocent young lady extremely persecuted!

Movies like this drive me crazy because the subject matter is so ugly, but the filming of it is so beautiful! There's one incredibly amazing 2 1/2 minute crane shot from the outside of a building that took three days to shoot! That's how meticulous Argento is!

"Tenebrae" crosses enough lines and is so grisly that it was banned in England until 1999, and was also banned in Germany for at least 25 years!

The hand of the killer in a black leather glove that is seen in a number of scenes, is the hand of Dario Argento himself!

Poor Maria is not only murdered!

She is persued first by a relentless Doberman Pinscher that can seemingly jump over, or scale every fence known to man! You really want her to get away, but you just know it's not going to happen!

Flanked by Daria Nicolodi as Anne, and Christiab Borromeo as Gianni, Peter Neal thinks he's got the whole thing figured out!

Just waiting even takes on whole new meaning when Dario Argento is running the show, and only Argento can make something as boring as just sitting around into something interesting!

The music is performed once again by Goblin, as they did in "Deep Red" and "Suspiria," but this time they are credited as the individual players Massimo Morante, Fabio Pignatelli, and Claudio Simonetti, instead of Goblin, because the drummer was no longer with them and owned the rights to the name Goblin!

 

 Daria Nicolodi is the reason I watched "Tenebre," and this last scene will show you why!

Despite all the horror films I've watched, I'm still not a big fan of stilettos, axes and straight razors, but Dario Argento always takes it to another level, and that's all I'm gonna say!

You can read all about it in this very extensive Wikipedia article!