TENEBRAE (1982) UHD Blu-ray review

TENEBRAE (1982) d. Dario Argento (Italy)

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Welcome to Episode #2 of THE STACK!

One of the 39 official Video Nasties prosecuted by the BFCC, this stellar updating of the classic giallo formula for the slasher-soaked early 1980s sees Argento at the height of his technical and storytelling powers. Dwelling in the shadows of his earlier critical and commercial successes (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria) and perhaps hindered by its unwieldy title (“Darkness” in Italian) and the subsequent retitled and re-edited U.S. release (the equally clunky Unsane, shorn of nearly 10 minutes), Tenebrae never seemed to find the audience it deserved and has labored for recognition ever since.

TENEBRAE (1982) Blu-ray Review

Tenebrae (1982) d. Dario Argento (Italy) (101 min)

American mystery author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) arrives in Rome to promote his newest novel, Tenebrae. Unfortunately, a serial killer is on the loose, taunting Neal and murdering those around him in gruesome fashion via straight razors and hatchets… just like the character in his novel. As the mystery surrounding the killings spirals out of control, Neal investigates the crimes on his own, with fiction and reality blurring as fear and madness take hold.

DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION (1976) DVD Review

Deported Women of the SS Special Section (1976) d. Rino di Silvestri (Italy)

Relative newcomers to the Nazisploitation subgenre (such as myself) might be unfamiliar with this wicked little trifle, but according to those in the know, it stands as one of the more successfully rendered entries in the short-lived movement. Though never reaching the gleeful excess of Gestapo’s Last Orgy or Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, it robustly rattles through the requisite nasty bits (nudity, lesbianism, torture), and is elevated immeasurably by John Steiner’s scene-stealing turn as the twisted, tormented camp commandant, Herr Erner.