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being sexually humiliated by a beautiful woman in his youth." [20] McDonagh
also notes that Tenebrae expands on the themes of sexuality and transvestitism
found in Argento's earlier films, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , The Cat
o' Nine Tails , Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972), and Deep Red (1975), but
believes that Tenebrae ' s "overall sensuality sets it apart from Argento's
other gialli ." She says that the film's sexual content and abundant nudity
make it "the first of Argento's films to have an overtly erotic aspect", and
further notes that " Tenebrae is fraught with free-floating anxiety that is
specifically sexual in nature." [40] Gracey notes that in several scenes the
victims gaze directly into the camera, which demonstrates Argento's
"preoccupation with voyeurism and spectacle". [41] McDonagh noted that two
sexually charged flashbacks are key to understanding Tenebrae . These distinct
but strongly related memory fragments are introduced repeatedly throughout the
film, usually immediately following a murder sequence. Although the flashbacks
are never fully explained, the first one reveals a beautiful young woman's
sexual humiliation of a teenage boy, presumed to be Peter Neal. The young
woman is mostly topless during this first sequence, and she humiliates the
young man by jamming the heel of one of her shiny red shoes into his mouth
while he is held down by a group of gleeful boys on a pale-white beach. The
second flashback shows the vicious revenge-murder of the woman some time
later. McDonagh notes that all of the fetishistic imagery of these flashbacks,
combined with the sadistic details of the murder sequences in the main
narrative, "set the parameters of Tenebrae ' s fetishistic and fetishicized
visual vocabulary, couched in terms both ritualistic and orgiastically out of
control ... Peter Neal indulges in sins of the flesh and Tenebrae revels in
them, inviting the spectator to join in; in fact, it dares the viewer not to
do so." [42] Vision impairment [ edit ] The protagonists in Argento's giallo
films almost always suffer from vision impairment of some kind. [43] It is
these characters' chronic inability to find the missing pieces of a puzzle.
The puzzle being the solution of a murder (or series of murders) that
generally provides much of the films' narrative thrust. Most obviously is the
blind Franco Arno ( Karl Malden ) in The Cat o' Nine Tails , who must use his
heightened aural sense in combination with visual clues supplied to him by his
niece to solve a mystery. In The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , Sam Dalmas (
Tony Musante ) witnesses a murder attempt but admits to the police that
something seems to be "missing"; as the film's surprise ending makes clear, he
did not "miss" anything, but simply misinterpreted what happened in front of
his eyes. In Deep Red , Marcus ( David Hemmings ) has a similar problem in
both seeing and not seeing the murderer at the scene of the crime, and does
not realize his mistake until it is almost too late. This recurring theme,
according to Douglas E. Winter , creates "a world of danger and deception,
where seeing is not believing". [44] Flanagan observes that in Tenebrae ,
Argento offers two characters who suffer from impaired vision. Gianni
(Christian Borromeo) is an eyewitness to an axe-murder, but the trauma of
seeing the killing causes him to disregard a vital clue. Returning to the
scene of the crime, he suddenly remembers everything and is murdered before
being able to tell anyone. Homicide detective Giermani reveals that he is a
big fan of the novels of Agatha Christie , Mickey Spillane , Rex Stout , and
Ed McBain , but admits that he has never been able to guess the identity of
the killer in any of the books. He is similarly unable to solve the real
mystery until the last corpses are piled at his feet – he cannot see Peter
Neal for what he really is. [43] An imaginary city [ edit ] In an interview
that appeared in Cinefantastique , Argento noted that the film was intended as
near- science fiction , taking place "about five or more years in the future
... Tenebrae occurs in a world inhabited by fewer people with the result that
the remainder are wealthier and less crowded. Something has happened to make
it that way but no one remembers, or wants to remember ... It isn't exactly my
Blade Runner , of course, but nevertheless a step into the world of tomorrow.
If you watch the film with this perspective in mind, it will become very
apparent." [45] Argento later insisted that the film was set in an imaginary
city, fifteen years in the future and that the disaster the city's inhabitants
were striving to forget was an atomic bomb blast. [34] Despite Argento's
claim, Maitland McDonagh observed that this vaguely science-fictional concept
"isn't apparent at all" and that no critics at the time noted the underlying
futuristic theme in their reviews of the theatrical release of the film. [18]
The film critic and author Kim Newman countered that in avoiding a more
recognisable Rome in favour of suburbia, Argento had succeeded in giving some
parts of the film an almost futuristic sheen. [46] Argento biographer Alan
Jones agreed that Argento's intention did come across in these scenes, [47]
and Newman cites the on-screen use a videophone as an attempt by Argento to
place Tenebrae in the near future. [48] While rejecting this thematic concern
as unrealized by Argento, McDonagh noted that the result of the director's
experiment is a strange "architectural landscape" that becomes the "key
element in differentiating Tenebrae from Argento's earlier gialli ." Argento's
use of unusual architectural space and so-called visual "hyper-realism"
results in an enormously fake looking environment. Seizing on the director's
additional comment, "... I dreamed an imaginary city in which the most amazing
things happen", she notes that the film's "fictive space couldn't be less
'real'", with its "vast unpopulated boulevards, piazzas that look like nothing
more than suburban American malls, hard-edged Bauhaus apartment buildings,
anonymous clubs, and parking garages." [49] The EUR district of Rome, where
much of Tenebrae was filmed, was built in preparation for the 1942 World's
Fair and intended by then-Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini to be a
celebration of twenty years of fascism . Rostock believes that Argento used
this location as an attempt to realize his theme of an imaginary city; the
district gives a glimpse of a future Rome that never was, showing the city how
it might have looked had fascism not fallen. [50] Production [ edit ]
Background [ edit ] Director Dario Argento in 2014 After completing Inferno
(1980), the second in his planned Three Mothers trilogy of supernatural horror
films, Argento was expected to move straight into production of its concluding
chapter. The first in the trilogy, Suspiria (1977), had turned the director
into what Alan Jones called "a horror superstar", but Inferno had proven a
difficult follow-up. Argento had become unwell while writing the film, and his
ill health continued into filming. In addition, Argento's relationship with
Inferno ' s co-producer 20th Century Fox had soured the director on "Hollywood
politics", so when Inferno was not well-received upon release, Argento put the
Three Mothers trilogy on hold. [6] Inferno also flopped commercially. [46]
According to James Gracey, Argento – under pressure and feeling "the need to
once again defy expectations" – returned to the giallo genre and began work on
Tenebrae . [51] Argento later stated that he wanted to "put on film a gory

being sexually humiliated by a beautiful woman in his youth." [20] McDonagh

also notes that Tenebrae expands on the themes of sexuality and transvestitism

found in Argento's earlier films, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , The Cat

o' Nine Tails , Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972), and Deep Red (1975), but

believes that Tenebrae ' s "overall sensuality sets it apart from Argento's

other gialli ." She says that the film's sexual content and abundant nudity

make it "the first of Argento's films to have an overtly erotic aspect", and

further notes that " Tenebrae is fraught with free-floating anxiety that is

specifically sexual in nature." [40] Gracey notes that in several scenes the

victims gaze directly into the camera, which demonstrates Argento's

"preoccupation with voyeurism and spectacle". [41] McDonagh noted that two

sexually charged flashbacks are key to understanding Tenebrae . These distinct

but strongly related memory fragments are introduced repeatedly throughout the

film, usually immediately following a murder sequence. Although the flashbacks

are never fully explained, the first one reveals a beautiful young woman's

sexual humiliation of a teenage boy, presumed to be Peter Neal. The young

woman is mostly topless during this first sequence, and she humiliates the

young man by jamming the heel of one of her shiny red shoes into his mouth

while he is held down by a group of gleeful boys on a pale-white beach. The

second flashback shows the vicious revenge-murder of the woman some time

later. McDonagh notes that all of the fetishistic imagery of these flashbacks,

combined with the sadistic details of the murder sequences in the main

narrative, "set the parameters of Tenebrae ' s fetishistic and fetishicized

visual vocabulary, couched in terms both ritualistic and orgiastically out of

control ... Peter Neal indulges in sins of the flesh and Tenebrae revels in

them, inviting the spectator to join in; in fact, it dares the viewer not to

do so." [42] Vision impairment [ edit ] The protagonists in Argento's giallo

films almost always suffer from vision impairment of some kind. [43] It is

these characters' chronic inability to find the missing pieces of a puzzle.

The puzzle being the solution of a murder (or series of murders) that

generally provides much of the films' narrative thrust. Most obviously is the

blind Franco Arno ( Karl Malden ) in The Cat o' Nine Tails , who must use his

heightened aural sense in combination with visual clues supplied to him by his

niece to solve a mystery. In The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , Sam Dalmas (

Tony Musante ) witnesses a murder attempt but admits to the police that

something seems to be "missing"; as the film's surprise ending makes clear, he

did not "miss" anything, but simply misinterpreted what happened in front of

his eyes. In Deep Red , Marcus ( David Hemmings ) has a similar problem in

both seeing and not seeing the murderer at the scene of the crime, and does

not realize his mistake until it is almost too late. This recurring theme,

according to Douglas E. Winter , creates "a world of danger and deception,

where seeing is not believing". [44] Flanagan observes that in Tenebrae ,

Argento offers two characters who suffer from impaired vision. Gianni

(Christian Borromeo) is an eyewitness to an axe-murder, but the trauma of

seeing the killing causes him to disregard a vital clue. Returning to the

scene of the crime, he suddenly remembers everything and is murdered before

being able to tell anyone. Homicide detective Giermani reveals that he is a

big fan of the novels of Agatha Christie , Mickey Spillane , Rex Stout , and

Ed McBain , but admits that he has never been able to guess the identity of

the killer in any of the books. He is similarly unable to solve the real

mystery until the last corpses are piled at his feet – he cannot see Peter

Neal for what he really is. [43] An imaginary city [ edit ] In an interview

that appeared in Cinefantastique , Argento noted that the film was intended as

near- science fiction , taking place "about five or more years in the future

... Tenebrae occurs in a world inhabited by fewer people with the result that

the remainder are wealthier and less crowded. Something has happened to make

it that way but no one remembers, or wants to remember ... It isn't exactly my

Blade Runner , of course, but nevertheless a step into the world of tomorrow.

If you watch the film with this perspective in mind, it will become very

apparent." [45] Argento later insisted that the film was set in an imaginary

city, fifteen years in the future and that the disaster the city's inhabitants

were striving to forget was an atomic bomb blast. [34] Despite Argento's

claim, Maitland McDonagh observed that this vaguely science-fictional concept

"isn't apparent at all" and that no critics at the time noted the underlying

futuristic theme in their reviews of the theatrical release of the film. [18]

The film critic and author Kim Newman countered that in avoiding a more

recognisable Rome in favour of suburbia, Argento had succeeded in giving some

parts of the film an almost futuristic sheen. [46] Argento biographer Alan

Jones agreed that Argento's intention did come across in these scenes, [47]

and Newman cites the on-screen use a videophone as an attempt by Argento to

place Tenebrae in the near future. [48] While rejecting this thematic concern

as unrealized by Argento, McDonagh noted that the result of the director's

experiment is a strange "architectural landscape" that becomes the "key

element in differentiating Tenebrae from Argento's earlier gialli ." Argento's

use of unusual architectural space and so-called visual "hyper-realism"

results in an enormously fake looking environment. Seizing on the director's

additional comment, "... I dreamed an imaginary city in which the most amazing

things happen", she notes that the film's "fictive space couldn't be less

'real'", with its "vast unpopulated boulevards, piazzas that look like nothing

more than suburban American malls, hard-edged Bauhaus apartment buildings,

anonymous clubs, and parking garages." [49] The EUR district of Rome, where

much of Tenebrae was filmed, was built in preparation for the 1942 World's

Fair and intended by then-Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini to be a

celebration of twenty years of fascism . Rostock believes that Argento used

this location as an attempt to realize his theme of an imaginary city; the

district gives a glimpse of a future Rome that never was, showing the city how

it might have looked had fascism not fallen. [50] Production [ edit ]

Background [ edit ] Director Dario Argento in 2014 After completing Inferno

(1980), the second in his planned Three Mothers trilogy of supernatural horror

films, Argento was expected to move straight into production of its concluding

chapter. The first in the trilogy, Suspiria (1977), had turned the director

into what Alan Jones called "a horror superstar", but Inferno had proven a

difficult follow-up. Argento had become unwell while writing the film, and his

ill health continued into filming. In addition, Argento's relationship with

Inferno ' s co-producer 20th Century Fox had soured the director on "Hollywood

politics", so when Inferno was not well-received upon release, Argento put the

Three Mothers trilogy on hold. [6] Inferno also flopped commercially. [46]

According to James Gracey, Argento – under pressure and feeling "the need to

once again defy expectations" – returned to the giallo genre and began work on

Tenebrae . [51] Argento later stated that he wanted to "put on film a gory