Tenebrae (1982) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

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00:00hey guys welcome back to another cult movie review with me Beau here on the

00:18film scene investigation channel thanks for checking out the video in today's

00:24review I'm gonna be taking a look at the Dario Argento 1982 film Tenebrae before

00:33we get into it guys if you haven't already please do consider subscribing to

00:37the channel all the support is greatly appreciated so Tenebrae from 1982 was

00:46written and directed by the Italian filmmaker Dario Argento and starred

00:52actor Anthony Franciosa in the lead role now for those who don't know this movie

01:00was actually banned here in the UK back in 1984 as part of the whole censorship

01:08fiasco the BBFC deemed Tenebrae too harmful for public consumption and it was

01:19prohibited from being solved in video stores crazy enough the ban actually

01:25lasted until 1999 then finally the movie did get released on video and DVD so

01:35yeah for me growing up I wasn't too aware of this film I didn't see it on the

01:43shelves and yeah it was never like on TV or anything like that it was only in the

01:51mid-2000s once the film had acquired a wide release did I actually come across it

01:59when it comes to the films plot it followed the American author Peter Neil who is

02:07played by actor Anthony Franciosa the writer had just released his new book

02:13entitled Tenebrae and traveled to Rome to promote it once Peter arrived in Italy a

02:21series of gruesome murders took place that actually connected back to him you

02:29see pages of Peters new book Tenebrae had been found at the various murder

02:35scenes and even though Peter wasn't directly involved his assistance was

02:41needed to help track down the killer captain Gimani played by actor Gileano

02:47Gemma was tasked with the investigation to try and track down who was

02:53responsible Gimani knew that the killer was a big admirer of Peter Nils and thought

03:01that Peter could subsequently be in danger and be next on the killers hit list once

03:08Peter found out what was going on he quite rightly was shocked but of course assisted the detectives

03:17in a hope to try and prevent more murders from happening as the killings continued the TV host

03:25Cristiano Bertie became one of the prime suspects in the case due to his intense interest in Peter's new book

03:35Bertie who had his very own TV show invited Peter Neil on to promote the book and once the two met

03:45it was quite clear that Bertie had a strong admiration for the material

03:51as soon as I saw Bertie yeah I gathered he had some sort of involvement I didn't think he was the

04:02actual killer but just with his mannerisms and his vocal delivery the character definitely seemed a little

04:13shady. Bertie would actually end up being one of the victims which only added more confusion to the investigation

04:24I mean yeah everything kind of pointed towards Cristiano Bertie being the main guy involved but

04:33once he was taken out yeah I for one was kind of confused about where the story was going

04:42with the added plot twist the true identity of the killer remained unknown up until the bloody

04:50climactic ending now I don't really do spoiler alerts but if you haven't seen this film yet and you don't

04:59want to know who the killer is skip ahead now so ultimately it turned out that there were two different

05:07killers responsible for the gruesome murders the first was indeed the tv host Cristiano Bertie a man who had

05:17become obsessed with Peter's writings the second killer turned out to be none other than Peter Neil himself

05:28the author was dealing with some deep personal trauma and ended up killing Bertie in his own home with an axe

05:39through the various conversations with the detectives Peter actually worked out who the killer was

05:46but instead of going to the police and reporting what he'd found he actually decided to kill Bertie and take over

05:54the mantle I mean it was quite a revelation kind of finding out actually what had gone on and who

06:02was responsible and through a series of flashbacks we actually saw how Peter's trauma all came about

06:11when he was a teenager and got rejected by a girl he was made a laughing stock in front of his friends

06:20and that rejection stayed with Peter all those years after a personal trauma that he kept to himself

06:31and funneled his anger through his writings

06:35now having the killer turn out to be Peter Neil himself

06:40was definitely an interesting twist and it actually surprised me

06:45I couldn't put my finger on who exactly was responsible but uh

06:52yeah Peter Neil was not one of my suspicions

06:56and the actual reveal itself with the camera slowly panning up to towards Peter

07:04yeah it was uh brilliantly executed

07:07when it comes to performances I really thought that uh the actor Anthony Franciosa did a marvellous job

07:15he was the right age and had the perfect look to play this charming educated writer

07:24from his natural charisma to his upbeat personality the Peter Neil character

07:32didn't seem the type of guy that could carry out such brutality he gave us the audience this

07:41false sense of security pretending to be this innocent man who wouldn't hurt anyone

07:47I for one was fooled so yeah great casting choice and a great performance from the actor

07:56while watching Tenebrae I did notice how Dario Argento used the film to

08:04critique the influence the media has specifically the tabloid press

08:10this we saw this play out through how Peter's book Tenebrae was directly linked to the gruesome murders

08:19which then subsequently raised questions over the responsibility artists have and their work in

08:27society Argento himself had been criticized in the past for his you know violent material that he'd released

08:35so in a way the Peter Neil character was an extension of the director and I guess it could be argued that

08:47Tenebrae is actually quite a reflective film that has a message for its critics

08:56now it's fair to say that Tenebrae was a very stylized and elegant looking film from the hotel rooms to the

09:10minimalist houses it all was very aesthetically pleasing to the eye more specifically the efforts of the

09:20cinematographer Luciano Tavalli need to be commended here for a moment Tavalli who had previously worked

09:28with Argento on the movie Suspiria was very innovative with his use of light and colour Tavalli decided to

09:39move away from the dark shadowy aesthetic typically seen in the horror genre and decided to instead

09:50use a illuminating colour palette that was a real contrast to the gruesome bloody murders that we saw

09:58on screen I found the whole look very refreshing and credit to the cinematographer for his brilliant

10:07creative input as I mentioned earlier Tenebrae was unjustly banned here in the UK for its supposed

10:18violent nature but if you ask me I found the film to be more scary than grotesque you had this psychopath

10:31running around Rome killing these people and nobody knowing the true identity of who it was

10:39and that to me was a lot more unnerving now before we get to dislikes there's one particular scene I want

10:48to bring up which was the murder of the character Elsa at the start of the film we saw this young woman Elsa

10:57going home when she was accosted by this creepy weirdo guy who was just hanging out on the street it was

11:04strange because the guy kind of came out of nowhere and suddenly yeah he was uh harassing Elsa but

11:12luckily she was able to get away she was able to make it home but once she looked out the window she

11:20saw the guy again outside trying to break in so this guy just kept banging on the window and Elsa

11:27slowly backed away then out of nowhere this hand just grabbed her it caught me off guard and uh yeah

11:35it was a brilliant misdirection Elsa ended up getting killed and having the various pages of tenebrae

11:43shoved in her mouth yeah it was a very uh horrific way to go but I credit Argento for the way he

11:53built up the mystery surrounding the killer I need to also take a moment to commend the tenebrae's

12:00soundtrack which I thought was a major highlight for the film produced by some of the members of the

12:07band goblin the music I guess would be best described as this ethereal synth score in some ways you could

12:18say that it's kind of dated now but it definitely suited the film's vibe at times the music was kind of

12:29moody and atmospheric but once something dramatic happened the music then kicked into high gear

12:37the electronic and rock elements blended really well together and it resulted in a memorable soundtrack

12:46that really complemented the film's tension and pace and so dislikes for tenebrae from 1982

12:56my biggest dislike for the film would have to be believe it or not the tenebrae opening titles now to many

13:05people this probably wouldn't bother them but given how kind of innovative and beautiful looking the film

13:14was I did think that the title sequence was rather lackluster it consisted of a static shot of a fire

13:25and we saw the pages of the tenebrae book burning while I liked the sentiment behind it

13:33I was expecting something a bit more dynamic and uninterrupted kind of two minute sequence that just

13:42saw this fire kind of kept going we saw the titles going across I mean there was nothing wrong with it but

13:50uh yeah I mean in contrast to the rest of the film it was uh it was very poor there wasn't even

13:59any camera movement or cutaways to a close-up of the fire it was just this static shot and um you know with how the

14:08rest of the film turned out I can only assume that the title sequence was this last minute put together

14:16thing that just kind of happened to many watching this they probably wouldn't care but for me going

14:24back and watching the title sequence again in comparison to the rest of the film yeah it just

14:30kind of stuck out like a sore thumb and so ratings for tenebrae from 1982 I am going to be rating this

14:38movie a solid six out of ten no doubt tenebrae was a very well made movie and in my opinion one of

14:51Dario Argento's finest works at times I was a little perplexed and confused about where the narrative was

15:00going but eventually everything came together and I was thoroughly impressed the plot twists and

15:09misdirections were as much part of the storytelling as the murders themselves I like the fact that both

15:19killers were driven by personal vendettas and psychological issues rather than any supernatural

15:27motive it added a sense of realism and grounded the audience's perception of the characters I also

15:37found tenebrae to be an important commentary on the interplay between art and violence the movies blend of

15:46suspense horror and intellectual discourse made for a compelling study on the broader implications of

15:58storytelling if you've seen tenebrae please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below

16:05is this Dario Argento's best film for me I think it could be and well that's all from me today guys I will

16:13be back next week with another cult movie review don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already

16:18of course take care and I'll see you all next week

16:25bye

16:48you

16:59you

17:01you

17:05you

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