TENEBRAE (1982)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

Prior to this movie, Dario Argento had not made a psycho-slasher since 1975's DEEP RED. After he followed up the surprise hit of SUSPIRIA with the much more adventurous INFERNO-- which flopped, though I consider it one of Argento's top three-- he decided to play to his strengths once more, and gave his fans a return to the world of psychotic "darkness" (the English for "tenebrae.")

TENEBRAE the movie, both written and co-directed by Argento, is mirrored within the movie by TENEBRAE the book, or rather a book written by American author Peter Neal (Tony Franciosa). He, his agent (John Saxon), and his aide Anne (Daria Nicolodi) travel to Rome to hype his novel, a study of a psycho-killer's obsession. Not long after their arrival, a serial killer butchers a beautiful young woman. He leaves behind evidence suggesting that he the killer is a fan of Neal's work, and has patterned this first murder after the fictional events of TENEBRAE. Two Roman cops naturally investigate Neal for clues, and happen to be around when the killer telephones Neal to exult in his deeds.

Neal has no answers for the police, and rather than playing detective simply tries to finish his business in Rome in order to go back home. But as is so often the case, the killer starts attacking many people, male and female, some of whom are loosely in Neal's orbit. There are no eccentricities about the POV killings; just edged weapons and lots of blood (so much blood that the American version, UNSANE, was severely cut down). As is typical for many slashers, there's no big reveal at the end; one of the cops just blunders upon the killer at work, resulting in a very bloody climax.

Argento deems TENEBRAE his best work, but this may be partly because he based the "copycat killer" on an odious fan who became a nuisance to the director during an American visit. Argento doesn't put across his interest in the Italian demimonde, though at times he communicates a sense of the absurd in that death sometimes threatens from other sources than a serial murderer. (One victim is harried by a vicious dog that only coincidentally drives into the blade of the killer.) 

Despite some Nietzchean-sounding stuff about killers looking into the darkness and the like, none of the characters seem like more than ciphers, so that the psychological myths are fair at best. Most of the actors are well cast but unexceptional in their roles, though Franciosa, usually known for laid-back, cool operators, offers the film's most nuanced performance. The script reels out various commentaries on Neal's alleged misogyny that are almost certainly responses to similar criticisms of Argento's movies-- though, as is usually the case, at least a couple men die alongside all the beautiful women.