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So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films: Volume 1 1963-1973
Beginning with the release of Mario Bava's THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH in 1963, Italian filmmakers developed and perfected their own peculiar brand of mystery-thriller known as the giallo. Named after the yellow (giallo in Italian) covers of the murder mysteries published by Mondadori, the giallo is awash in fetishistic imagery. For many fans, these films—popularized in the works by writer-director Dario Argento, whose name is synonymous with the genre, thanks to such films as THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and DEEP RED—focus on stylized images of violent death: killers dressed in black stalking glamorous-looking victims through baroque architecture, literally painting the walls red with their blood. This is only one aspect of the giallo, however. With their groovy soundtracks by legendary composers like Ennio Morricone and Stelvio Cipriani and glamorous damsels-in-distress like Edwige Fenech, Rosalba Neri and Asia Argento, these films offer a heady mixture of sex, horror and suspense; at their best, they took excess to a hypnotic level.
Troy Howarth, the author of THE HAUNTED WORLD OF MARIO BAVA and the co-author of the up-coming THE TOME OF TERROR series, examines the genre from its inception through its inevitable decline. Covering everything from popular fan favorites by the likes of Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento to lesser-known gems by Cesare Canevari, Massimo Dallamano and Paolo Cavara as well as the worst of the worst by the least inspired of hacks, SO DEADLY, SO PERVERSE provides an in-depth examination of a genre that has too often been marginalized in other studies of the horror film and the thriller. In addition to reviews of every giallo made between 1963 and 2013, this two-part study of the giallo—with volume two (covering 1974 onwards) coming later in the year—is also lavishly illustrated with rare and colorful stills and poster art.
Troy Howarth, the author of THE HAUNTED WORLD OF MARIO BAVA and the co-author of the up-coming THE TOME OF TERROR series, examines the genre from its inception through its inevitable decline. Covering everything from popular fan favorites by the likes of Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento to lesser-known gems by Cesare Canevari, Massimo Dallamano and Paolo Cavara as well as the worst of the worst by the least inspired of hacks, SO DEADLY, SO PERVERSE provides an in-depth examination of a genre that has too often been marginalized in other studies of the horror film and the thriller. In addition to reviews of every giallo made between 1963 and 2013, this two-part study of the giallo—with volume two (covering 1974 onwards) coming later in the year—is also lavishly illustrated with rare and colorful stills and poster art.
236 pages, Paperback
First published March 18, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 17, 2017
A really thorough and engaging overview of the genre. Howarth does a really fine job of documenting all the major films of this genre in these years, and describes each film and it's virtues (or lack thereof). In addition, he provides a brief, but thorough history of all major participants in each film. A must-read for fans of the genre, or even Italian film in general.
April 6, 2022
Ah, the sleazy little giallo, you are so hard to pin down and describe but everyone knows when they have met you. Or maybe they don't, or maybe every little film that has a thriller element or a twist or a maniac killer is a giallo, or only if it is from Italy except for those which are not. And definitely not that film that just has a lurid title and presents itself as a giallo to cash in on the genre
I'll come out and say it, it was maybe twenty years ago when I first heard the term 'giallo' and became aware of this little sub-genre of film that I absolutely adore, and sometimes abhor but carry on going back to, and as I have alluded to above is often quite hard to pin down. Troy Howarth's book (and I assume the subsequent volumes) is an excellent attempt to document the genre and provide an overview of the films, in this volume of the golden age from 1963 to 1973.
So, what is a giallo? A giallo usually a murder-mystery film, that originated in Italy in the 1960's drawing on the pulp novels with yellow jackets from the 1930's onwards that typically drew on similar themes. Whilst one can see the antecedents of the giallo in film noir and Hitchcockian suspense it was in Italy where the genre was created, flourished and exploded before hitting it's peak. One could arguably say we wouldn't have had the American slasher genre of the late 1970's and 1980's without the giallo, and certainly giallo-esque films are still being made today such as 2021's 'Malignant' and 'Last Night In Soho'. It has certain key elements, and yet for each of those I list below one can often point to films which you can definitively say, 'yes, this is a giallo' but it will be missing some, or even many of the elements below.
So in a giallo, we often have a killer, usually whose identity is a secret, typically masked and wearing black gloves. They often have some kind of psychological illness or have suffered some kind of trauma. They murder, in scenes which are often exceptionally graphic and vary from almost an artistic presentation to downright disgusting and shocking. Women (typically stunningly beautiful, and often naked) are often victims, their portrayal varying from erotic to exceptionally cheap, sleazy and exploitative. There is often a police, or investigative element that turns this into a crime thriller, with lots of plot twists (often defying logic) and red herrings galore. One of the most fun things about a giallo is the reveal of the killer, and their rationale which often comes out of nowhere! And they are from Italy, except of course for those which are not and almost always have a lurid title that evokes mystery.
So one of the design choices Troy Howarth made with this book is to exclude films which he felt did not meet his giallo definition and he also excluded films which were not financed, at least in part, or made by Italians and Italian studios. When I started reading the book I pushed back against this because I felt the scope was to narrow but now having got to the end of the book I can see why. The tight scope works, and to be honest, in the text there is plenty of references to 'borderline giallos' if the reader is interested (and the third book of this two part series is indeed a book about said borderline giallos and films made outside Italy).
There is a really good introduction, introducing the genre and a section about the history and background which is suitably thorough but brief enough for you to get into the heart of the book. One could argue, that there isn't enough socio-political discussion of the genre, although it does fit into the individual reviews of the films. I assume this is deliberate, and also assume that if the author addressed this more directly then it would possibly alienate or at least challenge some readers.
That said, there is enough information in the book for one to explore these themes and the author doesn't shy away from sharing what's problematic or it's context in 1960's / 70's Italy - I guess I would have liked if there was more of it. So for me, I can see that the giallo is almost a response to Italy coming out of fascism and Italian society's relationship to its past and then present - it is a time of sexual liberation, a time of women (slowly) coming out of the family environment and the challenge of a society addressing its relationship to Catholicism and the role of religion. What is evident, once you have seen a few gialli is that there isn't a unified theme on this and looking at this contextually one can see the battle in Italian society between wishing for a past and those wanting to rip it up and burn it. Many films are overtly conservative, whilst some seem to celebrate liberalism and identifying the past (typically in the role of the killer) as being unwell. Most giallo have at least some element of male gaze and voyeurism and the treatment is rarely enlightened to modern eyes but even back in the context of the time some films are more overtly misogynistic than others, and yet it is not hard to see the emergence of sexual liberation in Italy in the period (sadly, the treatment of homosexual men was consistently appalling in the genre, like most films of the era).
Howarth then reviews what's probably 100-150 reviews of gialli released in a ten year period. Each review is organised by year of release and then in alphabetical order. Each review contains all the different names the films were released under (a common theme in European exploitation cinema), details of the release if available on Blu-Ray or DVD and full cast and crew. There is then a full review of the film including a plot synopsis and details of the relevant cast and crew, including mini biographies of their film output. Each review, pretty much sends me into other directions for films to watch (and I have seen a fair bit of giallo, polizschetti, horror and similar from the period). The presentation is absolutely stunning, with film posters and stills depicting the movies in all their lurid detail. I found myself dipping in and out of this over time, rather than read lots of reviews at once and I benefitted from this. I imagine it all gets a bit 'samey' if one read in one go.
What I also appreciate is that Howarth doesn't praise every movie, indeed, it is clear that despite the number of classics of the genre, many of the films aren't that good. I suspect that is going to be more prevalent in the second volume covering 1974-2013. Whilst the reader may disagree in places, I quite like that there is an honesty in the reviews. The book is written by one who loves the genre, but it never reads like it is written by an uncritical 'fan'.
It's a great resource I will go back to time and time again, and as soon as I got this I bought the second volume and recently the third. I'll still take my time with them though (they are not books I want lying around where my kids can see them).
This is an instant high level recommendation for anyone interested in giallo, horror or Italian cinema. For others, maybe flick through a copy somewhere to see if it's for you.
I'll come out and say it, it was maybe twenty years ago when I first heard the term 'giallo' and became aware of this little sub-genre of film that I absolutely adore, and sometimes abhor but carry on going back to, and as I have alluded to above is often quite hard to pin down. Troy Howarth's book (and I assume the subsequent volumes) is an excellent attempt to document the genre and provide an overview of the films, in this volume of the golden age from 1963 to 1973.
So, what is a giallo? A giallo usually a murder-mystery film, that originated in Italy in the 1960's drawing on the pulp novels with yellow jackets from the 1930's onwards that typically drew on similar themes. Whilst one can see the antecedents of the giallo in film noir and Hitchcockian suspense it was in Italy where the genre was created, flourished and exploded before hitting it's peak. One could arguably say we wouldn't have had the American slasher genre of the late 1970's and 1980's without the giallo, and certainly giallo-esque films are still being made today such as 2021's 'Malignant' and 'Last Night In Soho'. It has certain key elements, and yet for each of those I list below one can often point to films which you can definitively say, 'yes, this is a giallo' but it will be missing some, or even many of the elements below.
So in a giallo, we often have a killer, usually whose identity is a secret, typically masked and wearing black gloves. They often have some kind of psychological illness or have suffered some kind of trauma. They murder, in scenes which are often exceptionally graphic and vary from almost an artistic presentation to downright disgusting and shocking. Women (typically stunningly beautiful, and often naked) are often victims, their portrayal varying from erotic to exceptionally cheap, sleazy and exploitative. There is often a police, or investigative element that turns this into a crime thriller, with lots of plot twists (often defying logic) and red herrings galore. One of the most fun things about a giallo is the reveal of the killer, and their rationale which often comes out of nowhere! And they are from Italy, except of course for those which are not and almost always have a lurid title that evokes mystery.
So one of the design choices Troy Howarth made with this book is to exclude films which he felt did not meet his giallo definition and he also excluded films which were not financed, at least in part, or made by Italians and Italian studios. When I started reading the book I pushed back against this because I felt the scope was to narrow but now having got to the end of the book I can see why. The tight scope works, and to be honest, in the text there is plenty of references to 'borderline giallos' if the reader is interested (and the third book of this two part series is indeed a book about said borderline giallos and films made outside Italy).
There is a really good introduction, introducing the genre and a section about the history and background which is suitably thorough but brief enough for you to get into the heart of the book. One could argue, that there isn't enough socio-political discussion of the genre, although it does fit into the individual reviews of the films. I assume this is deliberate, and also assume that if the author addressed this more directly then it would possibly alienate or at least challenge some readers.
That said, there is enough information in the book for one to explore these themes and the author doesn't shy away from sharing what's problematic or it's context in 1960's / 70's Italy - I guess I would have liked if there was more of it. So for me, I can see that the giallo is almost a response to Italy coming out of fascism and Italian society's relationship to its past and then present - it is a time of sexual liberation, a time of women (slowly) coming out of the family environment and the challenge of a society addressing its relationship to Catholicism and the role of religion. What is evident, once you have seen a few gialli is that there isn't a unified theme on this and looking at this contextually one can see the battle in Italian society between wishing for a past and those wanting to rip it up and burn it. Many films are overtly conservative, whilst some seem to celebrate liberalism and identifying the past (typically in the role of the killer) as being unwell. Most giallo have at least some element of male gaze and voyeurism and the treatment is rarely enlightened to modern eyes but even back in the context of the time some films are more overtly misogynistic than others, and yet it is not hard to see the emergence of sexual liberation in Italy in the period (sadly, the treatment of homosexual men was consistently appalling in the genre, like most films of the era).
Howarth then reviews what's probably 100-150 reviews of gialli released in a ten year period. Each review is organised by year of release and then in alphabetical order. Each review contains all the different names the films were released under (a common theme in European exploitation cinema), details of the release if available on Blu-Ray or DVD and full cast and crew. There is then a full review of the film including a plot synopsis and details of the relevant cast and crew, including mini biographies of their film output. Each review, pretty much sends me into other directions for films to watch (and I have seen a fair bit of giallo, polizschetti, horror and similar from the period). The presentation is absolutely stunning, with film posters and stills depicting the movies in all their lurid detail. I found myself dipping in and out of this over time, rather than read lots of reviews at once and I benefitted from this. I imagine it all gets a bit 'samey' if one read in one go.
What I also appreciate is that Howarth doesn't praise every movie, indeed, it is clear that despite the number of classics of the genre, many of the films aren't that good. I suspect that is going to be more prevalent in the second volume covering 1974-2013. Whilst the reader may disagree in places, I quite like that there is an honesty in the reviews. The book is written by one who loves the genre, but it never reads like it is written by an uncritical 'fan'.
It's a great resource I will go back to time and time again, and as soon as I got this I bought the second volume and recently the third. I'll still take my time with them though (they are not books I want lying around where my kids can see them).
This is an instant high level recommendation for anyone interested in giallo, horror or Italian cinema. For others, maybe flick through a copy somewhere to see if it's for you.
June 21, 2021
Have really enjoyed this book, very interesting and informative! Really appreciate the year-by-year format as I'd never paid close enough attention to when the gialli I've watched were released. Left me with a much better perspective on even the films I was already intimately familiar with, and a much better understanding of the history of Giallo films as well. At first the lack of including any sort of "rating" for each film seemed odd, but keeping the focus on the films themselves was an excellent decision on Troy's part.
April 18, 2022
A fantastic exploration of giallo and films in the 1963-73 time range. So many wonderful insights and so much new information to me. A lot of great films are covered as well as some not-so-great :D -- and a lot of "new to me" movies to watch and revel in. I definitely plan on getting more volumes in this series to soak up as much giallo knowledge as possible! This is a must-have for any giallo fan and a great place to start if you just don't know where.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews