Giallo Meltdown: A Moviethon Diary

by Richard Glenn Schmidt

There’s a right way to approach a film genre and then there’s the Doomed Moviethon way. Richard Glenn Schmidt dove into the giallo by having weekend-long moviethons with sometimes up to 20 films crammed into a very short amount of time. Armed with only a very understanding wife, a disturbing amount of caffeine, and a seemingly limitless supply of junk food, Richard pushed his eyes and mind to the brink of madness and beyond. Seven years in the making, Giallo A Moviethon Diary lovingly covers 215 films in thirteen chapters with all the black-gloved killers, fashion models, gay stereotypes, psychosexual subplots, hooker bonfires, inheritance schemes, and gallons of fluorescent blood that the giallo is known for.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 26, 2015

Reviews

[Toxic Graveyard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been awhile since I’ve watched any giallo films in earnest. For a while, I couldn’t get enough but after seeing a few misfires in a row I suppose I moved on to other interests. Author Richard Glenn Schmidt did not. His obsession with gialli is like an ever burning flame and that flame can not be put out by the occasional turd. Giallo Meltdown is his love letter to the genre and boy is it a fun one!

The concept is simple: Richard loves giallo films and wanted to see them all. In order to do this he carefully planned weekends where he would do nothing but eat, smoke cigars, and watch as many gialli as he possibly could, even going so far as to take vacation days to do it. That is true dedication.

He decided early on it would be important to document his marathons and the book is the result of those notes that he took. Crammed inside this book are 200+ reviews of gialli, most of which I’ve never heard of and neither has anyone else for that matter. Some of the films are so obscure that even the people that made them probably don’t even remember them, but Richard does.

If you’re thinking this is just another reference guide then you are wrong, dead wrong. It’s a diary of one man’s obsession. Each review features a brief synopsis followed by a stream of consciousness as he watched the film. It’s like sitting right next to Richard while he’s watching the films and commenting on them. The book feels like you’re there while he talks about his smoke breaks and pounding soda. We listen as he tells us how awful he feels after watching 20+ films in less than 3 days. It’s that intimate information that makes the book so much fun as Richard cracks endless jokes about the films he’s watching and about what happens in his life around each marathon. Sure he loves these films but he also understands their shortcomings. It isn’t a holy homage to giallo films filled with reverence (read: boring), its a fun silly ride through the funky world of Italian cinema. I enjoyed the humorous reviews filled with actor/director/composer names and references to other gialli films. The dude knows his stuff for sure.

I loved it. The book is a big bucket of fun and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Honestly I enjoyed the sections devoted to whatever he was eating/doing while preparing for the marathons as much as the reviews of the films themselves. I felt like I was there instead of reading a sterile guide. It’s a unique concept in the world of film analysis and it works. He doesn’t cover every single giallo in this book but comes damn close. Besides, that just means that maybe we’ll be treated to a second volume!

[David Garrett jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book. Won’t be for everyone. It isn’t recapping the movies in the way an editorial or historical significance. This is a man, with his wife and friends watching movies. It is a diary of how he personally felt or what he takes from each movie. There were so many titles I wrote down. I had a lot of fun reading this. Can’t wait to delve into the next one.