Italian Gothic Horror Films (1980-1989)

by Roberto Curti

  blonde actress (then the wife of producer Angelo

  Twentieth- Century Fox, who had had an unex-

  Rizzoli) was at the top of her game at the box-

  pected hit with Suspiria, and the company se-

  office, dividing herself between auteur films (Di-

  cured worldwide distribution rights to his new

  menticare Venezia, 979, by Franco Brusati) and

  film. First, the director and his crew moved to

  commercial cinema (Mani di velluto, 979,

  New York to shoot some exteriors and the Cen-

  alongside Adriano Celentano). But the film

  tral Park scene and faced many issues due to the

  didn’t have a strong lead for the American mar-

  union laws. Then, on May 2, 979, shooting

  ket: McCloskey had worked almost exclusively

  began in Rome for a total of 4 weeks, at the De

  on TV, and his main claim to fame had been

  Paolis In.Ci.R. Studios and R.P.A. Elios studios

  Tom Kotani’s The Bermuda Depths (978)—not

  (where the façade of Rose’s palace was built).

  exactly an earth- shattering title.

  The Public Cinematographic Register in Rome

  Reportedly, Argento kept the ending a se-

  reports April 6 as the official beginning of

  cret for his cast as well: Giorgi told the press that

  shooting, but a more plausible start date for the

  the last page of her script bore the line “You will

  U.S. shoot seems to be May 7, 979. Claudio Ar-

  know the ending when we shoot it.”3 The

  gento and others claimed that the New York

  actress’ claims must be taken with a grain of salt,

  shooting went on for “two weeks, ten days,

  given that her character is killed off way before

  something like that”7 and articles of the period

  the climax. But Veronica Lazar confirmed that

  mentioned that filming in New York had lasted

  she learned about the true nature of her charac-

  two weeks.8

  ter only near the end of the shoot. It was typical

  The newspapers gave ample coverage to the

  of Argento to take precautions in order not to

  making,9 and highlighted the film’s complexity

  give away too much of the plot, so as to maintain

  and high budget, which made it a “horror kolos-

  his reputation for unpredictable twist endings.

  sal”—the French- German term colossal, or

  Speaking of which, when Suspiria came out, in

  kolossal, being a typical expression used in Italy

  Milan there were some amusing attempts at boy-

  to label big- budget movies, and accordingly Ar-

  cotting it: an unknown hand had written in

  gento was rather intimidated at first by the com-

  spray under the posters the line “THE MUR-

  plex production machine.0 Moreover, the many

  DERER IS THE HEADMISTRESS”—a laughable

  special effects took lots of time and money. The

  attempt at a spoiler if there was one. Argento

  director had even considered shooting some

  was amused by the fact, and often recalled the

  scenes with electronic cameras (as Antonioni

  anecdote in interviews and in his memoir as

  would do with the 980 made- for-TV movie Il

  well.4

  mistero di Oberwald, with Luciano Tovoli as

  Suspiria had been Argento’s “first act of

  d.o.p.), but eventually he changed his mind as

  murder” toward the genre that he had perfected,

  the results were unsatisfactory; some scenes in-

  the giallo, and after breaking “the most deep-

  cluded in the script were discarded because of

  rooted taboo” he had found himself experiencing

  technical reasons.

  “not guilt, not anxiety or fear, but freedom.” In-

  Argento put together a cast that included

  deed, freedom is Inferno’s most evident trait,

  1980: Inferno 2

  thematically and stylistically. In contrast to Sus-

  4. A flight at crazy velocity (either shot at a very

  piria’s relatively straightforward narrative, In-

  low number of frames a second or removing frames

  ferno adopts a more volatile approach. “It is as

  during printing) on some roofs and streets in the city.

  if it was an ensemble of stories which slip into

  . Panning shot from above a bed. A woman is

  one another,” he wrote. “Over the course of the

  lying on it. Next to her, two or three people. Halfway

  through the panning shot, the woman arches her

  narration the characters take a direction and

  back, stiffens, and dies. But the camera is already

  then suddenly the viewers realize that whoever

  going away.

  they thought was the protagonist is actually a

  6. A girl is putting her neck into a noose. She

  marginal figure, and the story changes shape

  jumps into the void, hanging herself.

  under their very eyes.” Rather than a homage

  7. Very fast zoom in on the facade of the building

  to Psycho—to which the unexpected early death

  where Sara lives.6

  of Rose (Miracle) has been compared—this nar-

  rative scheme brings to mind Luis Buñuel’s Le

  Argento filmed only part of it, cancelling

  fantôme de la liberté (974), which had utilized

  some shots (#, #2, #4, and #) because, accord-

  a similarly episodic framework.

  ing to d.o.p. Romano Albani, “they didn’t fit with

  Such freedom of approach is exemplified in

  the scene, they weren’t useful.”7 Yet the director

  the film’s most abstract scene, where we get to see

  regretted not having shot #, which he described

  Death at work, portrayed as a child’s game, before

  as “the POV shot of a lightning bolt which starts

  Carlo (Lavia) and Sara’s (Giorgi) murders. A hand

  from the top of the clouds and hits the city,”8 a

  cuts out the heads of four childish human figures

  decision forced by the special effects he had to

  on black paper, and a series of deceases (human

  work with not being up to the idea.

  and animal) ensue, within the space of a few sec-

  Never one to lose a chance to play with his

  onds. The rhythmic montage, which recalls the

  public image, Argento stressed Inferno’s uncon-

  opening scene of Macchie solari (97, Armando

  ventional structure in interviews by claiming

  Crispino), riffs on the Soviet montage theory—

  that it was “difficult to understand even for me,

  which Argento had employed in a satiric way in

  the author, to the point that during the shoot I

  Le cinque giornate (973)—by connecting appar-

  often have to reread the script in order to clear

  ently disconnected images by analogy, and thus

  up my mind.”9 When asked about the film’s

  emphasizing their common denominator: death.

  theme, he replied: “My movie wants to explore

  It’s a stunning variation on the myth of the Parcae

  and find the key of the big secrets of life and

  (or Fates), the female personificat
ions of destiny

  death.”20

  who controlled the metaphorical thread of life of

  As in Suspiria, Argento reconnects with

  every being: Clotho spun the thread, Lachesis

  the world of fairy tales. The director himself

  measured it, Atropos cut it short with her shears,

  acknowledged this, referring to his film as “a

  choosing how and when someone would die.

  thrilling fairy tale.” Not only does the sequence

  The scene was longer in the script, and de-

  where Sara ventures into the basement of the li-

  scribed as follows:

  brary—only to find a menacing, ogre- ish figure

  intent on cooking something presumably un-

  While the music acts as an accompaniment, rhythmic

  healthy and most certainly horrible (a magic po-

  as well, a series of 7 scenes start. They will be very

  tion? an unfortunate human victim?) in a boiling

  brief, 3 seconds each. And the camera will fly over

  cauldron—hark back to typical fairy tale cliché,

  the images as if on the run, so as to appear as an aerial

  but Argento admitted that the fate of Sara herself

  flight over a series of episodes.

  references Sleeping Beauty: “[she] pricks her fin-

  . The moon, up in the sky, is obscured by a huge

  ger, and in that precise moment she enters a sort

  black cloud. The black cloud fills the screen. It’s

  of parallel world—enchanted and haunted—

  shaken by a blinding white lightning. The camera

  from where she will never come back.”2

  flies against the lightning. More bouts of lightning

  Dream—or nightmare—is Inferno’s driving

  cross the sky. The screen turns white, while it looks

  force. Characters behave according to a dream-

  as if the camera has thrown itself in the middle of

  like logic and find themselves in nightmarish

  the lightning bolt and…

  2. Three cats mew and brawl in a corner of the

  situations. The film’s oneiric quality is best

  courtyard.

  summed up by the surreal sequence—shot in a

  3. A big green lizard with a triangular mouth has

  water tank at the De Paolis studios with Gian-

  caught a moth bigger than it, which struggles as it is

  lorenzo Battaglia as cameraman—in which Rose

  being savaged.

  dives into a small pool where she lost her key,

  22 1980: Inferno Italian lobby card for Dario Argento’s Inferno (1980), depicting one of the film’s surreal highlights: Rose (Irene Miracle) diving into an underwater room underneath her building and discovering a fascinating yet deadly submerged world.

  only to find herself in a huge underwater room,

  for unusual areas and geometries to emerge. Per-

  fully furnished and replete with a rotten corpse

  haps Argento was thinking of Aldous Huxley

  which pops up unexpectedly, changing the tone

  and Carlos Castaneda’s works on the subject of

  of the scene from wonder to horror. Argento

  altered and enhanced perception through

  likely got the inspiration from Jean Cocteau’s

  drugs? With its fleeting image of a calm sea,

  Orphée, although another antecedent is the se-

  Mark’s dream—another last- minute addition

  quence in Caltiki il mostro immortale (99, Ric-

  absent in the script—is another puzzling mo-

  cardo Freda, Mario Bava) in which Bob (Daniele

  ment that defies narrative logic. Is it a symbolic

  Vargas) dives into a pool inside a cave and dis-

  moment, depicting Mark’s subconscious? Or

  covers human remains on its bottom. Albani

  merely an abstract parenthesis in which Ar-

  complained that the scene didn’t come out as

  gento’s imagination runs loose, free from the

  striking as it could have been, for the water was

  limits of storytelling?

  rather too muddy due to the underwater shoot,

  In this absurd universe where actions,

  the fake dust on the submerged furniture and

  events and especially deaths are connected to

  so on. He asked Argento to reshoot it the fol-

  each other according to a logic that escapes ra-

  lowing day, but the director was immovable.22

  tionality but cannot be attributed to chance, the

  Despite these imperfections, Argento’s develop-

  Fantastic element comes from the “visionary de-

  ment of the scene is something extraordinarily

  struction of any established order, which recom-

  beautiful, and its manipulation of Cartesian

  poses itself only in the unity of measurement of

  space is exemplary.

  the single shot”23 Or, as Kim Newman put it,

  The sequence makes a pair with the explo-

  “every sequence is a meticulously orchestrated

  ration of the tunnel under the floor undertaken

  mini- symphony of camera movement, stylized

  by Mark (McCloskey). These are surfaces and

  lighting, sound effects, music and found ob-

  volumes that could not and should not exist,

  jects… . Argento makes ordinary events myste-

  doors of (unprecedented) perception that allow

  rious, exciting, erotic or horrifying. Previously,

  1980: Inferno 23

  the murders in Argento’s films … have all been

  De Quincey’s 84 book Suspiria de Profundis.

  set- pieces. Inferno is all set pieces, and thus all

  The buildings were actually thresholds to Hell—

  of a piece.”24

  a concept not dissimilar from The Sentinel (977,

  Argento had chosen New York because it

  Michael Winner), but developed in a strikingly

  would offer “a poetic setting” to his movie, but

  original way. Even more than in Suspiria, the

  what appears in Inferno is the director’s ideal vi-

  house as architectural emanation of evil has a

  sion of the Big Apple: a depopulated night city,

  central importance in the story. The three houses

  a surrealistic, almost abstract vision, even more

  are not only “the repository of all [the Mothers’]

  so if one thinks that Rose’s apartment building

  secrets” but have a life of their own, and their hu-

  was actually an invention on the part of the pro-

  manization is made explicit in a line of dialogue.

  duction designer—even though inspired by an

  “This building has become my body, its bricks

  existing edifice, namely St. Walburg’s Academy,

  my cells, its passageways my veins, and its horror

  a Roman Catholic school for girls in the Late

  my very heart,” Varelli’s voice confesses: a

  Gothic Revival style built by the architect John

  baroque extremism of Shirley Jackson’s Hill

  W. Kearney and completed in 93.2 The

  House or, even more appropriately, Richard

  concept the director had for New York in the

  Matheson’s Hell House.

  film is best explained by a scene he had devised

  To give this dreamlike world of cries and

  but eventually discarded and never shot, similar

  whispers its own lights and shadows, the

  in t
one to the one about “death at work”: an un-

  director concocted a rigid and original color

  known hand (possibly Mater Tenebrarum’s)

  scheme with his director of photography Ro-

  picks up a crystal ball with a tiny miniature of

  mano Albani, formerly Luciano Tovoli’s assistant.

  the Manhattan skyline in it, and starts shaking

  Argento wanted Inferno to have a different look

  it, causing a thunderstorm. The image recalls

  than Suspiria, but just as striking. This time the

  the beginning of Citizen Kane (94), with

  dominating colors would be violet, lavender blue

  Charles Foster Kane’s hand dropping the crystal

  (or periwinkle) and raspberry. “I only wanted

  ball; and like Kane’s “Rosebud,” Inferno’s New

  two basic colors, all the tones of blue and pink—

  York is a child’s memory, or perhaps a child’s

  and so it was,” Albani explained. “There is only

  dream—not a real city.

  one red spot in the film, in the library scene,

  But Argento’s Rome was an unorthodox

  when someone calls Giorgi with a mysterious

  vision too, not unlike the visual mosaics of dif-

  voice… . Dario was very happy, very enthusiastic

  ferent cities he put together in his previous

  about this choice: ‘Yes, yes, let’s not make it a

  films. The Rome setting is relegated to a few

  kaleidoscope like Suspiria, let’s make something

  scenes shot at the so- called “Quartiere Coppedé”

  different.’”26 Even the blood was not red, but dark

  (Coppedé district)—not an actual district, though,

  blue, almost black, as in the scene of Rose’s death

  but a group of buildings in the Trieste district in

  by guillotine.

  a mixture of Liberty, Art Déco and references to

  Some elements pay explicit reference to Sus-

  Greek, Gothic, Baroque and Medieval art. It was

  piria, namely the taxi ride in the rain (the cab

  designed in early 900 by architect and sculptor

  driver is even played the same actor, Fulvio Min-

  Gino Coppedé, a visionary just like Varelli who

  gozzi, whom Argento cast as a “lucky charm” in

  left the project incomplete on his death in 927.

  all of his films up to Phenomena), the presence

  The exterior of the library where Sara ventures

  of Alida Valli, and the architectural ornaments

  is actually the same building as the one seen

  of the New York building. Another element of

  in La ragazza che sapeva troppo (963, Mario