writer—who as well took inspiration from
an inexhaustible attempt to look (and know) be-
events linked with the death of a pet animal, his
yond which characterizes the director’s work in
daughter’s cat Smucky—completed the first draft
the Fantastic genre.
in May 979.9 As for their literary antecedents,
Avati’s doomed hero, again named Stefano
both Avati and King likely drew from H.P. Love-
like the unfortunate painter in La casa dalle
craft’s Herbert West, Reanimator and especially
finestre che ridono, is yet another artist who
W.W. Jacobs’ celebrated short story The Monkey’s
moves from the big city to the countryside and
Paw, which inspired Bob Clark’s Dead of Night
becomes the victim of his own abnormal sensi-
(a.k.a. Deathdream, 974) and was adapted in
tivity toward the macabre and the mysterious.
977 by Dan Curtis for the made- for-TV Dead
But his quest is first and foremost an introspec-
of Night, in the episode Bobby. King most likely
tive descent which goes far beyond the mere
knew the two movies; the latter was broadcast
mystery angle of the story, and which leads him
in the U.S. in March 977. There is a chance that
to an inescapable destiny. Like Prometheus, Ste-
Avati too was aware of them, as Clark’s film was
fano defies God (or the gods) by trying to learn
released in Italy in 976 under the eerie title La
things that shall remain unknown by mortals,
morte dietro la porta (Death Behind the Door),
and therefore he will be punished, as will all
while Curtis’ film turned up on Italian private
those who dare venture into the unknowable.
television stations as early as 98, as Notte di
It’s not the film’s sole reference to myth and
morte (Death Night).
to ancient culture. Avati portrays two lovers
The story has also some vague (and most
attempting an illusory escape from the horrors
likely coincidental) similarities with Jacques
that will swallow them, and in the story’s chilling
Tourneur’s unfilmed screenplay, Whispering in
coda he evokes the myth of Orpheus who brings
Distant Chambers (dating back to 966), in
back his wife Eurydice from the underworld.
which a millionaire tries to prove scientifically
The character of Alessandra conveys a natural,
the existence of life beyond death by way of
luminous sensuality (see the early scene where
advanced recording technology. But Avati
she awakes in bed) comparable to that of
comes close to the French director’s cinema for
Francesca Marciano in the 976 film, which once
the method of building restlessness through
again makes her a more vulnerable victim. But
lighting, inscribing the characters within sparse
the same sensuality becomes an element of hor-
oases of light as opposed to areas of darkness
ror in the ending, as the revenante displays the
that “are likely to reshape the contours of a fa-
same inviting smile as when she was alive, before
miliar space or … thin down the usual bound-
the final and supposedly lethal embrace with
aries between an imaginary space and the sphere
Stefano. She has become a carrier (and an in-
of sensorial reception.”0 This similarity becomes
carnation) of Death, like other female characters
an explicit homage in the swimming pool scene,
in Avati’s cinema, most notably Olimpia in Le
which pays reference to a similar moment in Cat
strelle nel fosso, causing the hero’s ultimate ruin.
People (942). In interviews Avati mentioned as
As in La casa dalle finestre che ridono, Avati
1983: Zeder
9
turns the sunny and placid Emilia Romagna into
(a bound bundle of wooden rods with an axe
an unlikely yet effective setting for a horror
with its blade emerging), the main symbol of the
story. Except for the prologue set in 96, which
Fascist regime, is featured prominently in the
takes place in a typical haunted house with un-
background wall behind Stefano during the
seen presences lurking in the basement, Zeder
film’s horrific climax, the resurrection of Don
is characterized by a matter- of-fact, very lumi-
Luigi Costa. There, the past literally comes alive
nous photography. The hot summer Mediter-
again.
ranean sun pervades many scenes, characters
It’s a felicitous choice for a film which re-
sweat and pant, a blinding light accompanies
volves around the act of displacement and re-
Stefano’s quest in the Riviera, so much so that
pression and its object par excellence in today’s
Alessandra takes advantage of their trip to Ri-
society—death. But the colony is also the rem-
mini for a sunbathing session on the beach.
nant of a previous illusory wealth, which now
Even a cemetery—the Gothic milieu par excel-
has dissolved and turned into a mediocre, re-
lence—doesn’t look so menacing in an August
signed routine, like that of the gas station owner
morning. But such a warmth and serenity are
who rents the rooms of his squalid motel on the
utterly deceptive. It takes just a few moments—
opposite side of the street, for the few tourists
such as when Stefano remains briefly trapped in
who still show up every now and then. The irony
the crypt where Don Luigi Costa’s grave is lo-
in the film is that, to protect their private exper-
cated—for this mood to change completely and
iments and justify the renewed activity around
these places to reveal their sinister side.
the colony, the Vatican researchers have spread
In his previous horror film Avati had rein-
the rumor that the place is going to be recon-
vented the Gothic haunted mansion, splitting it
verted into a luxury -star hotel, thus igniting
into two in the process: the isolated house where
the hope of a renewed well- being, an economic
Stefano moves, which turns out to be the recip-
revitalization which echoes the physical one
ient of horrible secrets, and the titular “house
they are pursuing.
with the laughing windows,” a dilapidated hut
As in La casa dalle finestre che ridono—and
near the river where the mad Buono Legnani
in L’arcano incantatore, another film centered on
worked on his paintings. A key role in Zeder is
someone’s quest about the mysteries of the af-
played by the imposing ruins of the Provincia
terlife—the most horrific figure in the film is
Varese colony. Ruins have a central importance
that of a priest. Those who have seen Zeder won’t
in the Gothic, as remnants of a forgotten or re-
forget the toothless l
aughter of the defrocked
pressed past, and the choice of a Fascist building,
priest Don Luigi Costa caught by the post-
although moved mainly by aesthetic reasons (“I
mortem camera, as he awakens from death in
think I’ve never had a more beautiful location”
the film’s most unnerving sequence. Once again,
the director said) is an interesting one on
Avati followed the example of Fellini and cast a
Avati’s part, for it draws a red thread between
non- professional actor for the role, a pork
Italy’s past and the present.
butcher from Bologna named Carlo Schincaglia.
Children’s colonies were structures built in
As Avati’s a.d. Cesare Bastelli recalled, “With
maritime locations which provided free summer
Pupi, for many years, it used to be like that: we
holidays for kids, to preserve their health; the
arrived in a village without warning anyone and
first one was created in Lucca in 822, and their
without going to the mayor’s office for the shoot-
number grew steadily over the years. During
ing permits. We just placed the camera in the
the Fascist regime, children’s colonies became
main square and waited. The first who ap-
an instrument of propaganda, a place to indoc-
proached us was regularly the fool of the village,
trinate the younger generations on the values of
and we cast him on the spot. We recruited many
Fascism, and many new structures were built,
that way… . Schincaglia was one of them.”2
mostly on the Romagna coast, in the regime’s
The defrocked revenant is only one of sev-
typical Rationalist style. The huge, ghastly ce-
eral clergymen—not counting the Vatican’s high
ment building in Zeder becomes a sort of relic,
hierarchies, represented by Bob Tonelli’s char-
whose bare cement pylons stand out in the land-
acter—whom the viewers meet in the film, the
scape like the carcass of a monstrous “white
others being an ambiguous young priest (Aldo
whale” stranded near the beach, a gigantic and
Sassi) who seems to know more than he claims
looming memento of a wiped- out past. Note, for
to, and a (fake) parish priest who wears a gym
instance, how the image of the “fascio littorio”
suit and has brisk manners—a striking charac-
20 1983: Zeder scientists record the effects
but not the presence. The
world is a dark and mysteri-
ous place, and nature itself
turns out to be malevolent
and menacing, like the earth-
quake that accompanies the
resurrection of a dead man in
the film’s opening sequence.
Despite centuries of enlight-
enment and the progress of
science, we are ultimately re-
vealed to be at the mercy of
forces that we will never be
able to control, let alone un-
derstand. All we can do is be-
lieve.
the dead rise from their grave and attack an unfortunate victim
Avati ends the film on an
(Genoese dialectal actor enrico Ardizzone) in a scary moment from
ambiguous and chilling note,
Zeder (courtesy Luca servini).
the final embrace between
two lovers who have finally
terization (by Avati’s regular Ferdinando Or-
found each other again, with Stefano’s expression
landi) which perhaps hints at the director’s diffi-
turning from tenderness to horrified awareness,
dence toward heterodox clergymen.
as the man lets out a final scream of horror (and
Unlike the simple but coherent story be-
perhaps pain? Again, we can only guess) which
hind La casa dalle finestre che ridono, Zeder has
lingers under the final image of the children’s col-
an intricate plot which ultimately doesn’t add
ony at night, before Riz Ortolani’s synth- driven,
up. Its many unanswered questions and incon-
dissonant score kicks off. The script included one
sistencies turn up from the very first sequences.
more scene which Avati wisely chose not to shoot,
If the K- Zones preserve the dead from rotting,
an epilogue set at the deserted gas station, at
why is Paolo Zeder exhumed as a skeleton? How
night. Children are skating in the area. “Their
did he manage to return in the coffin after at-
shadows, their laughter, their screams. Silence,”
tacking Gabriella, whose shoe is found inside
the script reads. On this final freeze- frame, a line
Zeder’s coffin? How can Stefano see Don Luigi
appears: “…and what if even your garden was a
Costa wandering around in the colony when his
K- Zone?” A tongue- in-cheek, laughable line wor-
body is still locked in the zinc coffin? Is this
thy of some cheap B- movie (think of Tonino
a phenomenon of bilocation, a hallucination,
Ricci’s Bakterion, 982) which would have done
a vision of the future? Who kills the parish
no justice to the story. It is one of the few
priest Don Mario and old Benni? The viewer
moments that differ from the finished film. Avati
gropes in the dark just like the characters. But
had also devised a slightly more elaborate version
ultimately these loose ends enhance the overall
of the scene where Anna (Laura in the script) is
sense of dread that the film conveys.
killed. The director wanted to set it originally in
It is as if the director was contemplating
the dancing room of the abandoned chalet near
the very concept of “miracle,” that is, the unfath-
the lake at the Giardini Margherita park in
omable ways God works through nature with
Bologna (in the film it takes place underneath the
divine providence, or, in the words of St. Thomas
wharf), and the murderer used a long Fascist
Aquinas, “these works that are done by God out-
stiletto (the weapon is hardly distinguishable in
side the usual order assigned to things” and
the film) with a silver eagle’s head on its handle—
which leave us “astonished at a thing when we
another symbol relating the story to the country’s
see an effect without knowing the cause.” It is
Fascist past, hinting that perhaps at first Avati
as if Avati is telling us that there are things
wanted to develop a discourse akin to that of the
in heaven and earth that it is better not to
Nazis’ fascination with the occult. Then, unlike
know: as the non- human POV shot that travels
in the film, Stefano finds himself face to face with
through the K- Zone at night, and of which the
Laura’s body, as the dead girl appears before him
1985: Dèmoni
2
and falls headfirst against the broken glass win-
decade. The director himself was never too fond
dow, “pierced by hundr
eds of sharp glass splin-
of it, pointing out its “technological limits” and
ters.” Stefano tries to come to her aid, but it’s too
claiming that the movie “didn’t give me great sat-
late. When he hears the police siren approaching,
isfaction, from any point of view,”3 possibly be-
he flees.
cause of its less than felicitous shoot. Over the fol-
Initially slated for a February release, Zeder
lowing years, Avati’s output consisted mostly of
was delayed until August 983, and turned out
bittersweet comedies (Noi tre, 984; Festa di laurea,
a box- office disappointment despite favorable
98, Storia di ragazzi e di ragazze, 989) or down-
reviews. Moreover, in the meantime Avati had
beat dramas (Regalo di Natale, 986; Ultimo min-
completed another feature film, the bittersweet
uto, 987; Fratelli e sorelle, 99). Only in the early
period comedy Una gita scolastica (working title:
990s he decided to revive his interest in horror
La passeggiata), starring Delle Piane, which
and the Fantastic, with the scripts for Maurizio
moved to a totally different direction, and was
Zaccaro’s Dove comincia la notte (99) and Fab-
a critical and commercial success.
rizio Laurenti’s La stanza accanto (994), in addi-
Filmed in English with an eye toward
tion to the TV mini- series Voci notturne, before
foreign sales, Zeder was distributed theatrically
directing L’arcano incantatore. His next work in
in the U.S. by Motion Picture Marketing the fol-
the genre would be sparse and limited to one hor-
lowing year, in a heavily edited copy, as Revenge
ror movie per decade, namely Il nascondiglio
of the Dead. It was first broadcast in Italy on Rai
(2007) and the upcoming Il signor Diavolo. The
Due on August 8, 984. The TV version was a
latter, based on Avati’s own novel published in
couple of minutes longer and featured an ex-
208, is a grim story set in 92, about a young
tended version of the introductory “anniversary
lawyer who is sent to Venice to follow a murder
sequence” in which Stefano and Alessandra ex-
trial (a teenage boy has killed another one) which
change gifts. After putting on the bracelet Stefano
turns out to have chilling implications.
has given her, she joins him on the sofa. He ex-
plains that he couldn’t buy her a gift with his own
Notes
Italian Gothic Horror Films (1980-1989) Page 36