Italian Gothic Horror Films (1980-1989)

by Roberto Curti

  6. Samuele Zàccaro, “Intervista esclusiva a Rossella

  generator, loses two fingers in the machine and

  Drudi,” www. darkveins. com, 2 March 2009.

  has his neck cut by his necklace was considerably

  7. Palmerini and Mistretta, Spaghetti Nightmares, 07.

  shortened in the TV edit. Lattanzi was credited

  with his own name in the Italian prints, and as

  Il nido del ragno (The Spider Labyrinth)

  “Claude Milliken” in the foreign ones.

  D: Gianfranco Giagni. S: Tonino Cervi; SC:

  The question on who directed Killing Birds

  Riccardo Aragno, Tonino Cervi, Cesare Frugoni,

  is debated. Some sources state that Massaccesi

  Gianfranco Manfredi; DOP: Nino Celeste

  took care of the direction, uncredited, because

  (Kodak Eastmancolor, LV- Luciano Vittori); M:

  of Lattanzi’s incompetence. On the other hand,

  Franco Piersanti (Ed. S.B.K.); E: Sergio Monta-

  according to Rossella Drudi,

  nari; PD, ArtD: Stefano Ortolani; CO: Nicoletta

  Ercole; SVFX: Sergio Stivaletti; AsstSVFX: Bar-

  Claudio Lattanzi was a front for the direction,

  because Aristide could not be credited on too many

  bara Morosetti; MU: Renato Francola; Hair:

  films as producer and director, even though it was

  Maria Angelini; C: Sandro Grossi; AC: Francesco

  always him, a true underestimated genius… . I re-

  Damiani; 2ndAC: Cristiano Celeste; AE: Mario

  member that in the last years he [Lattanzi] was

  D’Ambrosio, Giovanni Pallotto; AsstArtD: Jo

  always around in Aristide’s office in viale delle

  Chevalier; SO: Alberto Salvatori; Mix: Steve C.

  Milizie, when even Michele Soavi left the factory to

  Aaron; SOE: Roberto Arcangeli Studio Sound;

  work with Dario Argento. Lattanzi was one of the

  DubD: Gianni Bonagura; MA: Nazzareno Zam-

  last entries in the factory, the son of a pharmacist,

  perla; SP: Enrico Appetito; ACO: Carlotta Poli-

  and thus rebaptized “the pharmacist” by Aristide. He

  dori; W: Anna Inciocchi; ChEl: Agostino Gorga;

  wanted to become a film director, but it seems he was

  El: Antonio Gasbarrini, Antonio Labarbera; KG:

  not cut out for it.6

  Tarcisio Diamanti; G: Claudio Brizzolari, Roberto

  Lattanzi, while acknowledging the weight

  Brizzolari; Props: Piero Riccini, Nazzareno Sgo-

  of Massaccesi’s presence on the set and describ-

  lacchia; SS: Margherita Reginato. Cast: Roland

  ing their work as “in symbiosis,” also due to the

  Wybenga (Prof. Alan Whitmore), Paola Rinaldi

  very low budget, claims the paternity of the

  (Geneviève Weiss), Margareta von Krauss (Sylvia

  movie, and vindicates the choice of many shots

  Roth), Claudia Muzii (Marta), William Berger

  and scenes. Massaccesi himself explained that

  (Mysterious Man), Stéphane Audran (Mrs.

  he personally took care of the sequences featur-

  Kuhn), Valeriano Santinelli, Massimiliano Pavone,

  ing special effects, allowing Lattanzi to sign the

  Arnaldo Dell’Acqua (Polgár Móricz), László Sipos

  film.7

  (Inspector Blasco), Attila Lõte (Professor Roth),

  Claudio Lattanzi never directed another

  Bob Holton (Frank, Intextus Committee Mem-

  movie. He worked (uncredited) on the story for

  ber), Bill Bolender (Chancellor Hubbard), John

  La casa 4, which he claims he was slated to

  Morrison (Reverend Bradley). PROD: Tonino

  direct; he re- edited the TV version of Sergio

  Cervi for Splendida Film (Rome), Reteitalia; PM:

  Martino’s Assassinio al cimitero etrusco (982)

  Antonio Levesi- Cervi, Tamás Hámori; EP: Endre

  into a 3-hour TV movie, with new music by

  Flórián, Endre Sík; PSe: Carlo Gagliardi. Country:

  Carlo Maria Cordio; and he developed a giallo

  Italy. Filmed on location in Budapest and at

  script, A un’ora dalla notte, which ended up in

  Cinecittà (Rome). Running time: 86 minutes (m.

  the drawer after Massaccesi’s death. In 2009,

  2363). Visa n. 8372 (4.27.988); Rating: all audi-

  Lattanzi attempted to put together a sequel,

  ences. Release date: 8.2.988 (Italy), 0.3.988

  Killing Birds Return, but the project never went

  (West Germany—Home video), 4.22.989 (Japan);

  beyond a -page synopsis written by Federico

  Distribution: Medusa/Penta Film (Italy); Domes-

  Monti.

  tic gross: n.a. Also known as: Spider Labyrinth—

  1988: Il nido

  63

  In den Fangen der Todestarantel (West Germany),

  scriptwriter Gianfranco Manfredi and together

  Noroi no meikyû: Rabirinsu in za dâku (Japan).

  we tried to give it a more modern framing

  Alan Whitmore, a young American professor

  story.”3 Manfredi was an eclectic figure in Italian

  of Eastern religions in Dallas, is sent to Budapest

  popular culture, being a singer- songwriter,

  to meet Professor Roth, who is collaborating with

  writer, scriptwriter, actor and soon- to-be comic

  him on the mysterious Intextus project. Upon ar-

  book writer: in the 990s he created the Western

  rival, the terrified Roth handles Alan a black

  comic Magico Vento and wrote episodes for

  booklet where, he says, his colleague will find the

  Dylan Dog and Tex. Firstly, Giagni and Manfredi

  key to the enigma. The booklet contains notes

  changed the setting from Venice to Budapest,

  about the discovery of a mysterious tablet. When

  frequently visited by Italian cinema in those

  Alan returns to Roth’s house that night, he finds

  years (see also La chiesa, Etoile, and Carlo Ver-

  out that the professor is dead, and that the woman

  done’s 987 hit comedy Io e mia sorella): “It is a

  who lived with him and claimed to be his wife has

  city with many Gothic elements, with disquieting

  disappeared. Alan does not give up, and continues

  buildings in an apparently rational context …

  his risky investigation, helped by Roth’s assistant,

  cities like Budapest, Prague or Sarajevo suggest a

  Geneviève. Meanwhile, other deaths follow: a

  sense of anxiety: behind their ‘normality’ there

  maid at the hotel where Alan is staying is brutally

  lies in fact a hidden ‘abnormality.’”4

  killed by a monstrous- looking woman, and the

  Given the script and budget limits, the

  second victim is an antique dealer, Polgár Móricz.

  director also sought to balance the horrific

  Alan finds out about the existence of a mysterious

  and gruesome elements with more classic ones,

  cult: its members—the Weavers—worship spider-

  like deities whose names are written in the tablet

  Roth had discovered. Alan recovers the tablet, but

  despite the help of a mysterious man he is cap-

  tured, tortured and subjected to a horrible initia-

  tory rite…

  Born in 92, Gianfranco Giagni had di-

  vid
ed himself between radio and television since

  the mid–970s, and worked sporadically in cin-

  ema as well, as assistant to Mauro Bolognini

  (L’eredità Ferramonti, 976) and Alberto Negrin.

  Already an accomplished radio director, in 98

  he created the pioneering music program Mister

  Fantasy. Giagni directed some of Italy’s first

  music videos for Vasco Rossi, Loredana Berté

  and Matia Bazar, but he also worked with

  foreign artists, such as Miguel Bosé and Mad-

  ness. In May 986 Giagni’s short Giallo e nero

  won the “Gabbiano d’Argento” prize at the “An-

  teprima” Film Festival in Bellaria and was

  broadcast on television a couple of months later.

  Producer Tonino Cervi, who in turn had di-

  rected an interesting Gothic film, Il delitto del

  diavolo, liked Giallo e nero very much, and got

  in touch with the director with an offer to make

  his feature film debut with a horror movie. “I

  accepted to direct it “for hire” in order to con-

  front myself with the rules of genre filmmaking,

  as the masters of the American B- movie of the

  940s and 0s had done before.”2

  The original script for Il nido del ragno, by

  Cervi, Riccardo Aragno and Cesare Frugoni,

  dated from a few years earlier. As Giagni ex-

  Italian locandina for Gianfranco Giagni’s Il nido

  plained, “It seemed a bit dated to me, so I called

  del ragno (1988).

  64 1988: Il nido with references to Hitchcock and Polanski. The

  oped thoughtfully,” and adding that it “incorpo-

  latter’s influence can be seen in the conspiracy

  rates many ideas characteristic of HPL, from the

  angle of the story (see for instance the suspicious-

  shy, retiring scholar/hero to the forbidden his-

  looking guests of the hotel where the protagonist

  torical text and the cabal of radical followers

  Alan Whitmore is staying), while the scene

  dedicated [to] the Old Ones.”

  where Alan looks almost hypnotized at the op-

  It is likely that Cervi had in mind other

  posite building, where the fascinating Geneviève

  sources for his original story, but the theme of

  takes off her clothes and then stares at him in

  the lone scholar who arrives in a strange town

  the nude behind her window, silently luring

  and confronts a mystery, only to find himself the

  him, nods to both Rear Window (94) and Le

  designated victim to an obscure power, is truly

  locataire.

  Lovecraftian, as is the idea of monstrous ancient

  But Giagni’s film has also several elements

  gods lurking in a world which reveals itself as

  in common with past Italian horrors and thriller.

  nightmarish and absurd under a façade of ap-

  The Eastern European setting brings to mind

  parent normality. The script riffs on the theme

  another classic conspiracy tale, Aldo Lado’s po-

  of the spider’s web as a labyrinth with no way

  litical thriller La corta notte delle bambole di

  out, and Giagni depicts the transition between

  vetro (97), while the idea of an evil cult spread

  reality and nightmare in an eerie sequence

  all over the city and possibly worldwide recalls

  where Alan is driving around Budapest in search

  Francesco Barilli’s Il profumo della signora in

  of an antique shop, only to find the road blocked

  nero, in turn a grim Polanski variation; the

  by a weird- looking barricade which vaguely

  bouncing black ball which erupts on the scene

  recalls an oversized web. He soon gets lost in the

  before each murder borrows from Operazione

  labyrinthine streets of the old town, whose weird

  paura, while the murder scenes have Argento’s

  topography recalls those of Lovecraft villages.

  name written all over them. In typical Argento

  Later, Whitmore finds himself in another

  fashion, the agents of evil employ very earthly

  labyrinth, a surreal underworld filled with ca-

  weapons such as butcher’s knives, and the killing

  davers wrapped in web cocoons and car wrecks.

  of the maid openly draws from Suspiria and In-

  The film’s pièce de resistance is the climactic

  ferno, with its eerie greens and the sheets around

  appearance of the idol. Mitchell identifies the

  the poor victim acting like a white screen ready

  monster worshipped by the “weavers” in Atlach-

  to be ripped open by knives or turning into

  Nacha, conceived by Clark Ashton Smith in his

  artistic canvas to be sprayed with arterial blood.

  934 story The Seven Geases and described as “a

  But Giagni maintained that the reference was

  darksome form, big as a crouching man but with

  subconscious: “I surely admire Argento very

  long spider- like members… . There was a kind

  much, and I love his cinematic universality as

  of face on the squat ebon body, low down amid

  well as the capacity of being essential at the same

  the several- jointed legs.”7 Sergio Stivaletti’s elab-

  time: everyone can identify themselves in his

  orate special effects combine the expected trans-

  movies, and while I shot Il nido del ragno I real-

  formation with optical stop- motion. “I con-

  ized how difficult it was!”

  vinced the producer that I would do all the

  Il nido del ragno exudes an interesting and

  mechanical and optical effects in the film,” Sti-

  unusual Lovecraftian mood, with its reference

  valetti explained some time before its release. “I

  to a submerged millennial cult that worships

  was entrusted with the creative- technical part

  monstrous beings akin to the Providence writer’s

  as well as the optical animation effects… . I can

  “Old Ones.” In The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Fil-

  tell that there’s a monster in the film, that this

  mography, one of the few English language books

  monster is not how you see it in the end but it

  that analyzed the movie thoroughly, author

  turns like that through a transformation.”8 The

  Charles P. Mitchell went so far as calling it “one

  scene is blatantly inspired by a famous moment

  of the finest of all films inspired by Lovecraft,”6

  in The Thing, with a suitably grotesque baby spi-

  which seems a bit too much, given the variety

  der who undergoes a horrific metamorphosis,

  of influences. Mitchell elaborates on the state-

  and the optical stop- motion effects à la Ray Har-

  ment, claiming that except for its predictable de-

  ryhausen, albeit not impeccable, display Sti-

  nouement, Giagni’s film “clearly demonstrates

  valetti’s inventiveness and attempt to bring

  that Lovecraftian concepts can be adapted to the

  something new to Italian fantastique in terms of

  screen in a fresh, dramatic and interesting way

  visual inventions. Back then, it looked like the
r />   if the material is treated with respect and devel-

  30-year-old Stivaletti was ready for the big step

  1988: Il nido

  6

  and make his directorial debut. However, not

  Commercial expectations were high, and

  least because of the declining state of Italian cin-

  Reteitalia managed to obtain some press expo-

  ema, it would take him nine years before finally

  sure for the project. Giagni’s name was men-

  making his first film as a director, M.D.C.—

  tioned together with those of Michele Soavi and

  Maschera di cera (a.k.a. Wax Mask, 997).

  two more debutants, Fulvio Wetzl (Rorret) and

  Compared with many other Italian horror

  Andrea Marfori (Il bosco 1), and Il nido del ragno

  movies of the decade, Giagni’s direction is truly

  was compared to 940s film noirs and to Kafka’s

  impressive, as it blends the visual elegance

  Metamorphosis (an audacious but hazardous

  typical of the Italian masters of the genre and a

  term of comparison, actually) in an article which

  polished style that is effectively international.

  spitefully dismissed Lucio Fulci “and other

  The deliberate pacing is never boring, and each

  hacks” and welcomed the “new wave” of Italian

  scene is carefully developed by way of camera

  horror.9 But such expectations were doomed

  angles and movements, lighting and frame com-

  to be disappointed. Released with an “all audi-

  position. A particularly effective moment in this

  ences” rating despite its rather gory murder

  respect is Alan’s dialogue with Mrs. Kuhn,

  scenes and transformations, Il nido del ragno

  played by Stéphane Audran: the woman is sitting

  performed badly at the box- office and was barely

  in her room, rocking an empty cradle on the

  noticed by critics.0 On the other hand, the

  right side of the frame, while on the left, atop a

  Catholic “Segnalazioni Cinematografiche” were

  piano, we see a big, weird doll highlighted by a

  harsh to the point of insult, stating: “The movie

  source of light that falls right on it. What in

  doesn’t represent anything worth signaling, if

  other hands would have been a rather dull pas-

  not as a manic product, a mental test of a de-

  sage, aimed at providing some slight character

  ranged, ranting mind.”

  development and a clue to the mystery, turns

  When Il nido del ragno came out, Giagni was

  into a strikingly effectively atmospheric scene.