Tenebre (Unsane) (1982)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Ken S

  
  It's no Bird with the Crystal Plumage, or Deep Red (or Suspiria for that matter), but Tenebre is still one hell of a giallo.

• Cassandra M

  
  After the opening credits the film starts in New York, as American author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) cycles to JFK airport. He flies to Rome so he can promote his new murder mystery novel 'tenebrae'. Meanwhile in Rome a woman tries to steal a copy of the book from some… More
  After the opening credits the film starts in New York, as American author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) cycles to JFK airport. He flies to Rome so he can promote his new murder mystery novel 'tenebrae'. Meanwhile in Rome a woman tries to steal a copy of the book from some shop and is caught. She convinces the security guard to let her off. But someone in the store is watching her and has seen whats happened. Back at her flat she is attacked, pages of the book 'tenebrae' are forced into her mouth and her throat is slashed with a straight razor, just like the one the killer uses in the book. The police head straight for Neal to question him, while there Neal receives a letter and phone call from the killer, from then on Neal is thrown in a complex mystery and plunged into the centre of a number of senseless, violent murders. Written and directed by the overrated Dario Argento this is definitely one of his best films. Stylishly filmed with visually pleasing photography, the stand out sequence being the murder of the two lesbians, the camera starts outside of a window looking in at one of the victims, it then moves up a level to another window, it moves across the side of the house to yet another window in which the second victim can be seen playing a record, then the camera moves up toward the roof, glides along it and back down the opposite side of the house from which it started to rest on the killers gloved hand breaking into the house. All in one smooth flowing shot, very impressive. Add to this lots of close ups, strange angles, free flowing camera movements and a nice color scheme, and we have a very good looking film. Acting is OK, most of the lead characters are a little bit bland. While the film does contain a nice amount of nudity, violence and gore it is perhaps a little more restrained than you might expect, except for a scene towards the end of the film where a woman has her arm chopped off with an axe, how much blood?! Having said that the murders are very well done, and Dario films them with style, like the rest of the film. Script wise, I liked the twists and turns but the reasons for some of them didn't make much sense. And one or two bits stray into silly horror film cliché, like the dog attacking the girl, my least favorite sequence in the film. Overall a very good horror mystery. Make sure you listen and pay attention otherwise you may miss some vital plot points, like it appears some of the people who have reviewed it on Flixster did. One negative would be that once you have watch tenebrae once I don't think many people would be interested in watching it again, as once all the twists are revealed it loses its mystery and impact a little. Certainly worth a rent, recommended. The negative aspect of the film is the same with all of Argento's work. Its really rather dumb. The story and situations are never once believable. Despite being one of Argento's more compelling stories in a film, its still pretty far fetched. Many of the sequences, despite being frightening, are completely implausible when thought of, which definitely lessens the initial shock (the dog chase sticks out in particular). Also, there's not a single interesting or sympathetic character here, which is needed to make the deaths more effective. The acting, outside of the always enthusiastic and watchable John Saxon (who should have gotten the lead role instead of a small supporting one), is very wooden. Apparently Anthony Franciosa was drunk throughout filming and it shows. Despite all this, the film is still very suspenseful and moves at a quick pace. One other aspect that I really enjoyed about "Tenebre" was the seemingly self-referential moments. The critics of the main character (who is an author) accuse him of misogyny or attempt to read into subtexts of his work which he knows simply don't exist, both of which Argento went through. "Tenebre" is recommended if far from perfect.

• Keiko A

  
  Directed by Dario Argento and starring Anthony Franciosa, Christian Borromeo, Mirella D'Angelo, Veronica Lario, Ania Pieroni and Eva Robin's. Dario Argento's surprisingly underrated film that was hated by critics in the early 80s in a cut version under the title of… More
  Directed by Dario Argento and starring Anthony Franciosa, Christian Borromeo, Mirella D'Angelo, Veronica Lario, Ania Pieroni and Eva Robin's. Dario Argento's surprisingly underrated film that was hated by critics in the early 80s in a cut version under the title of Unsane. Today some critics hail this as the best movie he ever wrote or made, Personally my favourite by Dario and one of my top 5 is Deep Red by far. But Tenebrae deals with many emotional themes unlike so of his other films including the horror of dealing with your own personality and explaining your existence and will to live. It's start of as your regular stalk and slash movie like any low grade slasher but then turns into something that nightmares couldn't even hold. Peter Neal is a famous American writer promoting his new book Tenebrae that has just become a bestseller in Italy. Before his arrival a shoplifter is murdered in her home by an unseen assailant with a razor and stuffs the books pages in her mouth. During his stay two lesbians are killed in their home in the same way as the shoplifter and so on. The Killer claims to be "cleansing the streets"-Page 106 Tebebrae. Peter Neal suspects the killer is the new station agent or his best friend that works over there...But in your judgment who is the killer? [IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/1zqpj4o.jpg[/IMG] Before making this film Dario says that a fan stalked him and left death threats on his phone and after this incident it became the basic plot for Tenebrae. 90% for story: I showed Tenebrae to one of my friends who is into Mystery books and films and so on and it became a favourite of hers easy, Its compelling and gripping and the ending is a big WTF. Though you need to watch this more than once to understand it and the Themes that imply with the film. 95% for characters: to understand who our killer is you need to view this film in a whole direction then just looking but listen and keep your ears open to what they say and watch what they do, Another plus for the dialogue that fits so well with all this stuff. Some of the characters are pretty disturbing if you understand there back story's and there bridge to sexuality. 80% for acting: Not always good John Saxon shows us he can still act and along with Anthony Franciosa who plays our main lead. Nothing to brilliant but also some exceptionally good dialogue that's not to complex to understand. 87% for special effects: They look a bit outdate but they still hold up a good and I won't argue with the result, and also the film had the world's longest tracking scene until the children of men. 90% for everything else: If you like these kinds of movies Tenebrae is a clear example of creative mystery movie. By the end Tenebrae is essential viewing for any fan of mystery films or Giallo's in general. BTW my friend guessed the ending by the middle of the movie because she is so good at these kinds of films. And she listens closely to the dialogue being said. Keiko's score 89-100. BBFC Rating-18 (Edited version)(Banned from 1984-2003) Eirin Rating-R-15 (Uncut)

• AJ V

  
  A great mystery horror movie, with brilliant twists and turns. I think some of the actor's could have done a better job, but it's not distracting or anything like that. This movie is really awesome visually, as Argento's movies usually are. If you like Argento's… More
  A great mystery horror movie, with brilliant twists and turns. I think some of the actor's could have done a better job, but it's not distracting or anything like that. This movie is really awesome visually, as Argento's movies usually are. If you like Argento's work, you'll like this movie. I highly recommend it.

• Jeff "

  
  Tenebre is another solid work of horrifying genius from horror maestro Dario Argento. After Inferno, his fans wanted him to get back to what put him on the map, the giallo Italian horror genre. He already dealt with supernatural horror with Suspiria and Inferno, and Argento wanted to… More
  Tenebre is another solid work of horrifying genius from horror maestro Dario Argento. After Inferno, his fans wanted him to get back to what put him on the map, the giallo Italian horror genre. He already dealt with supernatural horror with Suspiria and Inferno, and Argento wanted to finish his three mother trilogy, but waited instead. He locked himself away and wrote Tenebre a fine return to form and one of his best films since Suspiria. However this film is no Deep Red, it comes close. The story and acting are top notch, and you have everything you'd expect from a Dario Argento film. Tenebre is a solid film and is a fine return to what Argento did before Suspiria, not saying that Suspiria was bad, in fact it was a masterpiece of horror, but this is still a solid film in the vein of Deep Red and is great to see Argento do a similar film after he dealt within the supernatural horror genre.

• Anthony L

  
  Apart from the predictable ending (or was it?) this is one of Argento's best. It's certainly one of his more commercial films, although it was banned for a long time but I think that helped with its notoriety in the end. I love it and I can't get enough of its classic… More
  Apart from the predictable ending (or was it?) this is one of Argento's best. It's certainly one of his more commercial films, although it was banned for a long time but I think that helped with its notoriety in the end. I love it and I can't get enough of its classic giallo style. He did it beautifully in the 70's and continued brilliantly in the 80's, challenging censorship and making fucking good cinema. Recommended!

• Conner R

  
  This is one of my favorites from Dario Argento. It's such a perfect horror movie. It's got some great brutal death scenes and a great suspenseful plot that keeps you guessing until the end. The style is amazing and some of the shots are just incredible. The amount of… More
  This is one of my favorites from Dario Argento. It's such a perfect horror movie. It's got some great brutal death scenes and a great suspenseful plot that keeps you guessing until the end. The style is amazing and some of the shots are just incredible. The amount of planning that went into this was obvious, if only locking yourself away for three months could create genius like this all of the time.

• Bruce B

  
  One of Dario Argento many films, this one came out in 1982. As with all Argento nothing short of spectacular. right from the beginning we see some graphic murder scenes, a knife to the neck and if that?s not enough, lets slash her throat. My copy came from the Mill Creek Drive in… More
  One of Dario Argento many films, this one came out in 1982. As with all Argento nothing short of spectacular. right from the beginning we see some graphic murder scenes, a knife to the neck and if that?s not enough, lets slash her throat. My copy came from the Mill Creek Drive in Movie 50 pack, and you could tell it was a copy of a vhs tape as it had some imperfections in the showing, but for price I paid for the Mill Creek Collection, I can't complain. Get it and add it to the collection. Prepare for plenty of blood and get ready for a outstanding twist at the end.

• Robert C

  
  As a big fan of Argento, it's easy for me to ramble on about his films. But I'm also aware of the fact that not everyone enjoys them as much as I do, so I won't prattle on too much. But if you enjoy a good horror/thriller with lots of woman in perril, cheesy (yet… More
  As a big fan of Argento, it's easy for me to ramble on about his films. But I'm also aware of the fact that not everyone enjoys them as much as I do, so I won't prattle on too much. But if you enjoy a good horror/thriller with lots of woman in perril, cheesy (yet oddly effective) music and gallons of blood...then this is the film for you!

• Tim S

  
  Great slasher movie.

• Lafe F

  
  One of Dario Argento's gritty blood-soaked murder mystery masterpieces. A famous mystery writer's novel becomes the inspiration for a string of violent killings in contemporary and scenic Rome. There are many characters and motives in this intricately plotted murder mystery… More
  One of Dario Argento's gritty blood-soaked murder mystery masterpieces. A famous mystery writer's novel becomes the inspiration for a string of violent killings in contemporary and scenic Rome. There are many characters and motives in this intricately plotted murder mystery to keep you guessing. It has lots of gorey setpiece killings in brightly lit settings, skillfully directed by Dario Argento using his famous assortment of shots and angles. The story twists and turns keep it very interesting. It was a fun and bloody experience.

• Antony S

  
  My first Argento, and a worthy introduction to giallo. This is definately one of his best, a tale of a copycat killer mimicking the events of a popular, seemingly mysogynistic novel until the author becomes the next target. Saxon gives a decent performance, but sadly everyone is… More
  My first Argento, and a worthy introduction to giallo. This is definately one of his best, a tale of a copycat killer mimicking the events of a popular, seemingly mysogynistic novel until the author becomes the next target. Saxon gives a decent performance, but sadly everyone is dubbed for most international versions, dampening its effect. There is a particularly superb tracking shot over the roof of a couple's house that has to be seen by all. Hate to rag on Argento, but the opening keyboards work HORRIBLY with the otherwise baroque imagery. Oh, and most of the acting's awful.

• Matt P

  
  Argento moves us out of the nightmare with this one and gives his version of the deranged killer of the 80s. There were some great murder scenes in this movie (which is to be expected) and the story is engaging enough, but something was missing from this movie. I'm not sure what.

• Ryan M

  
  4.9/10 There's always a speculation that an author gets their ideas from somewhere; from someone, and from something. Horror novelists, such as Stephen King, for example, know their genre because there were instances in their life where they had lived it.… More
  4.9/10 There's always a speculation that an author gets their ideas from somewhere; from someone, and from something. Horror novelists, such as Stephen King, for example, know their genre because there were instances in their life where they had lived it. Maybe that's what's going on here. "Tenebre" is Dario Argento's most personal movie; which could either lead it down the road of inaccessibility or masterful craft. I pick the first thing. I like what the movie is doing. I absorbed what the story was trying to do, and what its messages were. Still, there's nothing much more to "Tenebre" than a good style, a couple typically entertaining kill scenes, and an always good score from Claudio Simonetti and the gang. There are better Argento films out there, and while this is by no means his worst movie, "Tenebre" fails to be a solid example of why Argento strikes me as influential. Oh, what a great movie this could have made. Focusing mainly on murders committed by an obsessive fan of some novelist (whose newest work is called "Tenebre"), the film is one that could have done so much. It mostly involves the novelist (Anthony Franciosa), his assistant (Daria Nicolodi), and his agent (John Saxon) as they attempt to solve these murders, which all somehow link to the works of the writer. The story switches on-and-off from actually making sense to not making much sense at all. This is not a flaw of most Dario Argento films (in fact, most of his movies are pretty darn nonsensical), but it just doesn't work out too well here. "Tenebre" is decently directed up until you happen upon the evaluation of the story, which is flawed due to its personal themes and lack of focus. I like what it's trying to do, but with a story so uneven and a twist ending so lame, you can't really end up with a particularly good movie. But if you're going to watch it, then allow me to give you some tips. At the time, it was pretty violent, and now; not so much. This means that now, you can watch "Tenebre" in all its violent, un-cut glory; and this is what I did. This is the cut that people warmed up to, and for some reason, I still couldn't find enough to admire or enjoy. It's only ten minutes of footage compared to the "cut" version, but that would probably make the difference for many. It's an appropriately stylized film; a giallo horror movie, no doubt. The kill scenes are well-directed, I'll give them that, but they feel shallow without brilliance and genuine wit. The film is about the perversion of both novelists (of horror) and serial killers; but fails to shed complex light on either. Some might enjoy what Argento has provided us with, but I have expectations for every movie, and "Tenebre" did not meet mine. The gory and gruesome "Tenebre" has ambitions and dreams to be a good horror movie. To some people, that is exactly what it is. But I compare, compare, and for the third time, I compare. This might be the problem; myself. I could have liked "Tenebre", which ends up being an only mildly engaging/entertaining horror yarn, but there's not enough flare and beauty to keep it from stumbling perhaps a bit more than it needs to. But if it sounds like your kind of thing, then go for it. Blood and gore, nudity, and admittedly cool kill scenes. Maybe that's your idea of a good time. Most of the time, it would be MY idea of a good time; but "Tenebre" has only half the soul that such a movie as this requires.

• Daniel P

  
  Up until the final act, <i>Tenebre</i> plays as a fairly impressive giallo thriller, completely with the expected atrocious acting from all but the two leads, bad dubbing, and interesting camerawork. The film rattles along at a nice pace and has a well thought out plot… More
  Up until the final act, <i>Tenebre</i> plays as a fairly impressive giallo thriller, completely with the expected atrocious acting from all but the two leads, bad dubbing, and interesting camerawork. The film rattles along at a nice pace and has a well thought out plot (for an Argento flim, at least) which is nicely self-reflexive. <p>Anthony Franciosa is Peter Neal, a bestselling author of trashy whodunit thriller-cum-horror stories who comes to Rome to promote his latest novel, <i>Tenebre</i> (which translates from the Italian as 'darkness'). On arrival at his hotel room, he is met by police who tell him that a woman was violently murdered, pages of his novel found stuffed in her mouth. Soon more bodies pile up; the killings all modelled on events copied from Peter Neal's new book. <p>Amid the bloodshed, one of Peter's friends, Tilde, a feminist lesbian journalist no less, criticises him as an author of what she says are sexist books, filled with misogynist violence against women who are not characters so much as ciphers. Interestingly, it appears that writer/director Dario Argento initially supports this argument by having Tilde herself brutally murdered while half-naked; Tilde is just a cipher herself. For the first hour or so in fact, all the victims are women, often half naked, all beautiful, and pretty much exclusively dressed in white, all the better to contrast with the lurid red blood. That is until the first of many twists, when it seems Argento's true beliefs on the argument are hinted at. <p>Save for a technically impressive but fairly redundant one-take crane shot that rotates and twists round an entire house early on in the film, David Fincher style, <i>Tenebre</i> for the most part has less show-off angles than usual, but instead concentrates on imagery and energy, and is enlivened with an awesome music score by former members of Goblin. The twists mostly work, though better performances would have helped in suspending disbelief. Apparently, Dario Argento had originally wanted Christopher Walken in the part that went to Anthony Franciosa, which would undoubtedly have made for a better film, and may have tipped this closer to an al-out classic like <i>Deep Red</i>. Still this is a pretty great film that I would happily watch again.

• Ed Fucking H

  
  Why the fuck have I been sleeping on Argento for so long? No clue, but up until now the only film I had seen by him was Phantasm which I had mixed feelings about. This is a very well done Giallo, and I honestly didn't see that ending coming at all. Lots of good performances, and… More
  Why the fuck have I been sleeping on Argento for so long? No clue, but up until now the only film I had seen by him was Phantasm which I had mixed feelings about. This is a very well done Giallo, and I honestly didn't see that ending coming at all. Lots of good performances, and murder scenes for sure. Required viewing.

• Marcus W

  
  Like Burton with Planet of the Apes and Jeunet with Alien Resurrection, here Dario Argento proves that he too can make mistakes. I've seen enough of Argento's work to know that this is him merely coasting and it's a massive disappointment. There are moments of quality -… More
  Like Burton with Planet of the Apes and Jeunet with Alien Resurrection, here Dario Argento proves that he too can make mistakes. I've seen enough of Argento's work to know that this is him merely coasting and it's a massive disappointment. There are moments of quality - like when the dog chases the girl, but at the end of the day it turns out that Argento is only human after all.

• Christopher B

  
  I find as I get older I'm also getting a lot softer. I see movies now that when I was in my twenties or early thirties I'd call studio trash. Now I shrug my shoulders and say "it is what it is". I'm not quite as reactionary as I once was. Of course my… More
  I find as I get older I'm also getting a lot softer. I see movies now that when I was in my twenties or early thirties I'd call studio trash. Now I shrug my shoulders and say "it is what it is". I'm not quite as reactionary as I once was. Of course my sentiment that Forest Gump is a zero star film had a lot to do with the Oscar and everyone going around saying it was a classic. So in my eyes, since it wasn't the greatest film of all time and didn't live up to the hype it was a turd... which is ridiculous. It is what it is. On the other side of the coin I though Argento's films were the stupidest pieces of dreck I'd ever seen. Granted there was gore, but I'd never seen such stupid characters doing stupid things in a stupid story. I would believe the Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner Show was a fact based documentary before I could believe in just one of his poorly written characters and convoluted setups. Now I shrug my shoulders and say "It is what it is", and surprisingly have a lot of fun with his films. Since enjoying the much maligned Mother of Tears I've gone into his back catalogue and have really enjoyed films that I previously despised, and this is one of them. Sure it's stupid, but it's pretty damned entertaining as long as you don''t sit there angrily going, "Yeah right!" and "C'mon!". Plus it has one of Argento's best kills of all time in it. So shut off your critical thinking and sit back and enjoy the carnage... I hope I'm not starting to sound like Ben Lyons. Yikes.

• ken j

  
  One of Dario Argentos best pretty much a perfect masterpeice of a movie the only thing it had wrong was one of those usual confuseing not sure why its there scenes most italian horror or thriller movies have. The story is about a killer on the loose in rome and he or she is taken… More
  One of Dario Argentos best pretty much a perfect masterpeice of a movie the only thing it had wrong was one of those usual confuseing not sure why its there scenes most italian horror or thriller movies have. The story is about a killer on the loose in rome and he or she is taken there murders from a novel by a visiting author during what is his first overseas tour really good effect good storyline and enough blood to keep most happy a must for Argento fans or fans of italian horror films

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