Giallo is a genre that not even a lot of people who would consider themselves horror aficionados are familiar with. It’s a fairly obscure type of Italian movie that starts to drift pretty much into slasher-film territory, even though they aren’t strictly slashers. While Giallo movies and slashers are definitely two distinct movements, they do share their similarities. Giallo usually features a masked killer who’s generally in a black raincoat with his identity concealed until the end of the film, who usually kills predominantly women, although this isn’t always the case.
The reason the killer’s identity is hidden is that these movies are based on a special type of crime novel that was popular leading up into the 70s, where Giallo films really became popular. In fact, the word Giallo itself is the Italian word for “yellow”, which is the color of the paperbacks that were commonly sold that served as the inspiration for these movies, sometimes specifically being adapted into Giallo films. Let’s take a look at some entries into the genre that you definitely aren’t going to want to pass up.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The Girl Who Knew Too Much is considered by many to be the very first Giallo film ever to hit theaters, and it was the beginning of a very lucrative career in the genre for filmmaker Mario Bava, who to this day is known as one of the most respected Giallo directors in history. The film was released in 1963, which may come as a shock to anyone familiar with Giallo who somehow hasn’t seen this film. It follows the story of a girl traveling to Rome who witnesses a murder. The police don’t believe her until she begins witnessing a whole string of them, all of the victims being chosen in alphabetical order.
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
A film by one of the masters of Giallo Dario Argento, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage came out in 1970, to make double the cost of its production in the box office at 1,000,000 USD. It takes a lot of cues from a book called The Screaming Mimi, which had also been made into a film by Hollywood. When an American writer named Sam takes a vacation to Rome, he sees the attack and murder of a young woman at an art gallery. The authorities presume that the attacker was a serial killer targeting and murdering young women. Of course, Sam gets caught up in the investigation and begins to receive threatening phone calls.
A Bay Of Blood
A Bay Of Blood, a film by Mario Bava (that’s known by entirely too many names such as Twitch Of The Death Nerve, Carnage, or Blood Bath) was released in 1971. Along with Black Christmas, this film is often listed as perhaps having all of the ingredients to make a slasher film, and when we look at the plot, it appears strikingly similar to something like Friday The 13th, at least in setting anyway.
It deals with murders that happen surrounding the bay the film is named after. There’s a huge emphasis in this film on graphic violence, more so than in many Giallo films, and it’s widely considered to be Bava’s most violent.
Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key
Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key is a film directed by Sergio Martino and released in 1972. It also takes a lot of elements from gothic horror author Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat. The film tells the story of an isolated couple who entertains guests to keep themselves occupied. Oliviero, the husband in the couple, frequently abuses his wife, which causes suspicion when a local woman dies. The next day, Oliviero finds their maid dead and hides her corpse to make sure that no one is too quick to accuse him. As the suspicion mounts, double-crosses are made, new details are revealed, and more and more bodies pile up.
Suspiria
The beginning of Dario Argento’s witch-themed trilogy, and arguably the best part of the said trilogy, is Suspiria. Not the one that came out in 2018, which even if it did stray from the basic framework Argento put in place, was an incredible film, but no, Suspiria from 1977. It tells the story of a young dancer who visits a dancing academy after hearing that it’s one of the most prestigious places of learning for dancers in the world. After she gets there one night and has a rather strange encounter, she returns and won’t take no for an answer. Once she starts her studies there, she realizes her friend is acting strange.
She’s speaking of disappearances and witches and some sort of grand conspiracy so she decides to investigate. While some people will say that this film isn’t exactly Giallo since it’s supernatural, it’s the first thought for a lot of people and should definitely be looked into.
What Have You Done To Solange?
This film is really well respected in the Giallo community, and it holds a pretty high score in most of it’s reviews. While there’s a certain amount of sex-appeal that goes into every Giallo film since that’s apparently an important part of what makes a Giallo film a Giallo film, this movie just kind of commits to that and sets it in an all-girl Catholic school. While the unapologetic sexuality of the film might not be in everyone’s wheelhouse, it’s still worth a watch.
All The Colors Of The Dark
All The Colors Of The Dark is a film from 1972, directed by Sergio Martino. Now, while Giallo films are all known for having quite a psychedelic, hallucinogenic type of feel to them, this movie takes it to the extreme, eventually completely blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Jane is worried about a nightmare that she’s been having. She’s had a hard life, and saw her mother die. What do her friends recommend to her? Medication? Tried it, didn’t work. Therapy? Tried it… Didn’t work. A black mass to share praise for Satan himself? Perfect. Except that this is when her troubles really begin.
Don’t Torture A Duckling
One important thing to get out of the way before talking about this film is that it’s graphic. It’s not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, but that being said that isn’t a challenge. It deals with extremely graphic subject matter, and if you have any psychological triggers due to trauma, this film should probably be avoided.
That being said, if you’re still interested, it also provides a good commentary on the sexuality of the Catholic church. The film tells us about a detective who’s investigating a rash of child murders in an extremely superstitious town, and is the first of important Italian director Lucio Fulci’s films to start experimenting with gore.
Deep Red
Deep Red is yet another entry on this list by Dario Argento. It came out in the year 1975, and as we neglected to mention Suspiria’s “killer” (hehe) soundtrack, we should probably give the band Goblin their due here. They’re an insanely cool psychedelic progressive rock band who’s collaborated with Argento frequently, specifically on Deep Red and Suspiria. Dark Red stars your normal Giallo killer clad in black gloves, only this time he’s being investigated by a medium and a piano player. This film has inspired both David Cronenberg’s film Scanners and Halloween II.
Lizard In A Woman’s Skin
A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin is another film on this list by Lucio Fulci, being released in 1971. While Giallo films usually have pretty interesting plots, this one is absolutely wild. It follows the story of a girl who begins to have psychedelic nightmares of murder, debauchery, and mayhem. When she dreams that she commits a murder, she wakes up to find out that there’s been an investigation opened into the murder of her recently deceased neighbor.
