Review: Marcel Walz’s ‘That’s a Wrap’
“As an indie Giallo, ‘That’s a Wrap’ fails to read the room.”
Manic Lust in Neo-Giallo ‘Knife + Heart’
“As a love letter to a cinematic wave of films that were (and are) often dismissed as style devoid of substance, ‘Knife+Heart’ triumphs in both story and genre evolution.”
Emilio Miraglia and the High-Gothic Giallo
“Miraglia’s deliberate interweaving of castles and glimmering blades taps into the one element that both Gothic and giallo art share: the ability to taffy-pull delight from terror. Both Poe and Bava would tip their hats.”
The Diffusion of Giallo in Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Don’t Look Now’
“‘Don’t Look Now’ stands as one of the best iterations of the giallo film. It takes the best elements of the commercialized Italian psycho-thriller and presents them with a Hitchcockian flair.”
Know the Cast: ‘Interceptor’
‘Interceptor’ Cast: A Vague Visages guide for every performer and character in Matthew Reilly’s 2022 Netflix movie.
Review: Maximiliano Contenti’s ‘The Last Matinee’
“‘The Last Matinee’ doesn’t necessarily celebrate gore cinema, but rather the concept that moviegoers can evolve and mature by directly facing their fears.”
Caught in a Bad Romance: On Psychological Horror and Visual Design in ‘Nina Wu’
“‘Nina Wu’ isn’t just a ‘#MeToo thriller’ or ‘slow burn cinema,’ it’s a progressive spin on psychological horror and a master class in visceral visual design.”
TIFF Review: Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’
“The magic of Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’ comes in the form of its suggestion that viewers abandon their expectations and preconceptions about what cinema should be and what a story can be.”
London Film Festival Review: Natalia Meta’s ‘The Intruder’
“‘The Intruder’ interpolates the parts of Giallo without the scares, keeping true to the genre’s more strictly crime-oriented titles like ‘The Cat o’ Nine Tails.'”
TIFF Review: Anita Rocha da Silveira’s ‘Medusa’
“‘Medusa’ is so overstuffed that it can’t find a way to tie its myriad conflicting tones together…”
The Rediscovered: Bertrand Bonello’s ‘Ingrid Caven: Music and Voice’
“In Paris on a night in 2012, or from a screen in 2021, one may see in Ingrid Caven’s ecstatic performance something that touches the raptures.”
Review: Prano Bailey-Bond’s ‘Censor’
“‘Censor’ is an attention-grabbing debut whose true impact will likely only be felt with each subsequent viewing as the inner workings of the film’s darkest moments become clearer. Absolutely essential.”
Genre at Terminal Velocity: The Films of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
“What allows Cattet and Forzani’s films to flourish is that they modify cinematic influences to accommodate today’s instant gratification culture.”
‘The Psychic,’ ‘The Black Cat’ and the Concept of the ‘Final Girl’
“Even though ‘The Psychic’ and ‘The Black Cat’ don’t exist as prominently in the cultural consciousness as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Halloween,’ there is a sense that the Final Girls do exist in the wider world of horror…”
Review: Mickey Reece’s ‘Climate of the Hunter’
“‘Climate of the Hunter’ is fatally enthralled by its own bizarre, overwrought stylistic tics, from the exaggerated performances aiming squarely for the cheap seats to the Wes Anderson-style PSAs…”
The Voluptuous and Telling Pleasures of Obscure Gialli
Julia Bozzone on Quad Cinema’s Fresh Meat: Giallo Restorations, Part Two
Losing My Religion: Unhallowed Irreverence in ‘Alice, Sweet Alice’
“Alice, Sweet Alice’s attitude is an unforgiving one. What, Sole asks, is the difference between Alice, who hurts because she’s sociopathic, and the zealous Ms. Tredoni, who hurts out of righteousness?”
Seeing the Giallo Truth in Dario Argento’s ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’
“One of the great characteristics of ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’ and numerous other giallo films is their willingness to destabilize traditional notions of subjectivity.”
Arrow Video FrightFest Review: Ezequiel Endelman and Leandro Montejano’s ‘Crystal Eyes’
“A loving tribute to the days of switchblades and shoulder pads, ‘Crystal Eyes’ gives credence to the giallo genre through its tongue-in-cheek absurdity and commitment to the transitory styles that defined its later years.”
The Absent Presence in ‘Klute’
“In dramatizing themes of absence and presence so thoroughly, ‘Klute’ embodies a central feature of neo-noir; as a self-conscious revision of a classic film cycle, noir is always both absent and present in neo-noir films.”
