Tenebre: Blood, Guts and Techno Music

Today's horror film was Dario Argento's "Tenebre" An Italian horror film released in Italy in 1982. Now the version I watched isn't the complete version, I don't believe its possible to rent the complete version in the U.S. Mostly because its heavily censored here for gore.

To really understand this film and all that it is you have to know a bit about Dario Argento. Argento is often (or was in his prime) referred to as the Italian Alfred Hitchcock. His movies had a certain suspense and tension that felt very Hitchcockian. The difference is the gore Argento uses in his films. I believe, at least in the 1980s Argento was the most heavily censored director here in America. But that's somewhat what made them Argento films....that and the music he used.

He used a band called Goblin for most of his soundtracks in the 1980's and they are all stellar and almost become a character in the film. In "Tenebre" it is almost the best part.

The story of "Tenebre" which I think is Latin for Darkness, is pretty generic. An American writer moves to Rome to write his next book. Once there brutal murders start happening that mirror, or are inspired by the deaths in his latest book, "Tenebre" He becomes convinced that he can solve who the murderer is, and soon finds himself a target.

Its fairly predictable, especially as all the suspects one by one are killed off to the point that it is almost spelling it out for you. This was pretty disappointing especially since "Suspiria" (one of Argento's previous films before this one) was so good. But the death scenes are pretty good, especially the killer music by Goblin that kicks in whenever someone is about to be let go.

The soundtrack is complete dance techno, that really makes you almost want to dance yet its got a real creepy vibe thumping through it at the same time. It really is the best part of the film in my opinion. I dare say the score may be better than "Suspiria" and that is saying a lot. I'd say its almost worth watching for the soundtrack...but then again you can go do a search for "Tenebre Goblin" and most likely hear it that way.

All in all it had some good tension and some nifty unique death scenes, but it really never lived up to my expectations. Its decent but certainly not on par with some of the other Horror efforts of the 1980's. I'd say it is worth checking out on television if its ever on, although I doubt very much it every will be.