Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Dario Argento
Stars: Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma, Christian Borromeo
Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/2WOYhkI
Synopsis
Peter Neal, the author of the mystery book Tenebrae, rides his bicycle to the San Francisco airport, and he’s about to fly to Rome. He gets a phone call, and someone steals his bag while he’s not paying attention. He finds the bag around the corner, but obviously, someone has tampered with it.
Meanwhile, girl in Rome shoplifts the Tenebrae book from a department store, but she gets caught. She offers the security guy her home address to let her go, and he agrees. She’s attacked by a homeless guy on the street, which seems to be treated like a typical day in Rome. She gets home and someone kills her, then stuffs her mouth full of pages torn from the book. The killer then takes her photo once she’s dead.
Peter arrives in Rome and is immediately called a sexist for writing his trashy book. We meet his Agent, Bullmer, who tells Peter that he’s a major success in Italy; he’s got all kinds of publicity events lined up. Peter opens his bag and finds his stuff was trashed and covered in blood, which happened back at the San Francisco airport. A homicide detective then questions him about the dead shoplifter, but Peter was on the plane at the time and doesn’t know anything about it. The detective thinks that since Peter wrote the book, there might be a connection. The book involves a killer who uses an open-edged razor, and that’s how the girl was killed as well.
We then cut away to a topless girl giving a show on the beach to four men at once. Then the girl and three guys attack the fourth man. This is all a flashback by what we have to assume is the killer.
Two girls, one of whom is topless in every scene, live together in an apartment building and are arguing about some guy they both like, and one soon becomes the next victim of the killer. The second girl soon follows.
Peter starts regretting ever having written the Tenebrae book, and then he sees Jane, his ex, who is supposed to be back home in the USA. Is she stalking him?
A girl is being chased by an insane dog, and she finds an open door and goes inside. It’s the killer’s hideout. She finds his photos, papers, and even the cut-out letters he uses to make secret notes. She stuffs her pockets full of evidence. The killer comes in and cleans things up, starting with her.
Peter’s secretary spots Jane on the road again. She definitely is in town. Peter and his assistant track down their suspect, a creepy reporter, who they see murdered with an axe to the forehead.
We cut back to that girl we saw on the beach earlier, and this time we see her killed with a knife. Peter tells Bullmer the agent that he wants to leave Rome. Bullmer suggests renting a house in the hills instead until this all blows over. We then see that Bullmer is having an affair with Jane. That’s why she’s in town. Soon, Bullmer is stabbed in a crowded mall area.
Peter’s assistant remembers that he saw the report admit to the murders just before he was killed, so who killed Bullmer? He doesn’t get a chance to tell anyone about this revelation because he’s next to die.
Jane calls Peter’s secretary Anne, but before Anne arrives, Jane gets put to the axe in the goriest scene of the film. The female homicide detective arrives, and she’s next on the death list.
Finally, we find out who the murderer is…
Commentary
The eighties soundtrack really stands out in this one. It’s pretty badly dubbed on Shudder, but I originally saw it in Italian with subtitles, so it’s available both ways. There are a lot of long, sweeping, moody shots of the interior and exterior of some interesting buildings, which is very interesting to watch.
According to the trivia, this is actually some mild flavor of post-apocalyptic film, which explains why everything in Rome is so deserted and isolated. Other than a general lack of people, there’s nothing specific or even obvious about this idea; in my first viewing, I missed it completely.