Horror films just aren’t what they used to be. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Like every generation that came before the current one, we are a nation of moaners, of the grass is always greener, of it was better in my day. It’s all been said before and each time we look back in nostalgia, we continue a trend that will continue long into our futures, far after the point we that believed that things stopped being good anymore. That being said, horror films really aren’t what they used to be.
Modern horror films can be split into three different categories: The snore fest, the gratuitously violent and the remake. Films like Ouija and The Conjuring fall very much within the first camp, using their powers of non-action to vanquish the malevolent forces by boring them to tears. The Saw and Hostel films, however, mistake gore for terror and whilst initial models of the theme were very effective, they have been stretched and stretched until even their makers don’t believe in them anymore. At least remakes agree that things used to be better before. Whilst original versions of The Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were genuinely terrifying, though, their counterparts are somewhat more tepid. In short, the large part of horror releases that we are promised and tired, overdone and just not as good as their historic counterparts.
Looking back in time can teach us about when horror films were at their best and there is a point in cinema which is a benchmark for all horror aficionados, no matter how they choose to use it in their modern work. Giallo cinema is perhaps one of the most underrated and brushed over genres in cinema but its presence is vital to the production of many modern day horror films. Named after the yellow pages of the books from which it was lifted, Giallo is a stalwart Italian invention, impossible to miss in its signature style. Whilst flowery titles are a given in Italian cinema, Giallo films also tend to gravitate around a series of brutal and bizarre murders, undertaken by a masked or gloved (or both) figure. Add in a hallucinating (and inexplicably naked) woman, gruesome violence and irritatingly vague witnesses and hey presto, you’ve got a Giallo.
Whilst the films themselves seem somewhat caricatured, they are a genuinely interest moment for cinema, broadening the boundaries of censorship and artistic license. The figurehead of the Giallo movement and the man responsible for a slew of bloody, psychedelic films is Dario Argento. The man is beyond prolific; Argento’s back catalogue reads like an archive of every nightmare ever had by anyone in the world, ever. It’s pretty dark stuff. Although Argento is still working – most recently rumoured to be funding a new version of The Sandman with Iggy Pop – it is his work during the ‘70s and ‘80s which saw his artistic vision at its peak.
Argento’s 1982 film Tenebrae is a classic version of the genre and a great way into Argento’s world. The film is a bloody murder mystery, following the trail of a series of killings in Rome based suspiciously on the novels of central character Peter Neal. Narratively speaking, the film doesn’t break any barriers but it is in its collection of cinematic techniques that it really stands out. Whilst many of Argento’s films are highly visual, Tenebrae strips the location of its identity, representing Rome as a non-descript stark landscape. The film is void of a geographical identity and therefore, seems possible to happen anywhere. The film also plays with the idea of the single, hooded killer, using a different type of concealment to show how the one most guilty can hide in plain sight. The film, whilst a little gimmicky, is undeniably intelligent and although many of its smoke and mirrors will be familiar to modern audiences, it was at the height of its game at the time.
Whilst not strictly singularly Giallo, Suspiria is a film equally worth watching, even if for entirely different reasons. Whilst Tenebrae used traditional elements of Giallo which were twisted to surprise its audience, Suspiria falls more neatly into the gothic horror category, containing elements here and there of the Giallo style. Set in a German dance school, the film follows a series of bizarre and gruesome deaths that seem to befall the young students. Whilst the plot is even more pared down than Tenebrae, the film is eerily beautiful, showing unimaginable craftsmanship on the parts of Argento and his film crew. Although the film was criticised at the time for being style over substance, it uses visuals as more than just an aesthetic tool, creating an oppressive and loaded film world, the very stuff of nightmares.
Argento’s influence and the path of Giallo can be traced (somewhat loosely) throughout cinematic history. Body horror expert David Cronenburg is one of many who openly references the visceral terror of Giallo in his films, utilising the cartoonish gore to get away with a whole lot more. In films like Videodrome and Scanners, the shock factor is ramped up so high that it is often unclear what is happening on screen. Whilst the Saw franchise presented its more disturbing moments with head on, closed in brutality, Cronenburg’s films do the same thing in a much more blasé manner. Horror is integral to the world of Cronenburg and indeed, Giallo. Whilst it is used for shock factor, its feels less insidious than some of the modern day counterparts. It is grounded with cinematic intent, with not a smidgen of gratuitous violence in sight (well, only a little).
More recently, Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio has referenced the Giallo movement in a way much more unsettlingly subtle. Whilst we think of the genre as a volume-turned-up, no-holes-barred type of cinema, many great Giallo films are incredibly nuanced and affecting. Set in a sound studio, the film plots the mental breakdown of Toby Jones’ sound recorder as he finds and records suitable noises for an Italian horror film. Whilst the film never shows anything violent or overtly disturbing, it is incredibly unsettling and deranged. Although not based entirely in the Giallo genre, it picks elements here and there to create a film that will stay with you and follow you into your nightmares.