Review of Tenebrae

Introduction

Having recently seen some supposed horror ‘classics’ that I was sorely disappointed with – Driller Killer and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre among them – I looked forward to watching Dario Argento’s Tenebrae with the hope that it would renew my faith in old-school horror.

The synopsis: a horror novelist, Peter Neal, arrives in Rome on a promotional tour of his newest bestseller, Tenebrae. But shortly after, a series of murders occur that mimic the crimes in his book. Neal is quickly suspected, but then is discounted from the investigation by the Italian police. But eager to find the murderer – and perhaps intrigued by him too – Neal decides to conduct his own investigation.

Video

Anchor Bay have created a great picture, again proving their commitment to marginalised titles. The print used is much cleaner than I would have expected considering the film was made over 20 years ago and under budget constraints. The detail within frame is sharp and the colours are strong enough, although they still have the look reminiscent of 80’s movie (see Halloween for example).

Audio

We are given a choice of either a 2.0 Surround track or a DD 5.1 remix, but unfortunately some of the actors are dubbed to make their English more understandable, and pretty badly also, making the speech slightly out of synch with the actors’ mouths. The 5.1 track is suprisingly very good, with more use of the surround speakers than other remixed titles have.

The music, a kind of electronica soundtrack by the group ‘Goblin’ is so-so: the opening piece is eerily exciting and reminiscent of Carpenter’s horror movies. However, other parts of the score (the tune that plays over the extras menu) seems to me downright silly, taking away any tension that might be present in the scene.

Features

Anchor Bay, the champions of cult horror for some years now, have included quite a selection on this DVD: a commentary and interview with Argento, an analysis of the film segment, two documentaries, an alternative set of end credit, plus the usual trailer and biographies.

The commentary by the director, composer and a journalist moderator could have been great due to the evident enthusiasm Argento has for his work but unfortunately does not quite live up to expectations because of the weakness of his English. Often it is very difficult to tell what he is saying and at times he struggles to express himself.

The interview is better, as the interviewer leads Argento and his partner (also one of the film`s stars), Daria Nicolodi, is there too, and her grasp of English is significantly better. This runs in at 37mins. The film analysis segment is an interesting extra – one that I can’t remember having seen before, despite it being such a cheaply produced and obvious extra. Here ‘Xavier Mendik’ analyses the film’s themes, reading from his essay on Tenebrae.

The documentaries are another nice inclusion on this disc. A lot of the time it seems when DVD companies have a cult title set for release they include extras with little substance just to make the DVD appear loaded, knowing that fans may see even the slightest thing as essential viewing. Anchor Bay practice this themselves, farcically releasing endless editions of Army of Darkness. Yet although these documentaries are short - neither lasting for more than five minutes - they are a worthwhile inclusion, giving background footage on the making of the film. The first documentary is on the camera equipment used for Argento’s famous Hitchockian long cut at the beginning; the second on how the sound effects were created by foley artists. Together with the interview and commentary, this DVD provides a pretty comprehensive look at the production of Tenebrae.

Conclusion

Perhaps I am simply a product of the Scream generation, but Tenebrae turned out to be another letdown for me. As part of the gore-thriller subgenre, Tenebrae fulfils the former, as this uncut version provides enough blood to satisfy most slasher fans. But as for the ‘thriller’…the detective story is unimaginative and the ending purely contrived. I also didn’t like how the identity of the killer was so obviously kept hidden from us – we only see his hands at work during the murders. I am not a big fan of Argento`s method either: "all style and no substance" is the phrase that springs to mind, with his careless framing and poor editing irritating me.

However, I am told by one friend, a big fan of Argento’s work, that if you like his other movies you are sure to like this one. And so Anchor Bay have kindly provided a superb disc with excellent picture and substantial extras. The menus deserve a mention too, as the designers have managed to make them look great yet still act functionally.