The Giallo Canvas: Art, Excess and Horror Cinema

I'll go the other reviewer's daughter one better and say I absolutely LOVED this book, having spent the last twelve hours with it as soon as it came!While perusing Amazon the other day, I noticed yet another spate of "giallo" books had come out and bought four. I had some trepidation since they usually come from academia and show it: dry, dull, didactic, and written as thesis for others of their ilk, tortuously twisting a film to fit their ...whatever -but not this one. The author's genuine love for the genre came about in the usual way for hard-core fanatics (a gang of teens looking for cinematic thrills & chills at their local video store back in the day). The academics would sell more books if they did what this author has accomplished: talk to (not at) the reader as if they were fairly erudite laymen (which most of us are, you'd be surprised). Anyway, we have many of the same interests when it comes to gialli: art, excess, and a fascination with the many paintings and settings in the worlds of photography, fashion, art, music, theater, and of course, misread clues in these films -and like many of us, I don't think the lady ever met a giallo she didn't like in some way or another.I tried to second-guess her and couldn't (does she connect a "flower with petals of steel" ad deus ex machina in "Tenebrae"? She does. Is she familiar with "the method" in "Masks"? Yes. I've only come across one in my collection that wasn't mentioned: Julio Buch's "Trumpets Of The Apocalypse" (1969) where a musical composition from ancient Sumeria causes the listener to throw themselves out the nearest window (a film that may have inspired another "composer" film, the giallo black comedy "Atrocious Tales Of Love & Death").Although touched on throught, there's also fame, tabloid celebrity, and a killer's TV notoriety which play a part in both "Bad Inclinations" and "Symphony In Blood Red".Also, the author mentions the influence of Alfred Hitchcock and I've yet to see it mentioned anywhere but his legacy also extends to his obviously influential TV show from the 50s-60s. I believe this author would also see the similarities between the plots of "A Lizard In A Woman's Skin" and the episode titled "Nightmare In 4D" as well as "Death Laid An Egg" being a futuristic re-working of the episode "Arthur" with Laurence Harvey & Hazel Court. At my age, I don't know if I should be re-reading books with so much around here unread but I know what I'll be doing the rest of this weekend -after I try and track down a few tips I just picked up from the book: "Berberian Sound Studio", "Knife & Heart", and "The Neon Demon".Anyone with even a passing interest in these kind of films would do well to get this book -you won't be sorry!!!!

My daughter liked the book, but I wasn't impressed.