Il mostro di Venezia (The Monster of Venice) is at once a giallo and an Italian Gothic; it’s a movie that, when I started watching, I immediately knew was meant for me. 

A skull-masked serial killer is swimming the canals of Venice, where he takes women, drowns them and then embalms their bodies so that they stay alive for him forever. This would be the perfect time for some college girls to come to town, but hey, who am I to say what you do when a mad scientist is on the loose, taking over a monastery deep inside the bowels of Venice? Who are we to look down upon him as he hangs out with a bunch of decaying, dead monks?

Reporter Andrea (Luigi Martocci) falls for one of those girls and, when one of her friends is taken, decides to become the giallo hero, trying to do what the police fail to do. 

I don’t get all the hate for this movie, but then again, it hits all my buttons. Krimi killer. Wax museum vibes. Giallo plot. Gothic setting. Jazz. Girls in peril. Defund the giallo police. Defend The Embalmer. 

Director Dino Tavella only made one other movie, A Dirty War. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

The kids today get mad about sex scenes being in movies. Well, let me tell you, this 1995 erotic thriller has one of the wildest romance scenes I’ve ever witnessed, one that, frankly, kind of blows my mind and makes me like this film even more. Which means that yes, sex scenes can be good.

We know that.

Dr. Sarah Taylor (Rebecca De Mornay) dealt with the trauma of being assaulted by her father (Len Cariou) every single day by becoming a criminal psychologist. She doesn’t seem to connect well with humanity. She slept with neighbor Cliff (Dennis Miller) once, and that didn’t go well. But now she’s seen Tony Ramirez (Antonio Banderas) at the mall and ends up dating him. I mean, it’s 1995, Antonio Banderas. You get it. She does too. 

The problem is that she starts. getting threats, the deeper their attraction goes, and her cat gets killed. Then she finds out he’s been keeping files on her and is looking into her boyfriend, who disappeared. Well, here’s the twist. Her father killed her mother and brainwashed her, creating several personalities that live inside her, and she’s basically been stalking and threatening herself. It gets wilder. The ending has been called laughable and idiotic. That’s probably what those who have never seen a giallo would say.

Directed by Peter Hall and written by Lewis A. Green and Jordan Rush, this also has Harry Dean Stanton as a criminal. If it seems like they have chemistry, De Mornay and Stanton dated after meeting during filming One from the Heart, only to break up when she had an affair with Tom Cruise while filming Risky Business.

That sex scene — wow. Saxophone sqwonks, as it always does, as De Mornay licks down Banderas’ spine, bites his rear and then slides behind him to simulate pegging him until she leaves him on his knees, going around a metal cage and sticking her tongue through it so he can suck it. I’ve never witnessed a more transgressive sex scene in a mainstream erotic thriller that wasn’t made direct for video. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: Once upon a time, Yuri was one of Japan’s deadliest assassins, but she’s retired now and spends her days running an underground brothel. A news report about a former colleague who has died under mysterious circumstances doesn’t quite sit right. The dead man’s son is now the target of a military manhunt, and Yuri will do whatever it takes to keep him safe.

 You’ll come for the plentiful action and intrigue but you’ll stay for the great acting, splendid cinematography, and gorgeous period costumes and set design with director Isao Yukisada’s Japanese film Revolver Lily, set in 1924 Tokyo. The army and navy are at odds with each other over a large sum of money for which a third party has different plans (I won’t spoil the details here).

For an anti-war film, Revolver Lily is heavy on the gunplay and martial arts combat. The action is choreographed well, and star Haruka Ayase is terrific in the lead role of Yuri Ozone, a former spy and assassin who has tried to leave her past behind her. Action film devotees know that this never works in the genre. Ozone is often stoic until it comes time to kick butt, and Ayase nails both the dramatic and physical requirements of the role. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 2024 Japanese Academy Awards for her work in the title role, and rightfully so.

The supporting players are also solid, including Jinsei Hamura as Shinta, a young orphan boy with all kinds of dangerous people on his tail; Hiroki Hasegawa as Ozone’s confidant Iwami; and Kotone Furukawa and Kavka Shishido as two employees at the brothel that Ozone runs. Loads of other renowned actors are also featured — too many to name here as the cast is quite sizable. 

Yukisada helms Revolver Lily masterfully. It’s a slow burner that runs 2 hours and 19 minutes, but the film is so well crafted and acted that you won’t be checking your watch at any point. Strongly recommended for cinephiles of all stripes.    

Revolver Lily, from Well Go USA, receives a digital release on January 27, 2026 and lands on Blu-ray and DVD exclusively through Amazon on February 10.

After witnessing a fatal shootout, three waitresses — Nia (Ciera Angelia), Stacey (Bella Chadwick) and Tonya (Robyn Rose) — hide the cash that remains. As you can imagine, this may not end well for any of them.

Nia has an abusive boyfriend. Tonya is trying to get her career moving. Stacey wanted to be a doctor, but caring for her dying father has led her to work at the bar, the same place Nia and Tonya are toiling away. As they just try to do their jobs, they get caught in a battle between drug dealer Victor Brown (Marcus Woods) and second-generation cop Ethan Craig (Don Snipes). Ethan is sure that Victor killed his cop hero father and wants to get revenge. 

Directed by David Y. Chung (The Divorce Lawyer, Dark Deceptions) and written by Jhayla Mosley (Surprise 2, The Deceitful Wife), this has a much better story than you’d expect from a Tubi Original. This one is worth watching.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Nutty Frog wrote this description of the movie on IMDb and man, it’s so all over the place that I had to share it: “At the Grand Hotel in Miami, Carla falls into the arms of her husband, the eminent Dr. Warren, and confesses to having seen Nick, the man he killed in New York, at the airport – Carla was a nightclub dancer. New York and Nick’s lover. Later, Warren accidentally discovered the real reason why Carla agreed to marry him: a combination of Nick, who plotted his death and the enjoyment of his inheritance. The pain arouses Warren’s thirst for blood, and strange events appear that will force Detective Andrew to intervene.”

Carla (Libertad Leblanc) has killed her pimp Nick (Carlos Piñar), and her husband and therapist, Dr. Warren (Riccardo Garrone), helps her get rid of the body. But this is a giallo, so she keeps seeing Nick, and it’s driving her insane. Or she is still sleeping with Nick, who is still alive, and they want to take Dr. Warren’s money. Or maybe he was abusing her, and that sent her over the edge. It’s never clear, but isn’t that why we watch giallo? Somehow, the giallo police — Andrew (Tony Kendall) — are so bad at solving this case that they disappear until right before the movie ends.

Shot in Miami by an Italian and Spanish team of filmmakers, this was directed and co-written by Luis Marquina. The best part is the sitcom romance Andrew has with Marta (Loredana Giustini), who, in one wacky scene, accidentally takes LSD.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Man, Joe Eszterhas had the 80s neo-noir erotic thriller game all figured out. This is his first of the genre, but it’d be followed by Basic Instinct, Sliver, and Jade, which are three examples of this very American version of giallo. 

Jagged Edge was directed by Richard Marquand. Yes, the same man who directed Return of the Jedi. He also directed The Legacy and another film written by Eszterhas, Hearts of Fire. 

Starring Glenn Close as lawyer Teddy Barnes, the film is about her deciding to defend accused murderer Jack Forrester (Jeff Bridges), who police believe killed his wife Page (Maria Mayenzet) with a hunting knife. She’s put off doing criminal law since an incident with her boss, district attorney Thomas Krasny (Peter Coyote). Yet when she meets with private detective Sam Barnes (Robert Loggia), who was also impacted by Krasny, she decides to take the case. 

Krasny gets information on her client from Jack’s former lover, Eileen Avery (Diane Erickson), and from Bobby Slade (Marshall Colt), who explains how Jack uses his horse training to manipulate women. Teddy feels like that’s what she’s doing to him — they’ve already slept together — and while she thinks he’s guilty, the Evidence suggests he’s innocent. It doesn’t make things any easier when she starts to receive anonymous letters with non-public case details typed on a 1942 Corona typewriter.

Of course, she gets him off. But that night, as they celebrate in bed, she sees that typewriter in his closet. What happens next? Well, you should watch this.

Physical Evidence was going to be a sequel, with Glenn Close and Robert Loggia returning. It ended up being directed by Michael Crichon and starring Burt Reynolds and Theresa Russell. This was remade in India as Antima Ghatta and Kasoor.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Sophie Park (Amy Keum), a young Korean American woman, wants to learn more about her heritage. Every other girl at her college knows where they come from. However, Sophie’s family doesn’t even speak Korean. There’s a reason: her grandmother (Vana Kim) once fought a curse, and now, it has reawakened for our heroine.

Directed by Réi and written by Regina Kim, this finds Sophie asking her parents, Gabriel (Joseph Lim Kim) and Kelly (Eliza Shin), to tell her more about her family and Korea. Grandmother won’t allow this to happen. That said, she gets a new boyfriend, Jun (Kevin Woo), and, aside from dealing with her roommate Ari (Alice Bang), everything seems fine.

Then she brings Jun home, and her grandma goes nuts.

This brings in a lot of things I haven’t seen in horror: Japan and Korea’s complicated history, the power of Korean names and family history, and how ghosts tie into all of that. The evil man in the hat looks incredible, too. This movie should definitely be on your watch list, as it’s a lot better than your average streaming horror movie. Plus, it’s just 81 minutes.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Marcos (Marc Ferrer, who also directed and wrote this) is a director who exists on the fringes of the industry, fueled by grand ambitions and a shoestring budget. He is convinced that his latest project—a neon-soaked, queer-coded Giallo—is his ticket to finally being a famous filmmaker. However, the production takes a meta-turn when a black-gloved killer begins stalking his set. As the body count rises across the vibrant streets of Barcelona, the line between Marcos’s script and reality blurs. The police begin to wonder: is this a publicity stunt gone wrong, or is the director’s obsession with the perfect shot becoming literally lethal?

There’s plenty of Argento homages here, as well as Almodóvar. There’s plenty of camp and representation across the board, which is welcome. It’s not the best queer movie about making a queer giallo film — Knife + Heart is undefeated — but I do love that it tries. You get the hyper-stylized violence, the lingering shots of sharp objects, and a pulsating electronic score from the films of Italy, and then balance it with Almodóvar’s kitschy interior design — those venetian blinds, for example — and a deep focus on interpersonal queer drama. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

The quiet suburbs of Cleveland are shattered when young Justin Whitter vanishes while cycling through a local park. Lead detective Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) and his partner Spitzky (Gregory Alan Williams) are met with a haunting piece of evidence: a jagged green pocketknife left at the scene.

The discovery sends shockwaves through the department. The knife is the calling card of a child predator from fifteen years ago, a case supposedly closed with the conviction of Cole Gordon. If a copycat is at work, it’s a tragedy; if Gordon is innocent, it’s a judicial nightmare. For Tommy (Jeremy Gladen), one of Gordon’s surviving victims, the news triggers a visceral, bone-deep breakdown, as the trauma he thought was buried resurfaces with violent intensity.

Jackie (Helen Hunt) is struggling to repair her marriage after a scandalous affair, but her son Connor (Judah Lewis) remains venomous, unable to forgive her betrayal. However, the family’s emotional war is soon eclipsed by inexplicable occurrences, such as missing silverware, a daughter who doesn’t exist, letting people into the house, and Greg getting trapped in a closet.

The domestic friction turns fatal when Jackie’s former lover, Todd, arrives unannounced. After being struck by a flying mug, he is hidden in the basement to recover, only for Jackie to find his corpse later that day. Desperate to protect her family and convinced Connor is the killer, Jackie helps Greg bury the body in the woods.

Unknown to everyone, two homeless people, Mindy (Libe Barer) and Alec (Owen Teague), are hiders in the house. The film has set this all up as a supernatural story, and suddenly, everything becomes real life. While Mindy is a documentary filmmaker looking for a thrill, Alec is something far more. He isn’t just watching; he is interfering. He is the one who tied up Connor and left the green knife, a calculated move that suggests he knows more about Greg’s secret life than he lets on. As the two narratives collide, the film’s giallo influences shine through, thanks to masks, hidden perspectives, and a dark, stylish exploration of a legacy of violence.

This has the kind of big twist that I don’t want to reveal. But wow — I get it. Director Adam Randall and writer Devon Graye have set up plenty of twists and turns. It’s also the only giallo adjacent movie made in Cleveland.