You may hate every single person in this movie, but hey — they won’t be around for long.

You know those scenes in 1970s Giallo where there are huge parties, where women fight one another in paper dresses (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) or where people soft-swing on couches while people pass out around them (Amuck!)? What would those parties look like today? That’s one of the things I learned from this movie.

Directed by Halina Reijn (Babygirl) and written by Sarah DeLappe and Kristen Roupenian, this movie begins with a wild party thrown during a hurricane at David’s (Pete Davidson) house. Everyone’s on drugs, they’re all entitled, they’re all gorgeous, and most of them are going to die.

Amongst this rich jet set, Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) has brought her new girlfriend, an Eastern European immigrant named Bee (Maria Bakalova). It’s not comfortable at all for her, as she gets to know Jordan (Myha’la), David’s girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), Alice (Rachel Sennott) and her boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace). Things are so fractious already that one person, Max (Conner O’Malley), has already left.

The storm ruins everyone’s phone reception, the power goes out, and a game of (Mafia, Werewolf, Murder In the Dark) goes wrong. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. David slaps Greg too hard, who leaves, then David gets angry about the game and starts smashing things. Then, they find his body with his throat slashed. As you can imagine, this already tension-filled night explodes, as without the internet, everyone, well, loses their minds and starts to kill one another. 

But what if there wasn’t a murderer in the first place?

Nearly an Agatha Christie story with relationship drama, this movie has taught me to never allow people to saber at my house.

In an interview with the director, she said that the sources of light each person uses symbolize their personality. Bee has her phone on her hip, which shows her selflessness. Jordan has a headlamp for confrontation. Alice has glowtubes so that she is the center of everyone’s attention. Emma is introverted, so she never has a light and neither does Greg or David. 

As happy as this ends, the underwear that Bee finds in Sophie’s car belongs to Jordan, which is a clue that they did have sex and more than just a relapse, she cheated on her.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cinematic Void will be playing this on Monday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the American Cinematheque Los Feliz 3 in Los Angeles (tickets here). For more information, visit Cinematic Void. 

Initially intended for Michelangelo Antonioni, this film had the potential to be another Blow-Up. However, Carlo Vanzina and Enrico Vanzina created it with only a limited connection to the novel that inspired the title. The book, written by fashion journalist Paolo Pietroni under the pseudonym Marco Parma, generated significant controversy upon its release for naming prominent figures in Italy’s fashion industry.

The plot of this film, unlike any other, revolves around a serial killer prowling the streets of Milan, targeting glamorous models with a deadly pair of scissors, a weapon suggested by the renowned writer Franco Ferrini, known for his collaborations with Dario Argento. The initial choice of a gun as the killer’s weapon was quickly discarded, as it didn’t quite fit the unique essence of the Giallo genre.

Meanwhile, Yellowstone Park ranger Bob Crane (played by Tom Schanley) senses that his sister Jessica (Nicola Perring) is in distress. His journey takes him across the world, where he unexpectedly finds himself mingling with the rich and famous. Can he rescue her, or will he find himself in the crosshairs of the killer? And will Donald Pleasence ever turn down a film role?

One thing is certain: Barbara (Renée Simonsen), a model and friend of Jessica’s, is interested in Bob, but there are hints that she might also be obsessed with Jessica.

I often think about the connection between Dario Argento and Brian De Palma. This movie shares similarities with its murder scenes set in Italy and its modern American methods of death, which are reminiscent of the drill in Body Double and the psychic elements in Sisters.

Unlike many Giallo films, this one made a significant impact in Italy, sparking a small wave of comeback films set in the fashion world and the sequel Too Beautiful to Die. While I prefer that sequel and certainly think it surpasses the third film, the Vanzina brothers’ The Last Fashion Show, I’ve come to appreciate this film over time.

Never forget that this has one of the most amazing moments in Italian exploitation movies: Donald Pleasence going to town on a Wendy’s salad bar.

Directed and written by Philip Chan, this is about Detective Steve Chan (Phillip Chan! Hey — you’re doing it all!) and his new partner, Porky (Patricia Ha), who are looking for Detective Bobby Wong (Melvin Wong), Chan’s old partner, who has been taken by a serial killer.

Yet what’s exciting about this is that it begins with a black-gloved murderer who wouldn’t be out of place in a 1970s Giallo. That murdered model, Jessica, leaves behind a six-year-old daughter who watched her mother die from a closet and has since lost her ability to speak. 

Chan was a former police inspector, so at some point, we move away from the yellow influence, and it becomes a procedural drama. 

If, like me, you make strange lists of one on Letterboxd, this could fit into “Movies with a Chuck E Cheese location outside of the United States” and “Giallo movies with “Mickey” by Toni Basil on the soundtrack.” It also has movie trivia as a detective skill, and it’s a holiday movie too.

Between this and He Lives By Night, I think Hong Kong really loved Tenebre. I wish this had stayed Giallo, but it’s still a decent movie.

You can download this from the Internet Archive.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cinematic Void will be playing this tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. at the Music Box Theater in Chicago (tickets here). For more information, visit Cinematic Void. 

Anita Strindberg is in Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, Who Saw Her Die?, The Two Faces of Fear, L’uomo Senza Memoria and Murder Obsession, but is never mentioned with the same devotion as Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet. Well, she’s excellent in this and in nearly everything else I’ve seen her in.

In this film, she plays Grace, the wife of Fred (Gabriele Tinti, Endgame) and their vacation has led them to Haiti and Dr. Williams (Anthony Steffen, who primarily is known for Italian westerns, but also appeared in The Night Evelyn Came Out of Her Grave, Evil Eye and An Angel for Satan), who has invented a new drug that can change the world. It’s so astounding that everyone from drug cartels to drug companies — which are really close to one another, when you really think about it — will kill for its formula.

There’s also a scene where the doctor takes our heroes to watch a voodoo ritual, all so this movie can have a bit of mondo* within it. Because it’s an Italian film, that means we’re about to watch a real bull really get killed and then lose its scrotum in gorgeous living color. The film then tops this with actual cows being slaughtered, so if you’re upset by the side of Italian cinema that doesn’t shy away from putting animal butchery right in your face, make a mark to avoid.

This movie leaves me with so many questions. What kind of doctor is Williams? He says he’s a veterinarian, then he makes a magical antivenom drug, and oh yeah, he’s also a meatpacking inspector. And just what kind of wonder drug has he made? And did the filmmakers realize that the Tropic of Cancer is nowhere near Haiti?**

So yeah — most of the movie is spent wondering whether Grace will succumb to the lure of the native men***. And the best character in it is Peacock (Alfio Nicolosi, who was also in Goodbye Uncle Tom), who pretty much runs the island. Also, the murders in this go from high tech to voodoo-based death and faces getting melted right off, which is different for a giallo****.

And hey — that Piero Umiliani (Orgasmo, Baba Yaga) score is perfect!

It’s not a superb giallo, but it’s certainly weird, and sometimes that’s good enough.

*One of the directors of this film, Giampaolo Lomi, was the production manager for perhaps one of the most notorious mondo films, Goodbye Uncle Tom. The other, Edoardo Mulargia, directed Escape from Hell, which was edited into the Linda Blair movie Savage Island. So with backgrounds like those, the scummy mondo nature of this film makes a bit more sense.

*Of course, we can assume that with the Henry Miller novel being such a big deal getting banned and causing controversy that the title itself seemed like a good idea to get curious folks into the theater. Better than Death In Haiti, Peacock’s Place or Inferno Under the Hot Sun.

***The flower that poisons her takes her on an insane erotic fever dream that we all get to watch, and the movie is better for this scene.

****There’s just as much — if not more — male than female nudity, too.

Directed by Nikos Koundouros, this is the story of bank clerk Thomas (Dinos Iliopoulos), who struggles to keep up with the pace of modern life. On New Year’s Eve, a comedy of errors ensues when he’s confused with a crime boss named The Ogre. Now, men respect him, and women want him, but sooner or later, he’s going to pay for this.

Considered a Greek cinema classic — a mix of comedy and dark themes that initially confused audiences but later gained respect. It was the international reviews that changed how people saw it in its homeland — this may be a send-up of noir films and a slapstick comedy in parts, but wow. It ends on a really dark note. Also, some refer to this as The Dragon.

Extras include an introduction from Jonathan Franzen (2025), interviews with critic Christina Newland and Greek film expert Dimitris Papanikolaou, as well as a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters, a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Andréas Giannopoulos and extract from Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. It’s a limited edition of 2500 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.

Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers has three pulp thrillers in the spirit of Dirty Harry from director Alain Corneau.

Police Python 357 (1976): The second screen adaptation of Kenneth Fearing’s The Big Clock — the first has Charles Laughton — this stars Yves Montand as Inspector Marc Ferrot. How close to Dirty Harry is this? The beginning is pretty much Magnum Force. Ferrot is in love with Sylvia (Stefania Sandrelli), a mysterious woman who has already been sleeping with his boss Commissaire Ganay (François Périer), despite him being married to Thérèse Ganay (Ferrot’s real-life wife Simone Signoret). That woman was killed by Ganay, and Ferrot is now the main suspect. This is very much noir, despite being influenced by early 70s violent cop movies from America.

While the box set is sold out, MVD has this by itself. You get extras like commentary by Mike White, Maxim Jakubowski on Police Python 357’s source novel and adaptation and an archival interview with Alain Corneau and François Périer about Police Python 357. 

Serie Noire (1979): An adaptation of Jim Thompson’s A Hell of a Woman, this moves the story to Paris. Franck Poupart (Patrick Dewaere) is a door-to-door salesman stuck in a dilapidated apartment and married to a depressive wife (Myriam Boyer). He’s drinking all the time as he gets over being on drugs. But when he hunts down a man who owes him money, he falls for a young prostitute named Mona (Marie Trintignant). When he’s arrested for stealing, she bails him out, and they decide to steal the money her madame has hidden. The attraction he feels for her will cause him to give up everything that matters to him: his morals, his job, even his marriage. Is it the right choice? 

While the box set is sold out, MVD has this by itself. You get extras like an interview with Alain Corneau, Patrick Dewaere, and Miriam Boyer; a making-of documentary; another interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant; and a visual essay about Jim Thompson adaptations for the screen by Paul Martinovic. 

Choice of Arms (1978): Noel Durieux (Yves Montand) is an old gangster content to be retired with his wife, Nicole (Catherine Deneuve). This all ends when an old accomplice shows up, only to die, but brings along the wild Mickey (Gérard Depardieu) with him. Two cops, Bonnardot (Michel Galabru) and Sarlat (Gérard Lanvin), start to hunt down Mickey and make life dangerous again for Noel, who just wants his wife to be safe. As this film reveals, that’s probably not possible. A life of crime is not an easy one to walk away from forever. This is less a noir than a tragedy.

While the box set is sold out, MVD has this by itself.

Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is psychic. While supernatural films can’t always be giallo, psychic abilities are generally alright, as seen by the inclusion of Fulci’s film of the same name. There are so many rules. Anyway, she mainly uses her powers to help people who have a rougher life than she and her three children, like Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi) and Valerie (Hilary Swank), whose abusive husband Donnie (Keanu Reeves) has threatened Annie’s life after she advises Valerie to leave him. 

Jessica King (Katie Holmes) has disappeared. The fiancée of school principal Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear), she comes to Annie in a vision, telling her that she’s in a pond on Donnie’s property. The dream or message or whatever you believe is true, as Donnie is soon arrested. That night, Buddy, who has been upset about this murder, keeps trying to connect to Annie, who is overwhelmed by the body being found. He goes home and ties his father to a chair, setting him on fire in return for abusing him as a child.

The visions continue, as Annie believes Donnie is innocent and loved Jessica, with whom he was having an affair. She asks prosecutor David Duncan (Gary Cole) to reopen the case; he refuses, and she reminds him that she knows that he also had an affair with Jessica. This feels like Rome in the 70s, not Georgia; it’s just missing fashion, black gloves, and a better soundtrack. Actually, the Christopher Young score is good, but maybe some Morricone?

So who did it? Can Annie’s powers save her life and find the real killer? Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson before Sling Blade, Thornton based this on his mother’s real psychic abilities. It’s directed by Sam Raimi, who knows a little bit about suspense. Of course, Annie drives the car that is in every one of Raimi’s films, a Delta 88 Oldsmobile.

Jean’s (Juan Logar) fiancée Jacqueline (Annie Sinigalia) dies of a strange ailment in the middle of surgery. On their wedding day, no less! How does this happen? How does one decide to schedule surgery on the same day as a wedding? Who can say, but Jean decides to stop being a medical student and start attacking his former classmates, cutting off their hands so they can never operate again.

The dude is doing all of this four years before Dr. Phibes, too.

Directed by Enrique López Eguiluz (Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, Santo frente a la muerte) and written by star Juan Logar, who also produced and composed the music, this has some grisly murders and some gore, more than you’d expect from Spain under Franco in 1968.

The detective trying to solve this case? It’s one of his earliest roles, credited as David Molba, but that’s Paul Naschy. 

This feels more slasher than giallo. It’s set in France — not Spain, as there’s no way the government would allow that — and at least they set up the doomed romance well in the beginning.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Based on The 13th Man by Murray Teigh Bloom, this is a hell of a role for Roy Scheider, who plays Harry Hannan, a government agent whose job intrudes on his family life, as an informant appears too early — Joe Spinell appearance! — and the ensuing gunfight takes the life of his wife. He spends five months in an institution and worries that he’s being frozen out by the agency and has become expendable.

When he goes back to his apartment, he finds that Ellie Fabian (Janet Margolin) is living there. A note has been left for him under the door. It’s in Hebrew and reads “Avenger of Blood.” Meanwhile, as he visits his wife’s grave, he fights with her brother, Dave Quittle (Charles Napier). Despite being told that he’s safe, Harry is marked for death by Quittle and his boss, Eckhart (Christopher Walken).

Between having to deal with people trying to kill him at every turn, he works with Sam Urdell (Sam Levene) to solve the notes that he’s been left.

“It begins with an ancient warning. It ends at the edge of Niagara Falls. In between, there are 5 murders. Solve the mystery. Or die trying.” What a tagline. Director Jonathan Demme cast Lynn Lowry as Ellie in this, but Schneider wanted his girlfriend, Janet Margolin, in the movie. The producers dropped her against Demme’s wishes, but she still got paid and continues to earn residuals from it.

This is a Hitchcock cover from start to finish, even having Miklós Rózsa do the score. He worked with Hitchcock on Spellbound. And the end, while darker than North by Northwest, is similar. Yet this surprised me; between how raw Scheider is and the darkness of the murders, it’s excellent.

You can watch this on Tubi and get it from Vinegar Syndrome.

 Based on one of The Love List’s 2024 Best Unproduced Romance Scripts, this film — directed by Stephen S. Campanelli (a camera operator on everything from The Vindicator and Vanilla Sky to several of Clint Eastwood’s films) and written by Kaitlin Reilly and Dorian Keyes — How to Lose a Popularity Contest is about Ellie (Sara Waisglass), who is about to graduate and go to a major college, leaving behind her horrible high school years and the nickname she hates, Max, given to her by Nate (Chase Hudson). This being a teen romantic comedy, she may just fall in love with him before then.

Somehow, that involves a class president contest, playing flip cup and dealing with parents who don’t understand who their teens really are. Plus, you get characters like Streaker Dupont (Aiden Howard), who gets his first name because he likes to get naked constantly.

This is a cute teen romance that’s all about learning that people you don’t like or look down on can be very close to you. There are some nice lessons in here, and Tubi has been really getting into making films like this. Sure, I’m old and way out of high school, but I get it. 

You can watch this on Tubi.