ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO -- Blu-ray/DVD/CD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/31/19

 

A primer, a history, and a celebration of giallo all rolled into one 3-disc set, Severin Films' ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO pretty much covers all the bases for new fans wanting to learn more and old ones who just want to revel in it all.

As the publicity states, "‘Giallo’ is Italian for ‘yellow’, the color of the lurid pulp novels that inspired one of the most intense, extreme and influential genres in movie history."

The genesis of all this is the krimi, or German crime novel, which contains elements (shadowy settings, shocking murders, mysterious phantom killers, police procedurals) that would later be adopted by Italian filmmakers but jacked up to new levels of violence and lavish indulgences in cinematic style for its own sake.

Disc One (Blu-ray) starts off with a feature-length documentary by Federico Caddeo entitled "All the Colors of Giallo", an exhaustive history of the genre that takes us from the beginnings of the German krimi books and films, and in particular the works of Edgar Wallace, all the way through the evolution of the giallo thrillers by such directors as Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento.

Several of giallo's main figures are interviewed including Fulci and Argento themselves, along with familiar screen talents such as Barbara Bouchet and Susan Scott.

"The Giallo Frames" offers even more on the subject, giving us an in-depth interview with John Martin, editor of "The Giallo Pages." 

But best of all (for me, anyway) is a full four-hour collection of giallo trailers that run the gamut of the entire genre and are accompanied by a commentary track from Kat Ellinger, author of "All the Colors of Sergio Martino."

Kat showed her depth of knowledge on the subject during her commentary for Martino's film "All the Colors of the Dark", but here she is a veritable gold mine of information and unbridled enthusiasm on each and every trailer that we see, keeping a running commentary that never fails to entertain.  Thus, the trailer collection becomes a four-hour documentary unto itself, and perhaps the highlight of the entire collection.

Disc two (DVD) delves deeper into the subject of the krimi, with the informative documentaries  "The Case Of The Krimi" and "The Case Of The Krimi: Interview With Film Historian Marcus Stiglegger."

Then we get yet another hour-and-a-half of trailers, this time mostly in beautiful, atmospheric black-and-white (with very nice picture quality as well) before turning to color for the later ones.

Klaus Kinski fans will be pleased to find that he appears in practically all of these krimi trailers, which are a lively bunch of clips providing much entertainment and amusement.

Disc three is a CD entitled "The Strange Sounds of the Bloodstained Films", containing twenty giallo soundtrack selections from such composers as Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Bruno Nicolai, Stelvio Cipriani, and others.  It's great stuff, whether you have it on in the background or don your headphones for an intensive listening session.

Experienced giallo fans will enjoy reliving old favorites with this collection of documentaries, interviews, and trailers, and those just getting into such lively, lurid, and lavishly cinematic fare may find their curiosity stoked into an insatiable desire.


Buy it from Severin Films

Special Features:
DISC 1 – Blu-ray
All the Colors of Giallo: A New Feature Length Documentary By Federico Caddeo
The Giallo Frames: Interview With John Martin, Editor Of The Giallo Pages
Audio Commentary with Kat Ellinger, Author of All The Colors Of Sergio Martino

DISC 2 – DVD: The Case of the Krimi
Kriminal!: Trailer Compilation
The Case Of The Krimi: Interview With Film Historian Marcus Stiglegger

DISC 3 – CD
The Strange Sounds Of The Bloodstained Films: Compiled By Alfonso Carillo of Rendezvous! From The Archives Of Beat Records. Remastered By Claudio Fuiano.

ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO -- Blu-ray/DVD/CD Review by Porfle

TENEBRE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 Originally posted on 5/8/08

 

I'm a Dario Argento fan but have yet to see all of his films. So it was a real treat to get the chance to watch TENEBRE (aka TENEBRAE), the Italian director's 1982 return to the giallo style after a detour into the supernatural (SUSPIRIA, his masterpiece, and its follow-up INFERNO). According to Wikipedia, "giallo" films are typically slasher-style whodunits characterized by "extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and unusual musical arrangements", which would make this a prime example of the genre.

Tony Franciosa plays Peter Neal, a murder mystery writer who's just arrived in Rome to promote his latest book, "Tenebrae", only to find that a serial-killing stalker is using his new novel as a template for ridding the world of sexual deviates and other undesirables. With the help of his secretary and budding love interest Anne (Argento collaborator and former spouse Daria Nicolodi) and eager young assistant Gianni (Christian Borromeo), Neal hopes to add a feather to his literary cap by solving the real-life murder mystery himself as bodies begin to pile up. The arrival in Rome of his spurned ex-lover Jane (Veronica Lario) and the presence of a television journalist named Berti (John Steiner) who appears to be a little too obsessed with Neal and his writings are just two of the many pieces in Argento's jumbled jigsaw puzzle.

One of the first things I noticed about TENEBRE is how bright it is. Much of it takes place in broad daylight, while the night scenes are often overly-lit. Argento has stated that he wanted the film to look hyper-realistic, with no shadows for either the victims or the killer to hide in. It's an interesting stylistic choice that Argento uses effectively. The often light-bleached visuals and pallid settings also allow him to emphasize certain elements such as a woman's fire-engine red pumps or the gouts of blood that liberally decorate several moments of terror.

Some of my favorite Argento touches are well-represented here, including: a haunting flashback, the details of which are only gradually revealed to us (not unlike Harmonica's recurring childhood memory in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, which Argento co-wrote); characters not picking up on an important visual or aural clue until it suddenly occurs to them after much reflection, as in the "three irises" scene from SUSPIRIA or the mysterious painting in DEEP RED; and several POV shots that disconcertingly put us in the killer's shoes as he (or she) is on the prowl.

As usual, Argento uses sound very effectively. In particular, he shares something in common with singer Nick Lowe--he loves the sound of breaking glass--so if you see a plate glass window in this movie, chances are it's going to shatter when you least expect it. Argento uses such devices to make his murder sequences even more nerve-wracking than they already are, usually after some very careful buildup and a few fake-outs to keep us off guard. And when the killer strikes, it's disturbingly violent. But unlike the standard slasher bore such as FRIDAY THE 13TH, Argento is more interested in the imaginative cinematic depiction of violence rather than simply racking up outlandish yet by-the-numbers body counts. When he does go for the gore, it shocks us, and it happens to characters that we care about and for reasons that keep the story moving.

Oh, and speaking of nerve-wracking, Argento managed to reunite three members of the disbanded rock group Goblin (Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli, and Massimo Morante) to supply the original score. Unlike their music for SUSPIRIA, this has a synth-heavy, somewhat cheesy 80s sound that seems to be influenced at times by Giorgio Moroder's drum-machine disco rhythms. Other passages resemble their music for George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD. But it has that unmistakable Goblin sound, which somehow manages to compliment Argento's style even as it's turning your eardrums to mush.

Tony Franciosa is an old pro who did a lot of television while I was growing up, in addition to appearing in scores of fun films (a year after this, he got to do a steamy love scene with my favorite actress, Isabelle Mejias--the lucky dog--in the lively Canadian thriller JULIE DARLING). John Saxon, who plays Peter's literary agent, is, of course, always a welcome presence, and Veronica Lario is very effectively creepy as Jane. The rest of the cast is good, too--I especially liked Giuliano Gemma and Carola Stagnaro as a pair of homicide detectives--although in most cases the dubbing makes it hard to fully appreciate their performances. Daria Nicolodi does her usual fine job as well.

There are some really nice-looking women in lesser roles, adding considerably more sex appeal than you usually find in an Argento film. Ania Pieroni appears briefly as a lovely kleptomaniac who uses sex to beat a shoplifting rap but can't escape the fate awaiting her when she gets home. Lara Wendel plays a lesbian magazine writer whose promiscuous, half-naked housemate is the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Italian model Mirella Banti, in a sequence that allows Argento to indulge his stylistic impulses to their fullest.

Most interesting of all, perhaps, is the casting of Eva Robins as a woman who appears in several strange flashbacks to a traumatic event in the killer's youth. Born a male, Robins reportedly began to develop breasts and other female characteristics during puberty, to an extent that convinced her that nature intended her to live as a woman. At any rate, she's convincing enough as the "girl on the beach" in some of the film's strangest scenes.

The new DVD from Anchor Bay features an uncut, remastered widescreen (1:85:1) transfer enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Aside from the trailer and an Argento biography, there's a commentary track featuring the director along with composer Claudio Simonetti and journalist Loris Curci, which is as informative as you might expect although much time is spent waiting for Argento to figure out how to say everything in English--I kinda wished it could have been in Italian with English subtitles. "Voices of the Unsane" is a nifty 17-minute featurette with Argento, Nicolodi, Simonetti, and other principals discussing the making of the film. (UNSANE was the retitled, badly-edited version first shown in the US.) Other brief featurettes explore the creation of TENEBRE's sound effects and the filming of an intricate extended shot featured in one of the murder sequences. All in all, not a bad array of extras.

It's interesting to see Argento eschew the sumptuous, fairytale look of SUSPIRIA for a more stark and austere style here. Without the dark shadows and saturated colors, TENEBRE is like a blank canvas splattered with bright red, with a realism that's as brittle and sharp as all that broken glass. Only when the killer's identity is revealed at last in an axe and straight razor-slashed finale do we get a really dark, lightning-streaked scene, and it's horrifying enough to warrant the seemingly never-ending screams of the last person standing as TENEBRE fades out into its closing credits. And if you're a Dario Argento fan, you'll definitely want to be there when it happens.

TENEBRE -- DVD Review by Porfle

PHENOMENA -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 5/9/08

 

Italian horror master Dario Argento draws us into the supernatural again with PHENOMENA (1985), a dark, richly-atmospheric return to SUSPIRIA territory as opposed to the stark and brightly-lit realism of his previous film, TENEBRE.

Once again, a young American girl (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself attending a remote, Gothic-looking European girls' school with a stern headmistress, an ill-fated best friend among a bunch of bratty schoolgirls, and a maniacal killer on the loose.

This time, though, there aren't any witches or diabolical forces at work--the supernatural aspect comes from Jennifer's telepathic connection to insects and her ability to control their behavior. She makes friends with Prof. McGregor (a wonderfully restrained Donald Pleasance), a wheelchair-bound forensic scientist who specializes in discerning time of death by the rate of maggot growth on a corpse, who suggests that Jennifer use her special abilities to try and track down the murderer. This, of course, puts her in grave danger, and before long she finds herself face-to-face with the killer in a nightmare of grotesque horror.

From the very beginning, the Swiss locations with their overcast skies and trees writhing in the constantly blowing wind create an eerie, forboding atmosphere. When a young schoolgirl (Argento's daughter, Fiore) misses her bus and is left behind on a deserted mountain road, she makes her way to an isolated cottage for help, then finds herself being pursued by an unseen maniac until she's cornered in a glass-enclosed observation point over a raging waterfall.

There's a super-slow motion shot of her head crashing through the glass (a familiar Argento motif that will occur yet again later on), and then we see the same head falling into the swirling water below. It's a terrifically strange and moody sequence that gets the movie off to a great start.

The scenes at the girls' academy are perhaps closer to what Argento had in mind originally for SUSPIRIA, since that film was meant to feature younger characters such as these. There's a Grimm's fairytale quality as Jennifer feels imprisoned in this dark, oppressive place and soon finds herself sleepwalking through its shadowy corridors, her mind wracked by nightmares, until another gruesome killing occurs right before her eyes.

Argento indulges himself stylistically during these dazzling sequences, and the beautiful Jennifer Connelly is a terrific young actress who perfectly embodies the type of heroine Argento has in mind. Throughout the film, her skillful performance is fascinating to watch and entirely convincing, helping Argento to sell some incredibly over-the-top situations.

The last twenty minutes or so are just plain nuts. (Look for Mario Donatone, who played Mosca, the Sicilian hitman in THE GODFATHER PART III, in a brief role.) I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say that long-time Argento collaborator Daria Nicolodi shines as Frau Brückner, one of the teachers from the school, who hides a really dark secret that comes into play in a big way.

Jennifer finds herself in the middle of some of the most grotesque situations imaginable before the fiery, bug-infested finale which features some great underwater scenes. There are about three successive endings, but each one is more startling than the last. And I haven't even mentioned the chimp with the straight-razor.

Anchor Bay's new DVD release features a new remastered widescreen (1:66:1) transfer, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. There's a commentary track featuring Argento along with makeup effects artist Sergio Stivaletti, composer Claudio Simonetti, and journalist Loris Curci. "A Dark Fairy Tale" is an interesting 17-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. Goblin member Simonetti's music video "Jennifer", featuring himself along with Jennifer Connelly, is a fun example of 80s-style cheese, as is Bill Wyman's video for "Valley" (both excellent instrumentals feature prominently in the film, and to much better effect than the heavy metal songs that are also included). There's a trailer, an Argento biography, and, last but not least, Dario Argento's appearance on the legendary "Joe Franklin Show", which is a real treat.

My first experience with this film was a long-ago viewing of the drastically-cut version, retitled CREEPERS, which was released in the U.S. in the 80s, so it's a pleasure to finally be able to enjoy PHENOMENA in its original form and give it a long-overdue reappraisal. Argento himself rates it his most personal and perhaps best of all his films. I don't quite agree with the latter, but I do have a whole new opinion of this movie now. It's an exhilarating, bizarre, often mind-boggling excursion into Gothic horror, and a delightfully undiluted manifestation of Dario Argento's wildest imaginings.

PHENOMENA -- DVD Review by Porfle

New Poster for Dario Argento's GIALLO

Looks AMAZINGLY AMAZING!

Although its based an Andy Warhol original piece, the poster totally fits what I hope the film is going for.

New Poster for Dario Argento's GIALLO

MOTHER OF TEARS -- DVD review by porfle

After hearing all of the, shall we say, "mixed" reviews for MOTHER OF TEARS, Dario Argento's belated final entry in his "The Three Mothers" trilogy, I spent its entire running time expecting the worst. Not only did I not get the worst, but I actually got one of the most awesome horror flicks I've seen in years. And one which I consider quite worthy of the great Italian director and his highly-regarded body of work.

In 1977's SUSPIRIA and 1980's INFERNO, we were introduced to Mater Suspiriorum (The Mother of Sighs) and Mater Tenebrarum (The Mother of Pain). Here, the title character is the third and final member of the unholy trinity of witches which have plagued mankind for over a thousand years. When a centuries-old casket is accidentally unearthed, it contains talismans which will allow Mater Lachrymarum to regain her former power and begin the downfall of Rome, and eventually the world, by causing an ever-increasing number of people to commit extreme acts of violence and perversion as her evil influence spreads.

At Rome's museum of ancient art, a young art restoration student named Sarah (Asia Argento) witnesses the outlandishly gory and horrifying murder of an associate by hideous creatures which abscond with the talismans. When the head curator's son is kidnapped to ensure his silence, he also disappears soon after beginning a frantic search for the boy. Before long, Sarah herself is drawn into the maelstrom of horror when hundreds of witches from around the world, who naturally look like a bunch of freaky goths, descend upon Rome to celebrate the Mother of Tears' ascent to power--and soon mark Sarah for death after sensing her own latent supernatural powers, which she inherited from her mother. One by one the people from whom she seeks help die violent deaths, while her mother's spirit guides her through peril as the entire city goes mad.

Sarah meets a succession of interesting characters during the story, few of which are spared a flamboyant Argento death scene. The first murder in SUSPIRIA was memorably extreme, yet little of what followed ever reached that level again. Here, each murder is brutal and shocking, some of them enough to startle even the most jaded gorehound.

The instruments of death are also strange and arcane, such as a really painful-looking device administered orally to the first victim and a handy little eye-poking gadget that's used to blinding effect later on. One victim is impaled from stem to stern by an iron spear, while another suffers a smashing demise when she sticks her head through the wrong sliding door. And then there's the usual stuff like the old meat cleaver to the face and various other slashings and dismemberings, all of which are reasonably well executed (so to speak) and are effective even when the effects themselves aren't totally convincing. Suffice it to say, this movie definitely doesn't skimp on the gore--it's probably the most violent Argento film ever.

Once again, Dario Argento has created a nightmare world where he can indulge his most morbid and extravagantly cinematic musings, which he does so here to a degree rarely before seen. He still displays that unique sensibility and style which draw us into highly strange situations in which anything can happen, often evoking an oppressive aura of forboding and decadent evil. While not as richly photographed (or, admittedly, as good) as SUSPIRIA, MOTHER OF TEARS still has that distinctive Argento look, imaginatively-staged setpieces, and baroque atmosphere, along with a lively musical score by ex-Goblin Claudio Simonetti which includes a cool "Mater Lachrymarum" theme song by Daemonia during the closing credits.

MOTHER OF TEARS is a family affair with Dario directing both his daughter Asia in a wonderfully compelling performance as Sarah and his ex-lover and frequent collaborator Daria Nicolodi as her spectral mother. As Asia states during the making-of featurette, she specifically asked her dad to cast Daria in this role in order to reunite her parents, if only for a while. Daria's presence also gives the film a more vintage Argento feel. Interestingly, it is this character who, we're told, once did battle with Mater Suspiriorum and weakened her enough to allow Suzy Banyon to kill her later on in SUSPIRIA.

Also giving the film some nostalgic appeal is the casting of Udo Kier as an exorcising priest who fills Sarah in on the whole story of the Three Mothers and later learns to regret ever laying eyes on her. Valeria Cavalli is fine as Marta, the woman who befriends Sarah and makes her aware of her latent powers. The rest of the cast is good, with the possible exception of Moran Atias as Mater Lachrymarum herself. She's beautiful and looks great in the buff, but her character ultimately doesn't make as strong an impression as I expected. However, the robust lunacy of the film's finale more than makes up for this.

Aside from the lengthy (33 minutes) and very interesting making-of featurette, the disc also includes an eight-minute conversation with Dario Argento, US and Italian trailers, and subtitles in English and Spanish. The DVD is in letterboxed widescreen format with Dolby 5.1 sound, both of which are fine.

So--what's wrong with MOTHER OF TEARS? The same things that are wrong with just about any other Argento film, really. It gets a little silly now and then. Some of the special effects are a bit iffy, especially now that we're in the digital age (although surprisingly little of the CGI is actually all that bad, and one such effect during the film's subterranean climax is a real doozy). And sometimes the story doesn't make perfect sense, but that's practically an Argento trademark.

None of this matters to me anyway, when the overall combination of elements adds up to such a full-blooded and wildly entertaining horror experience. Though MOTHER OF TEARS may fall somewhat short of being exactly what I wanted to see in a new Argento film, I must say without reservation that I enjoyed the hell out of it.

MOTHER OF TEARS -- DVD review by porfle

MOTHER OF TEARS -- From the Director of SUSPIRIA Comes the Final Chapter in the Three Mothers Trilogy

Horror Legend Dario Argento’s Supernatural Thriller Debuts On DVD
September 23 From The Weinstein Company And Genius Products

- “A return to slam-bang hard-core filmmaking.”
Horrorreview.com

SANTA MONICA, CA – Intense and disturbing, Mother of Tears, the last installment in Italian horror icon Dario Argento’s “The Three Mothers” trilogy, arrives on unrated DVD September 23 from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company under the Dimension Extreme Label. The follow-up to Argento’s horror classics, Suspiria and Inferno, both of which follow the havoc and unrest ignited by a beautiful yet cruel sorceress, Mother of Tears gives life to the last evil mother. When an American student studying art restoration in Rome unknowingly breaks the seal of a decrepit grave, it heralds the return of the smoky-eyed temptress Mater Lachrymarum, who is hell-bent on destroying humanity. As the city is consumed by chaos and terror, the lone art student is forced to confront the diabolical witch with her own supernatural abilities.

Argento’s cinematic style – known as giallo - invokes a mixture of thrill, mystery and suspense teamed with scenes of violence and excess. Often referred to as the “Italian Hitchcock” for his ‘black glove’ cameos in his own films, Argento’s influence has been felt among contemporary directors including George A. Romero and Brian DePalma.

Featuring bone-chilling performances from Argento’s daughter Asia Argento (Land of the Dead, Transylvania) and Udo Kier (Rob Zombie’s Halloween), Mother of Tears premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Mother of Tears DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.97.


Synopsis
A wave of suicide and crime sweeps over the holy city as witches congregate to pay homage to their reborn queen, Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears), the last of three powerful witches who have been spreading terror and death for centuries. Alone against an army of demons, an art student who seems to have supernatural abilities of her own, is the only person left to prevent the destruction of Rome.

Special Features
The Making Of Mother of Tears
A Conversation With Legendary Filmmaker Dario Argento

Basics
Price: $19.97
Street Date: September 23, 2008
Catalog Number: 81527
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 102 minutes
Language: English Dolby 5.1
Subtitles: English and Spanish
Closed Captioned

MOTHER OF TEARS -- From the Director of SUSPIRIA Comes the Final Chapter in the Three Mothers Trilogy

The Anchor Bay Collection Proudly Presents THE DARIO ARGENTO BOX SET

“The greatest of GIALLO filmmakers” - New York Times

Five Argento masterpieces together in a collectible boxed set for the first time on May 27

BURBANK, CA – Dario Argento is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in modern history, a director whose work has shocked, entertained and enthralled millions the world over. The world of Dario Argento is a surreal, mysterious and mesmerizing one. There is a unique magic and power that “The Maestro” brings to everything he touches.

Now, Anchor Bay Entertainment pays tribute to the acclaimed filmmaker with The Dario Argento Box Set, a five-film collection that will be released under the prestigious Anchor Bay Collection banner on May 27th. SRP is $49.97 and pre-book is April 24th.

Following the worldwide success of his hallucinatory horror hit Suspiria, Argento returned to the genre that he helped to pioneer and which launched his international career and earned him the title of “The Italian Hitchcock.” In these acclaimed “giallo” thrillers, Argento explores the extremes of murder, insanity and brutality with the startling plot twists, stunning visuals and shocking twists that have defined his work.

The five films in this collection have been remastered from original vault elements and are presented uncut and uncensored for an all-new look at one of the most controversial and influential filmmakers in the history of modern cinema.

The Dario Argento Box Set, is the quintessential assemblage of Argento’s brilliance and includes such masterpieces as:

Tenebre Special Edition (released in the U.S. as Unsane), starring Academy Award® nominee Anthony Franciosa (A Hatful of Rain, Across 110th Street) and Golden Globe® winner John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Enter the Dragon). Tenebre features a brand new 16x9 transfer, plus an all-new retrospective featurette;

Phenomena Special Edition (released in the U.S. as Creepers), starring Academy Award® winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind, Blood Diamond) and the legendary Donald Pleasence (Halloween series, The Great Escape, Escape from New York ). Remastered in 16x9 with an all-new retrospective featurette;

Trauma, starring Argento’s exquisite daughter Asia Argento (New Rose Hotel, XXX), three-time Academy Award®-nominee, Golden Globe® and Emmy Award® winner Piper Laurie (Children of a Lesser God, Carrie, “Twin Peaks”), Academy Award®- nominee Frederic Forrest (Apocalypse Now, The Rose, Tucker: The Man and His Dream) and Academy Award®-nominee Brad Dourif (Mississippi Burning, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the voice of “Chucky” in the Child’s Play franchise);

The Card Player, starring Stefania Rocca (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Dracula’s Curse) and IFTA Award winner Liam Cunningham (Dog Soldiers, Breakfast on Pluto, “RKO 281”);

Do You Like Hitchcock?, Argento’s personal homage to his life-long idol, starring Elio Germano (Napoleon and Me, Respiro) and Chiara Conti (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Marco Bellocchio’s award-winning The Religion Hour).

Each of these films boasts a variety of DVD special features, including audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes retrospectives, trailers and more.

In addition, Anchor Bay Entertainment will release the special editions of both Tenebre and Phenomena individually at an SRP of $19.97 each.

Argento was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2001 Amsterdam Fantasy Film Festival, the Maverick Tribute Award at the 2000 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival, a Special Award “FantaItaly” from the 1985 Fantafestival, the Time Machine Honorary Award from the Sitges – Catalonian Film Festival, and the 2007 Career Award from Flaiano International Prizes.

Argento’s career is going stronger than ever. He recently completed the long-anticipated Mother of Tears: The Third Mother, concluding the unforgettable trilogy begun in Suspiria and continued in Inferno, and he directed the segments Pelts and Jenifer for the award-winning Showtime series “Masters of Horror” (available from Anchor Bay Entertainment). Argento is currently directing the thriller Giallo, which will be released later this year. The film stars Ray Liotta, Asia Argento and Elsa Pataky.

In the tradition of previous Anchor Bay Collection releases like Re-Animator and Phantasm, The Dario Argento Box Set is a must-have item for the Argento aficionado and all horror devotees.

TENEBRE SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New remastered widescreen (1.85:1) transfer, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary with writer/director Dario Argento, music composer Claudio Simonetti and journalist Loris Curci
Voices of The Unsane
The Roving Camera Eye of Dario Argento
Creating the Sounds of Terror
Alternate end-credit music
Theatrical trailer
Dario Argento biography

PHENOMENA SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New remastered widescreen (1.66:1) transfer, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary with writer/director Dario Argento, special makeup effects artist Sergio Stivaletti, music composer Claudio Simonetti and journalist Loris Curci
A Dark Fairy Tale
Luigi Cozzi & The Art of Macrophotography
Dario Argento on “The Joe Franklin Show”
Claudio Simonetti Music Video (“Jennifer”)
Bill Wyman Music Video (“Valley”)
Theatrical trailer
Dario Argento biography

TRAUMA SPECIAL FEATURES
Widescreen (2.35:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary with Profondo Argento author Alan Jones
Love, Death & Trauma featurette with an interview with director Dario Argento
Never-Before-Seen, On-Set and Behind-The-Scenes Footage
Exclusive Special Effects home movies from Tom Savini
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer
Poster & Still Gallery
Dario Argento biography

THE CARD PLAYER SPECIAL FEATURES
Widescreen (1.85:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary with Profondo Argento author Alan Jones
“Playing With Death” featurette including an exclusive interview with director Dario Argento
Maestro of Fear featurette with composer Claudio Simonetti
Electronic Press Kit
Behind-The-Scenes Footage
Theatrical Trailer

DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? SPECIAL FEATURES
Widescreen (1.66:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Do You Like Hitchcock?: Backstage
Dario Argento biography

THE DARIO ARGENTO BOX SET
Street Date: May 27, 2008
Pre-book: April 24, 2008
Run Time: 513 Minutes total (approximately)
Rated: Not Rated
SRP: $49.97

TENEBRE SPECIAL EDITION
Street Date: May 27, 2008
Pre-book: April 24, 2008
Run Time: 101 Minutes
Rated: Not Rated
SRP: $19.97

PHENOMENA SPECIAL EDITION
Street Date: May 27, 2008
Pre-book: April 24, 2008
Run Time: 110 Minutes
Rated: Not Rated
SRP: $19.97

The Anchor Bay Collection Proudly Presents THE DARIO ARGENTO BOX SET