Forgotten Gialli: Volume Nine

MADNESS

Giovanna is a successful comic artist, and her brutal Doctor Dark comic has made her rich and somewhat notorious. While she and the comic are both under fire for possibly inciting readers to violence, a real-life murderer suddenly begins carving out the eyes of their victims only to deliver them to Giovanna. Under continuing pressure from her manager and the public, she flees to the country, eager to clear her head and distance herself from the fact that someone is making gruesome reality out of her fiction. Not only does the terror follow her, but now someone is calling Giovanna to menace her under the guise of Doctor Dark. Will the police find the killer before they reach Giovanna, or will all this nervous exhaustion do her in first?

An unusually sincere effort from the prolific genre workhorse Bruno Mattei, MADNESS (Occhi senza volto aka Eyes Without a Face) plays with several giallo motifs and a few contemporary thriller elements, while delivering plentiful gore and dramatic slayings. Shot by cinematographer Luigi Ciccarese (Ænigma), it features a slew of Mattei on-screen regulars, including Emy Valentino (Phantom of Death), Fausto Lombardi (Terror Express), Gabriele Gori (Convent of Sinners), and an intense lead performance by Monica Carpanese (Anthropophagus II). Vinegar Syndrome is eager to deliver to you this rarely seen late giallo entry, newly restored from its original negative.

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BUGIE ROSSE

Television journalist Marco knows the importance of a good story, a terrific scoop, and he's willing to do the deep research to secure his reputation. When investigating murders in his city's gay underground, he doggedly sticks to posing as a man lurking in the park for night-time tricks who may give him a lead, in spite of his own marked aversion to same sex contact. Although he gets arrested after each murder, and even if he's increasingly suspicious to the police, Marco stays on the story. His connections with the paper and a local prosecutor can only keep him safe for so long, and things look dire amid increasing tension with his wife and the psychic weight of the job. But he's just come across an attractive male hustler who may provide him with the clues he needs. That is, provided Marco can uncover the deep secrets that the killer will stop at nothing to protect.

The giallo loyalist Pierfrancesco Campanella (Bad Inclination) wrote and directed BUGIE ROSSE (Red Lies aka The Final Scoop) while still in his twenties, blending the psychosexual traditions of the style with modern technology such as IRC message boards. Portraying the weight of closeted life and sexual anxiety with stylized scenes of swingers bars and dark alleys as shot by veteran Mario Vulpiani (Watch Me When I Kill), the film also features a rare score from prolific soundtrack conductor Natale Massara (conductor of Blow Out and Body Double), and a cast including Tomas Arana (The Church), Gioia Scola (Too Beautiful to Die), Natasha Hovey (Demons), and Alida Valli (Suspiria). Vinegar Syndrome ardently presents this inspired giallo rarity newly scanned from its original camera negative.

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MURDER IN BLUE LIGHT

Top model Starlet works for some of the highest-priced ad campaigns in New York, even if part of the job is occasionally fighting off a grabby client. But she regularly drops out of her high-fashion life to secretly turn tricks as Sherry, a dominatrix and role player for men looking to play out their oddest kinks with her. She doesn't need the money; instead, she's hunting for a certain man. Meanwhile, a rash of stabbing murders keeps occurring around her. Grizzled, sarcastic NYPD sergeant Flanagan is the only one who can keep Starlet out of harm's way, though she refuses to level with him, and instead plays detective herself. When Flanagan keeps coming up with nothing, despite constantly rousting local prostitutes, he decides to apply pressure elsewhere. With creeps from both the high and low elements of New York life, and a serial murderer about, how much longer can Starlet push her luck?

A film rooted in the sleazy New York trends of Italian cinema from a decade prior, MURDER IN BLUE LIGHT showcases the ability of veteran writer/director Alfonso Brescia (Naked Girl Murdered in the Park) to jump into any required genre. Featuring a good deal of actual New York City street scenes, including Times Square, it leans into the sleaze with a twisty backstory and hints of a police procedural through its US star, David Hess (Last House on the Left). Also featuring Florence Guérin (Faceless) as Starlet, Rik Battaglia (Nightmare Castle), and Riccardo Parisio Perrotti (The Psychic), Vinegar Syndrome presents this obscure late entry in the "amateur detective" giallo newly restored from its original camera negative.