Italian Horror Doesn’t Come to Play

Read Time:2 Minute, 18 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Gore in Venice (Giallo in Venice, Giallo a Venezia)
(adult content) –

Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Year Released: 1979, 2022 (Blu-ray from Full Moon Features)
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director(s): Mario Landi
Writer(s): Aldo Serio
Cast: Leonora Fani, Jeff Blynn, Gianni Dei
Where To Watch: Available streaming on https://www.fullmoondirect.com/ or Blu-ray https://www.fullmoondirect.com/Gore-in-Venice-Blu-ray_p_1637.html

RAVING REVIEW: Nobody does it quite like the Italian horror filmmakers in the 60s & 70s! The films in the Giallo genre offered such a unique flair and were over-the-top in pretty much every possible way.

Giallo “(Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers and often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements.” It’s a unique genre I haven’t explored as much as I would like to, but I recently added this and several other titles to my collection.

It’s not an easy watch; the limits are pushed often, and you have to remember that it’s a fictional film, not a documentary. You can engulf yourself in the film if you can differentiate the two. Relying heavily on the tension created on screen, director Mario Landi crafts a very intense story that will leave you on the edge of your seat. The story is pretty straightforward, but things just go off the rails crazy. If you’ve ever seen an Italian horror film from the 60s-80s, then you probably have a decent idea of what you’re in for. If you’ve only seen American horror, then buckle your seatbelt!

Between the violence and the graphic sexual content, the film could be a challenge for some to watch, but this was the intent. The style of the film relies on these moments to build the suspense and am up the thriller aspect.

It’s so crucial that companies like Full Moon and others do this work to preserve films that may otherwise be lost to time. Masters of the genre like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci perhaps get the spotlight because of their name recognition, but without films like this to fill out the genre, those others would never stand where they do.

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