Tulpa (2012): Number 4 in a Series of Reviews of Neo-Giallo Films

While it was originally my intention to try and make an overarching examination of the multi country interpretation of the Giallo with this little series of reviews, I have discovered that the majority of Neo-Giallo films are still being produced in Italy rather than elsewhere.  That is not to say, of course, that filmmakers are not trying to make Giallo's so much as it is to say that there are more of them trying to do it in Italy then everywhere else.  So I'm back in Italy with the Dardano Sachetti co-penned Tulpa - Perdizioni Mortali.

Opening with an erotic discourse in the world of bondage play, Tulpa takes no time in getting to the mean spirited murder that has characterized much of Sachetti's work over the years.  The story follows Lisa, who works for an international trading firm.  She's good at her job and obviously has the favor of her boss, much to her co-worker's distaste, but she is driven by a hunger to a secret club hidden in a parking garage where she engages in erotic adventure with other club members.  Not as classy as the club in Eyes Wide Shut, but functional and effective.  The only problem is that someone is killing off members of the club that Lisa in particular has come into contact with.  Couple that with the regular stress from work and Lisa quickly finds herself being driven toward a nervous breakdown.

Sachetti is most famous for his work with iconic gore master Lucio Fulci, co-writing or embellishing many of the late auteur's greatest films, and his mark is quite evident here.  The opening scene contains a murder scene so mean spirited that it gives The New York Ripper's nipple slicing scene a run for it's money.  Couple that with it's somewhat typical view of "sexual deviancy" and presto!  Giallo a Italia.  That is not to say that film doesn't work, but it does unfortunately succumb to many of the more disappointing stereotypes of the genre.

The lighting of the film is bathed in shadows, evoking a sense of film noir and danger at every corner.  Juxtaposed with the club being washed in deep red, a not so subtle foreshadowing, Tulpa definitely feels like a true Giallo a la Fulci, only missing out in the zoom lens department.  The shots are all composed well to maintain the air of fear and dread as the killer stalks and kills their victims.  I found myself delighted to see that the wardrobe of the killer was a clear nod to the faceless fedora and trench coat wearing killers of Blood and Black Lace and other early entries to the genre.

While it's not my favorite of what I've seen so far, it's not a bad entry into the canon by any means, it's just not particularly outstanding either.  Though it's better than Blackaria, even with Sachetti attached on the script, Tulpa is still a little too straight forward in it's approach to mark it above other films of the genre.  Worth a watch, but outside of the opening scene, there isn't too much replay value.

Blackaria (2010): Number 3 in a Series of Reviews of Neo-Giallo Films

If I've learned anything from my forays into exploitation cinema it is a simple fact that along the way to those nuggets of gold, I'm going to come across a lot of garbage.  That is not to say that some of the trash doesn't have it's moments, but on the whole, a bad film is still a bad film.  Among the incredible amount of Giallo films there are quite a number of film that fall short.  It makes sense then that among the resurgence of the genre there will be a number of entries that fail to hit the mark.  Unfortunately that is the case of Francois Gaillard and Christophe Robin's Blackaria.

The plot is centered on Angela, who is having strangely erotic and violent dreams about her neighbor Anna Maria.  After hearing strange noises from Anna Maria's apartment, Angela goes to check on her, only to find Anna Maria dead.  Accidentally smashing Anna Maria's crystal ball reveals that glass has an actual power, allowing Angela to see an incredibly violent future in which she is murdered by Anna Maria's killer, a deranged Woman in Red.

Does this sound convoluted enough yet?  That's okay, really, because some of the best Gialli have similarly convoluted plots that come together in a spectacular fashion by the close of the film.  The bad news is that Blackaria is amateurish at best and more focused on lighting and gore than acting, writing, and plot.  While we're lead to believe the story is primarily about Angela, the focus inexplicably shifts to that of the Woman in Red who goes on a murderous rampage after failing to find Angela at her apartment.  The attention is so much more focused to this section than the rest of the movie, leading one to believe that the beginning and end were added to book end the middle and give it an actual feature length run time.

That said, the lighting and gore effects are definitely the highlight of the film, recalling Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper.  The bad news is that it isn't inventive enough to distract from Clara Vallet's Angela and most of the other cast's atrociously blank acting.  The only actor who really feels believable is Aurelie Godefroy as the psychopathic murderer in red, who's visage is incredibly reminiscent of Clara Calamai in Dario Argento's Deep Red.

Another major issue is the camera.  Good Gialli are known for an almost hyper stylized use of the camera and while Blackaria certainly tries, it doesn't quite succeed.  Shot in some sort of digital format (which is not uncommon in low budget film making) it looks much like an 80s TV movie with a soft lens filter on every single shot.  At first I thought, from the opening, that this was to create a hallucinogenic dreamlike look, which made sense assuming that it would eventually shift visually.  This was not the case.  Instead, there is a soft look to every single shot which further marks the film in the realms of amateur.  The score, a strange sounding 80s synth score, has trouble fitting in the body of the story, but worked as well as could be expected most of the time.

On the whole, Blackaria means well, but could probably do with a better budget or at least better actors and a more focused story.  For the Giallo obsessed and the gore hounds, but probably not for many others.