Genres like drama, action, comedy, and horror transcend borders. But from time to time, select subgenres become tied to particular countries, like the J-horror and K-horror of Japan and South Korea, respectively, or the distinctly American Western and film noir (don’t be fooled by the French name). Italy has exported its fair share of cinematic subcategories, including the spaghetti Western and Poliziotteschi. But our focus today is something a bit (OK, a lot) bloodier: the giallo.
“Giallo” translates to “yellow” in Italian, but it means far more in the context of cinema. Inspired by the pulpy crime novels with yellow covers of the late 1920s, giallo films merge the crime genre with extravagant horror and thriller elements. (These are not to be confused with Poliziotteschi, an action-crime subgenre that emerged in Italy around the same time.)
More specifically, giallo stories are usually a murder mystery with the blood and gore turned up to the maximum. Because these movies most often follow a string of killings—and emphasize the unknown person behind the slayings as a distinct, recurring character—they fall in line with slashers. However, giallo first took shape thanks to Mario Bava’s “The Girl Who Knew Too Much,” which premiered in 1963, more than a decade before American films like Bob Clark’s “Black Christmas” (1974) and John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978) set the slasher template. (In fairness, Bava was following up the success of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller “Psycho,” essentially the prototype for all these subgenres to follow.)
Giallos traditionally don’t include any supernatural components. This means that even though classics like Dario Argento’s “Suspiria” (1977) and Lucio Fulci’s “The Beyond” (1981) are stylistically similar, they belong in a category all their own.
Trademarks of the giallo genre
- Blood and gore: Italian horror directors of this era pushed the boundaries in their depiction of violence—if the blood is bright red, you’re most likely in giallo territory. Many releases were banned in certain countries and included in infamous censorship roundups like the U.K.’s “video nasty” lists.
- Maximalist filmmaking: The cinematic aesthetic of the genre is marked by dramatic angles, lurid and colorful lighting, and operatic camera movements.
- Killer’s POV and black glove: The audience frequently sees kills through the murderer’s eyes or with their body kept out of frame. Usually, the hand committing the crime is clad in a black leather glove.
- Hard-rocking soundtracks: In stark contrast to the creepy scores found in most other parts of the world, giallos (and most Italian horror films of this era) embraced stylish and fun soundtracks composed by musicians like Fabio Frizzi or bands like Goblin.
- Sexploitation: If you thought American slashers had a fixation on young (and, more often than not, unclothed) women being killed, the giallo genre took this obsession much further. Here, exploitation goes hand-and-hand with voyeurism, with a particular focus on beauty and sexuality before and during the murders.
Combined, these trademarks are what make a giallo feel like a giallo, instead of a more traditional crime film or slasher. Other elements are common, but they’re more indicative of the time period as a whole. For instance, any entry from the genre’s golden age is bound to have overdubbed audio, with most dialogue replaced in post. But dubbing is truly just a staple of Italian filmmaking of the era.
Oftentimes, audio wouldn’t even be recorded on set. This occasionally makes for some awkward dialogue and performances, but it also enabled Italian productions to make use of an international cast. (This is how American actor Clint Eastwood came to star as the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s Italian “Dollars” spaghetti Western trilogy.)
This is also why Italian horror films so often have a dozen unrelated titles that frequently misrepresent the plot. For example, “Bloodbath,” “Carnage Erotica,” “Last House Part II,” “Snuff Is My Game,” “Twitch of the Death Nerve,” “Ecology of a Crime,” “Chain Reaction,” and “Sex in Its Most Violent Form” are all alternate names for the same film, Bava’s “A Bay of Blood” (1971). Changed titles and international casts allowed Italian producers and distributors to make a quick buck by re-releasing the movies repeatedly in different countries under the guise of them being new films. Giallo distribution practices were often sleazier than the content.
“The Girl Who Knew Too Much” (1963)
“The Girl Who Knew Too Much”—Bava’s fourth feature directorial effort after two decades working as a cinematographer—is regarded as the first giallo. John Saxon and Letícia Román star as a doctor and a young woman caught up in the plot of a serial killer who picks his victims in alphabetical order. After launching the subgenre, Bava would go on to become one of Italy’s most acclaimed horror filmmakers, with classics under his belt like “Black Sabbath” (1963), “Blood and Black Lace” (1964), and “A Bay of Blood.” His son, Lamberto Lava, also became a respected helmer of fright flicks, best known for the successful “Demons” series in the ’80s.
“Deep Red” (1975)
Though “Suspiria” doesn’t count (despite what many have wrongly asserted over the years), the legendary Argento did direct many giallos. “Deep Red” is one of his best; it’s packed with creative kills, a slick presentation, effective worldbuilding, and one of best original soundtracks Goblin ever composed—which is saying a lot. Some of Argento’s other notable entries include “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage” (1970), “The Cat o’ Nine Tails” (1971), “Tenebrae” (1982), and “Opera” (1987).
“The New York Ripper” (1982)
Though he’s best known for his living-dead narratives like “Zombie” (1979), “City of the Living Dead” (1980), and “The Beyond,” Fulci also directed some of the era’s finest giallos. “The New York Ripper” is, without a doubt, the only one to feature a killer who does a literal Daffy Duck impression the entire film. It’s also an example of the Italian horror industry’s penchant for setting films outside the country in an attempt to perform better in the international market.
“Pieces” (1982)
While the complete overdubbing and general weirdness of the plots led to plenty of cheesiness in the giallo genre, Juan Piquer Simón’s “Pieces” layers the cheese on enough to become a so-bad-it’s-good movie. You don’t watch “Pieces” to be frightened; you watch it with a group of friends to laugh at its absurdity. Its highlights include the heroine screaming “Bastard!” into the sky repeatedly and the nonsensical kung fu fight jammed into the middle of the movie.
Just as the era of film noir eventually came to a close, the age of the giallo is a thing of the past. But just as neo-noirs continue to pay homage to the genre’s roots, neo-giallo films appear from time to time in the form of titles like Guillem Morales’ “Julia’s Eyes” (2010), Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears” (2013), and Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy’s “The Editor” (2014). Edgar Wright’s BAFTA-nominated “Last Night in Soho” (2021) pays loving tribute to Argento in particular, and James Wan’s “Malignant” (2021) is full of Italian horror trappings.