Abstract
Italian horror cinema is commonly divided into two periods and genres. An initial classical Gothic period spanned the years from 1956 to 1966 and was followed by a modern giallo (thriller) period from 1970 to 1982. Whilst accepting this broad distinction, this paper seeks to add nuance by considering the hybrid elements of three key films by three of the most important directors working in the giallo and horror area, namely Riccardo Freda with I Vampiri (1956), Mario Bava with The Girl Who Knew too Much (1963) and Dario Argento with Deep Red (1975). Drawing in particular upon Noel Carroll’s idea of “fearing fictions”, I contend that Freda’s film, the first Italian horror movie since the silent era, is notable for being a distinctively modern vampire film; that Bava’s film, a foundational giallo, may be seen as having a palimpsest in Jane Austen’s Gothic parody Northanger Abbey; and that Argento’s film, while often taken as the paradigmatic giallo, has supernatural horror elements that push it in the direction of the Gothic.
Highlights
Italian horror cinema is commonly divided into two periods and genres
In this essay I wish to explore some issues in relation to Italian horror cinema and the Gothic
Giallo is Italian for yellow, and comes from the distinctive coloured covers in which translations of English-language mystery, thriller, and detective fiction were published by Mondadori, beginning in 1929
Summary
Carroll advances an understanding of horror based on cognitive psychology. His first step is to distinguish between “art horror” and. As far as the last of these powers is concerned, a distinction is made between Carroll’s theory and the influential work of Julia Kristeva (1984). The main reason Carroll’s work is preferable as far as Gothic horror is concerned is grounding. One can only have an irrational fear of vampires, werewolves, bogeymen or flesheating zombies if one knows they do not exist.. One can only have an irrational fear of vampires, werewolves, bogeymen or flesheating zombies if one knows they do not exist.9 This was something intuitively recognised by Bava: When I hear a noise late at night in my house, I just can’t sleep... Better to stay home and watch TV! (Cited in Howarth, 308)
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