Creeptober Day 22: Tenebrae

Take a trip to Rome on day twenty-two of Creeptober as we watch Dario Argento’s Tenebrae! This giallo is a personal favorite thanks to its twisty mystery, its bloody murders, and its wild finale. It’s also perfect as we enter the final ten days of our month-long horror movie marathon!

Read on for our thoughts on Tenebrae (1982) as well as a recap of the movie, and join the conversation on our Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram!

Reacting to Tenebrae

Tenebrae is my favorite Dario Argento movie. I love Suspiria which is arguably his “best” movie, but for me, Tenebrae is the Argento movie I watch most often. It’s also usually my first thought whenever I’m in the mood for a giallo.

The best part is easily the finale (major spoilers ahead, naturally). It starts with a blood fountain gushing out of the stump of Jane’s arm, and it just keeps going from there. It’s like it doesn’t stop adding layer after layer. The mistaken identity of Altieri, the reveal of Peter, the explanations that border on absurd but still make sense, the faked death, Germani and Anne each going back into the apartment for more murder. It’s wild, and I adore it. The randomness of the sculpture playing such an pivotal role in the movie’s final moment (bizarrely foreshadowed by a different sculpture earlier in the movie) seems fitting for a movie that needs so many events to happen in a specific way for any of it to work. The “randomness” of it is actually brilliant.

Speaking of random, the dog randomly chasing Maria, which leads her to the killer’s lair, which she wouldn’t have been able to enter if the killer hadn’t forgotten their keys in the door… it’s amazing. The scene takes you along for the ride because there’s no chance you could guess where it’s going next. Some of the mysteries in Tenebrae are somewhat obvious if you’re paying close enough attention. The first killer, Cristiano, is clearly the prime suspect. Watching the movie more than once, you can see the very obvious clues pointing to Cristiano as the original killer. But the dog, Maria, and the keys in the door? There’s no way to deduce that would happen in the way it does. That makes it surprising and tense in a unique way.

I also really enjoy the themes of the movie, especially the ideas about art and how it can be interpreted in ways the creator never intended. It starts with a journalist grilling Peter Neal about his books being misogynistic. This definitely seems like something Argento and his peers would get called out on often, so it feels like a way for Argento to address the issue through the voice of his character (even though Peter isn’t able to get too deep into his response).

The voices of the characters in Tenebrae are extremely important. When Peter is questioned about his fictional killer going after “deviants,” Peter is surprised by the interpretation. For decades, certain groups of people, even those who are well-meaning, have interpreted gialli, slashers, and related genres in ways similar to Cristiano in Tenebrae, regardless of the author’s intent. As Peter reminds us, the killers in his books are insane. But we also have to take into account that Peter is insane himself, or he at least goes a little mad after a certain part of the story. Maybe this is Argento saying that creators are all a little mad, but in the end it’s all for entertainment.

The idea of Cristiano seeing the people he kills as deviants but Peter not agreeing is also interesting because it bleeds over into real-life interpretations of the movie. While doing a little research, I came across a web site that lists Bullmer, Peter’s agent, and an “evil-doer.” How is Bullmer evil? He’s seeing Peter’s ex, Jane, but does that make him evil? It’s an interesting thing to debate, because in my eyes, besides being irresponsibly greedy (by wanting Peter to stay in Rome despite the danger) and keeping his affair with Jane a secret (which isn’t cool, but it also isn’t evil), Bullmer isn’t a villain. Or maybe I’m just a really big fan of John Saxon and don’t want to see him as a bad guy. That could very well be the case…

Besides all that, I just think Tenebrae is super fun. It has the violence and luridness I want from a quality giallo. It also has a story that is enjoyable even when seeing it over and over. For entertainment, it’s killer. The deeper themes are all a bonus in my opinion, and they make the movie even better on repeated viewings.

Tenebrae – A Recap

Tenebrae (alternatively spelled Tenebre) is an Italian giallo about the search for a killer whose murders are seemingly influenced by the writing of an American author. As the movie begins, crime/horror writer Peter Neal is on his way to Rome, Italy. While in the airport, he receives a phone call from his ex, Jane. Peter doesn’t know it, but Jane is actually in a phone booth in the same airport, and she has someone mess with his bag while he’s on the phone with her. Peter hangs up and boards his flight as Jane watches.

Meanwhile, in Rome, a shoplifter named Elsa is murdered in her home by an unknown person wearing black gloves. The killer shoves pages from Peter Neal’s latest book, Tenebrae, into Elsa’s mouth before cutting her throat with a straight razor. Peter arrives in Rome, and when he enters the apartment rented for him, he finds police Captain Germani and Inspector Altieri waiting for him. Peter is told about Elsa’s murder and the connection to his novel. He also finds a letter from the killer which was placed in his room before the police arrived. The letter is a passage from the book which indicates that the killer is taking inspiration from Peter’s novel. The killer calls from a nearby payphone, but the police fail to catch them.

Before the next scene is a flashback, though who is in the flashback is unclear. A woman is with three young men on a beach, but she rejects a fourth. The rejected teen hits the woman. The three other young men hold him down, and the woman shoves the heel of her red high-heel shoe into his mouth.

In the present, a journalist (who knows Peter) is frustrated when her female lover, whom she lives with, takes a man home with her. The journalist, Tilde, is murdered by the gloved killer’s razor. Tilde’s lover Marion is also killed. Peter receives another letter the next day which references the double-murder of Tilde and Marion. The same day, Peter talks with TV-show host Cristiano Berti in preparation for an on-air interview. Cristiano is deeply interested in the book Tenebrae, but Peter has to correct some of his incorrect assumptions about the book’s killer, their motivations, and the moral implications of the story. Back at his apartment, Peter thinks he sees Jane driving down the street.

That night, while the killer is out looking for a prostitute to murder, Maria (the daughter of Peter’s landlord) accidentally discovers the killer’s lair after being chased by a dog. Maria gathers evidence of the killings, but she is murdered before she can escape. Later, a new letter directly threatens Peter, referring to him as the “corrupter.” Peter connects the verbiage of the letter to Cristiano Berti, so he and his assistant Gianni go to Cristiano’s house. While they’re gone, Peter’s longtime assistant Anne sees Jane outside of Peter’s apartment building. Over at Cristiano’s place, Gianni goes ahead of Peter to sneak around to the back of the house. Gianni sees Cristiano murdered by an unseen killer. As Gianni runs away, he finds Peter knocked out in the yard. They leave together.

In another flashback, the woman with the red shoes is stabbed to death. In the present, Peter tells his agent, Bullmer, that he wants to leave Rome. After Peter leaves, Jane comes out of hiding in a closet. Jane and Bullmer kiss. Later, Peter tells Captain Germani that he is leaving town. At her apartment, Jane receives a package containing red high-heel shoes. Around the same time, Bullmer is killed in the middle of a public area while waiting to have lunch with Jane. That afternoon, Peter leaves his apartment to head to the airport.

In the evening, Gianni goes back to Cristiano’s house, and he remembers that Cristiano said he killed the women. So if Cristiano was the killer then, who is killing people now? Back in his car, Gianni is strangled to death. Also, Jane calls Peter’s apartment, but Anne picks up the phone. Jane wants to explain everything she’s done, and Anne says she’ll be right over. After the call, an axe smashes through a window, severing Jane’s arms and painting the walls with blood. Jane is subsequently hacked to death. A final flashback shows the red-shoed woman dead, and her shoes are stolen by the killer.

A woman arrives at Jane’s apartment. The killer murders the woman with their axe. The killer is revealed to be Peter Neal, and he is shocked because he thinks he’s killed Anne. The woman is actually Inspector Altieri. Captain Germani and Anne arrive, and Germani holds Peter at gunpoint. Germani explains that Altieri found out about Bullmer and Jane’s affair, so she rushed over to Jane’s apartment to inquire further. It is also explained that Cristiano killed the first four women, but Peter killed Cristiano and everyone else. Peter wanted people to think the original killer was still alive so he could have an alibi for killing Bullmer and Jane. Peter is the mysterious killer in the flashbacks, and his repressed emotions led to his current madness.

As Germani prepares to take Peter into custody, Peter cuts his own throat with a straight razor. Germani and Anne go back to his car as he radios the police station. Germani goes back into the apartment where he sees that Peter’s body is missing. He also finds that the straight razor Peter used on himself is fake, and it’s rigged to squirt fake blood. Peter appears and kills Germani. Anne reenters the apartment. When she opens the door, she accidentally knocks over a sculpture which sends a metal spike into Peter’s torso. Peter dies a bloody death while Anne’s screams continue as the credits begin to roll.

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