Tenebre is a graphic slasher horror film from writer and director, Dario Argento. The movie was produced by his brothers, Claudio and Salvatore Argento. And it was released by Sigma Cinematografica on October 28th, 1982. Tenebre stars Italian and American actors; Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, John Steiner, Veronica Lario and Mirella D'Angelo. It had also spent time on the United Kingdom’s Video Nasties list and was banned in that country until 1999.

Peter Neil is an American horror author vacationing in Italy. He has recently written a book called Tenebre, that someone is using as inspiration to kill women in Rome. Peter decides to aide the police, and lead Detective Giermani, in finding this sadistic murderer. Only this investigation may take Peter closer to the killer than he may be comfortable with.

The story that Dario Argento tells is deep and entertaining. It’s a highly graphic tale with strong aberrant sexuality and brutalistic sensationalized murders. But it’s a story that’s told so well it overshadows every other element in the film, including the acting. Terrible dubbing aside. Most of the actors just aren’t that strong. I liked Anthony Franciosa as the lead. He does a fine job. Not much more than a generic television quality performance, but that’s really all you need. He gets the job done. John Saxon did alright. But he was pretty useless and didn’t factor into the movie much.