Bounding Into Halloween Night 22 Turns ‘Deep Red’ Before Heading To ‘The Church’
Aye, paisanos! How are you? I hope you’re ready for another trip a back to the old country for a couple of red bottles of vintage fright. These two movies are fine classics in Italian horror, and they’re both-a-really scary! Set your affairs in order, get yourself an alibi, and I’ll see you in the docks.
Deep Red (1975)
Up first is one of the definitive spaghetti slashers (aka Giallo) from master of the genre, Dario Argento (Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebrae, Opera). In case you didn’t already know, this man’s brilliance has been an invaluable influence on horror, and his bloody finger prints can still be seen in modern thrillers.
Not only is this one of his best movies, but it also features the first of many collaborations with the amazing Prog Rock band, Goblin. From 1975, this is Deep Red.
Psychic medium, Helga Ulmann (Macha Meril), is at a parapsychology conference in Turin with Professor Giordani (Glauco Mauri) when she starts reacting violently after receiving a bad premonition during a lecture.
Helga catches the vibe of a killer’s twisted mind from within the audience, and declares that this person will kill again, but also mentions a creepy singing child. Afterwards, Helga tells Giordani that she may know the killer’s identity, but decides to wait until the next day to tell him.
When Helga gets back to her apartment, she starts hearing the creepy singing child again while on the phone with her publisher, and she hangs up to investigate.
Her first bonehead move was not telling Professor Giordani the killer’s identity, but the one that cost her was not calling the cops when she hears creepy singing outside of her door.
The same door bursts open, and the unseen killer (with black leather gloves) hacks her to death with a meat cleaver.
British jazz pianist, Marcus Daly (David Hemmings), witnesses the brutal murder, and arrives over there just in time to see the killer run away. The police question him, and now he’s compelled to discover the killer’s identity, but while still staying the gloved killer’s crosshairs.
With the help of feisty photojournalist, Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi), they peel back the layers of this mystery, and discover a shocking coverup from twenty years prior.
Between this and Suspiria, there is no better introduction to not only Argento’s work, but also Giallo itself. The shots, the cinematography, and colors are expertly crafted by a professional at the top of his game.
Some newcomers might be weirded out by psychedelic rock music playing while someone is horribly dying, but don’t worry. You get used to Goblin and begin to see how well it actually works. This great movie is available for free on Kanopy.
Here’s the trailer:
The Church (1989)
Our next tale from the boot country is from director Michele Soavi (Cemetery Man) with Argento as the producer. It’s the exquisitely bizarre 1989 supernatural horror treasure, The Church.
Originally intended to be the second sequel in the Dèmoni series, but Soavi decided to make it into a standalone movie, and that was the right call. Because it most certainly deserves to be its own thing.
Father Gus (Hugh Quarshie) is a kindly man of the cloth from an old Gothic church in Germany, and he’s just trying to live a simple life. He already has to deal with some mosaic artist (Barbara Cupisti) who’s restoring the church’s frescoes, and the Sacristan’s rebellious teenage daughter (Asia Argento) sneaking out in the middle of the night to go party.
The last thing he needs is some hotshot young librarian (Tomas Arana) coming in the place and starting trouble.
Aside from his terrible Latin, asking out the mosaic artist on his first day, and chapping the leathery ass of an already grumpy old Bishop (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.), he’s not a very good listener, which is very strange for someone who is used to being in quiet spaces all day.
After being told not to go into the unstable catacombs, this librarian immediately goes down there, and opens a portal into Hell, but he also reveals a dark secret about the church’s origin.
It turns out that the 12th Century cathedral was built atop a mass grave of people who were slaughtered by knights of the Teutonic Order. The knights had it on good authority that the villagers were a community of devil-worshipping witches, and had to be eradicated.
They chopped down every last man, woman, child, and animal. After that chivalrous deed, the brave knights dug a pit in the ground, shoved the bodies into said pit, and then plugged it up with a stone crucifix before building the church on the giant pile of dead limbs (plus a living knight who accidentally fell into the hole).
So, what did this stupid librarian do? He opened the kill hole, and people start having freaky visions, especially one involving an even freakier goat-faced fellow. This eventually drives the Sacristan (Roberto Corbiletto) to take his own life. That sets off a mechanism which seals all ways out of the church and unleashes demonic spirits.
Just when Father Gus didn’t think the crap could be chucked any higher onto the pile, some nerdy teacher chose that day to bring her students there on a field trip. It turns into a bloodbath of possession and death in droves. Now, this kindly priest must survive being trapped with Hell itself, and try to find a way out, but without unleashing this evil upon the world.
And to think, this is all a librarian’s fault!
This is one of those movies that was extremely difficult to find in stateside video stores. The copies found were usually bootlegs. Yet it could always be found at a random booth at some horror convention.
The Church is an old personal favorite, and I can’t recall ever seeing it aired on television until late one night (many years ago) on the terribly missed TCM Underground block of bangers. Fortunately, our friend TUBI is still around to answer our prayers.
Bow your heads for the trailer:
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