Black Gloves vs. Jason
I've tried discussion thread posts here before, with very mixed results. Let's give it another go, and see if we get a good one this time! It's my contribution to Final Girl's Friday the 13th Blog-A-Thon.
'60s-'70s Italian-style Giallo vs. '80s-and-on American-style Slasher
Which do you prefer, and why?
I have to run to work now, but I'll post my own thoughts later!
UPDATE: Despite a lifelong interest in horror, I've never seen a Halloween or Friday flick until very recently (like, within the past few years). Why not? I guess I always had the impression they'd be stupid, ugly, and unimaginative. Like Erich Kuersten of Acidemic Film, I also associate them negatively with the time period that spawned them, the Reagan years, when America in general was stupid, ugly, and unimaginative. Having caught a fair number of them now, mostly on cable marathons associated with Halloween or Friday 13th (the actual holidays), I have to say, they really are all that, as well as insular, juvenile, and suffused with hypocritical puritanism (as if there were any other kind).
With the advent of dvd, movies like Lisa and the Devil and Whip and the Body made me a Bava fan, and Suspiria introduced me to Argento. When I joined the Eurotrash Paradise discussion group, I was very leery when I heard tell of an Italian style of slasher--the giallo--but my faith in those directors prompted me to check out Blood and Black Lace, Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and Opera.
Wow.
Here was color, style, mystery, psychological convolution, and brilliant, beautiful excess. I dove in, relishing Martinos, Lenzis, Fulcis, and more. And I found other aspects to appreciate. The giallo is predominantly urban, international, cosmopolitan, jet-setting. What's more, it's set in a world of grownups, for an implied audience of grownups. George Hilton and Luigi Pistilli never have to worry about whether a fake ID will score them a keg or not--they sip J&B, urbanely taking it for granted as a normal part of adult life. And virginity is never an issue when Edwige Fenech or Anita Strindberg take the screen--the sex might be illicit or kinky, but again, there's an underlying modern European matter-of-factness about it between consenting adults.
As the giallo, alas, began to die of sheer exhaustion, I suppose you could say it was a stroke of American genius to strip away every decadent, baroque flourish, and to dumb the slasher down to its absolutely most lizard-brained essence. To "appreciate" the '80s American slasher, you don't need an eye for art or cinema, a mind for subtle mystery, or the least capacity for psychological complexity or depth; all you need is an amygdala.
I hate to sound like I'm bashing the movies or their fans--I certainly wouldn't say any of the above about Stacie, who put together a truly epic blog-a-thon in honor of the F13 franchise--but I'm afraid I find too little to love in the Reagan-American slashers, and they suffer direly in comparison with their European forebears from a far more colorful, exciting period in cinema and in general.
11 comments:
I absolutely prefer the European stuff, finding it more frenzied, delirious, intoxicating - but then again, I am European...
And let us not forget the soundtracks to the European films are much, much better.. The US of A have no Morricone.
Giallo, for all the reasons mentioned above, plus the fact that, as derivative as some giallos are, they were never as cookie=cutter as all the 80's slasher flicks.
And I've always hated the way that slasher films always seemed to be cut away from violence. Your watching for the violence, and then they don't deliver...
I said that last thing, not anonymous...
"And I've always hated the way that slasher films always seemed to be cut away from violence. Your watching for the violence, and then they don't deliver... "
Don, the reason that the slashers didn't deliver was due to our parents, or, as everyone else calls them, the MPAA.They did deliver on the violence, it's just that mommy didn't like it, therefore we shouldn't see it.I prefer the slashers meself.Friday The 13th was responsible for my expansion into the joys of watching ultraviolence and steered me towards the grisly goodness of european horror(and other foreign horror).Morricone? Hell, we don't have Goblin, either!
In addition to what those who prefer giallo have said, especially concerning the music, I'd like to add that the giallo had a real sense of style. The look, the rythm,and the music were all important. In the slasher films, nothing matters, but the cleverness of the murder scenes.
Giallo, gialli, giallo, gialli! And krimi too!!
But I'm sure you already knew that.
The casts were prettier and the acting was better. The decor and fashion was much more styling. The soundtracks were amazing.
Directors like Bava, Fulci, Martino, etc. often had really impressive filmmaking backgrounds before they started making thrillers, which brought a lot to their productions. These guys were really well trained directors with unlimited creativity.
What bugs me about slashers and modern horror is the lack of creativity. Most of the people making these films have twice the budget that Bava had and yet they make a lesser film. I don’t get it.
Of course, I'm sure I'm a bit biased since I have a thing for 60s & 70s era films, music, etc. I would hop into a time machine in a second and go back to groovy age if I could! ;D
Although Morricone is fabulous and I absolutely adore the films of Fulci, Argento and Romero?
I have always enjoyed Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other slasher related US films!
Deciding between them would be tough as they both have good and bad points and are also both unique and artistic perspectives of individual madness?
I'm "torn" in between...
Alex
I also prefer the Giallo, but for slightly different reasons - I've always liked the puzzle or crime-solving parts of the Giallo, whereas the slashers tend to bore me a lot more. Style and music also matter of course, but I've never watched that stuff for the violence and might actually prefer the tamer slashers in this regard, as I've always felt that some of the sleazier scenes (extended rapes, mutilations, etc.) ruined otherwise perfectly fine gialli.
I totally prefer the Giallo.
I grew up during the 80's, and liked Slasher films well enough. In fact I think "Halloween" stands up as one of the great Horror films.
as I've gotten older I've found my tastes drifting more towards the Gothic. That and straight up Monster Movies.
I've only started watching Giallo's in the last year, and I find that they satisfy on a number of levels.
They often have elements of Gothic Horror(I watched "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times" the other night, and was actually spooked).
They are beautiful to look at.
As was mentioned before, the scores are wonderful.
And while I find the "psychology" is often simplistic, it's also a lot of fun.
Rodney
Although some of the early '80s stuff was fun, in a brainless sort of way, it got old fast. For every THE BURNING we got three films the likes of DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE. Stuff you wished you could have your money & your time back from such a waste of them.
Not that the gialli were exempt from some serious time wasters. Joe D'Amato's stuff was skin crawling, but not in a good way. The couple that I sat through were joyless exercises in revulsion IMO. And though some might call it heresy, though I enjoyed Lucio Fulci's supernatural efforts & own some of them, I never enjoyed any of his non-supernatural horror efforts.
Though, I adore almost everything that Argento has done, as well as much of the filmography of the Bavas.
Is this a real question?
I mean, I like slasher movies, I guess. I kind of think in some strange way more than I care to admit to myself. But I can't think of more than a couple that I'd even watch a second time, even less consider great... although certainly Halloween would rank high among my favorite movies.
But overall, there's no question. Gialli offer the same thrills, but, as you say, with more. More complex and interesting music cues. More adult concerns. More dynamic cinematography.
Even on the base level, most of the times they also have more creative deaths and more nudity.
Post a Comment