Plot
Maria is interrupted during a massage by her angry husband, Paolo. He has proof that she has been unfaithful to him, though she denies it. That night, someone dressed in black and wearing surgical gloves brutally murders her after injecting her with a chemical that leaves her paralyzed but still conscious. The next day, the inspector assigned to the case, Tellini, questions Paolo. The police find a picture of Maria caressed by a man's hand, but his identity is unknown because half the picture is missing. At home that night, Tellini confesses to his artist wife, Anna, that he does not feel cut out for homicide investigations.
Tellini continues to investigate the crime and trace the needles used in the crime to a local doctor. The doctor protests his innocence, and when Tellini leaves the office, he is accosted by Paolo. Paolo too insists he is innocent and plans to conduct his own investigation. The killer strikes again, this time murdering a clothing store owner with no connection to Maria. Tellini visits a scientist acquaintance of the woman, who demonstrates that a species of wasp will use a toxin to paralyze and eviscerate a tarantula to lay its eggs in the corpse. Tellini has the scientist arrested on drug possession charges.
Laura, who owns the spa that Maria patronized the day of her death, phones Mario, who was Maria's lover in the picture. He and Laura take photos of lovers to blackmail them, and she tells him to deliver the last batch of photos of Maria's indiscretions to a woman named Franca. When Mario goes to deliver the package, Tellini and Paolo (who is now working with Tellini) chase him. After a brief struggle with Mario, Paolo falls to his death, but Mario is then run down by a car in the street below. Shortly after being interviewed by Tellini, Franca is murdered. But the police rule that Mario was the killer of all three women. When a tape of Tellini and his wife making love is made public, Tellini again determines to leave the force. But when he is nearly killed in a staged automobile accident, he realizes he needs to solve at least this one last crime.
One of Laura's spa employees, Jenny, resigns in protest of the blackmail ring. Laura obliquely threatens her life, but their conversation is interrupted by the spa's blind masseur. Jenny spends the night at a friend's house but is followed by the killer who brutally murders her, and then leaves her body in a trash bag to be found the following day. Tellini interviews some of Jenny's coworkers, including the aloof Laura, a nurse who wears gloves identical to the killer's, and the blind masseur, who takes off his darkened glasses to reveal colorless, unseeing eyes.
That night, Laura telephones Tellini to inform him that she has determined the killer's identity. But when he goes to the spa, he finds her dead, with a colorless contact lens next to her body. Realizing the masseur had been faking his blindness and was indeed the killer, Tellini races home to find the killer attacking Anna. The men struggle, and Tellini subdues him and saves Anna. The next day, a psychiatrist tells Tellini that the masseur had begun faking his sightlessness after killing his unfaithful, sexually voracious wife; he then continued to kill to satisfy his inner demons. Satisfied at solving the case but still disillusioned with police work, Tellini wanders the crowded streets of Rome.
Eyeball is a 1975 giallo slasher film written and directed by Umberto Lenzi. It’s an international co-production between Italy and Spain.
In Italian cinema, giallo is a genre of murder mystery fiction that often contains slasher, thriller, psychological horror, psychological thriller, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a 1963 Italian giallo film directed by Mario Bava, starring John Saxon as Dr. Marcello Bassi and Letícia Román as Nora Davis. The plot revolves around a young American woman named Nora, who travels to Rome and witnesses a murder. The police and Dr. Bassi do not believe her, since a corpse has not been found. Several more killings follow, tied to a decade-long string of murder victims chosen in alphabetical order.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a 1970 giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. It stars Tony Musante as an American writer in Rome who witnesses a serial killer targeting young women, and tries to uncover the murderer's identity before he becomes their next victim. The cast also features Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho and Mario Adorf.
Lovers and Liars is a 1979 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini. It is Hawn's only foreign film. It was released in the United States in February 1981.
Sleepless is a 2001 Italian giallo film directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Max von Sydow and Stefano Dionisi and marks Argento's return to the giallo subgenre. The film was another box office success when it opened in Italy, taking in over 5,019,733,505 lira by the end of its theatrical run.
Giallo is a 2009 Italian horror giallo film co-written and directed by Dario Argento and starring Adrien Brody, Emmanuelle Seigner and Elsa Pataky.
Specializing in the field of drama, with particular attention to the drama of its national heritage, the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico has played a key role in the Italian film and theater scene and is currently headed by Professor Luigi Maria Musati. It has prepared artists such as Margherita Buy, Vittorio Gassman, Luigi Lo Cascio, Anna Magnani, Nino Manfredi, and Monica Vitti. Other former alumni include Antoniano, Manuela Arcuri, Mino Bellei, Carmelo Bene, Dirk van den Berg, Giuliana Berlinguer, Alessio Boni, Alberto Bonucci, Giulio Bosetti, Renato De Carmine, Ennio Fantastichini, Gabriele Ferzetti (expelled), Scilla Gabel, Domiziana Giordano, Michele Placido, Luca Ronconi, Gian Maria Volonté and Lina Wertmüller.
Paolo Cavara was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He is best known for collaborating with Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi on the 1962 mondo film Mondo Cane, and for directing the fiction film The Wild Eye (1967) and two giallo films, Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) and Plot of Fear (1976).
The Bloodstained Butterfly is a 1971 giallo film directed by Duccio Tessari. It starred Helmut Berger and Ida Galli.
The Murri Affair is a 1974 historical drama film directed by Mauro Bolognini, starring Giancarlo Giannini and Catherine Deneuve. It is based on real events of a notorious 1902 murder trial. It was awarded with a David di Donatello for Best Film.
Giallo a Venezia is a 1979 Italian giallo film directed by Mario Landi. The film released on December 31, 1979, in Italy and starred Leonora Fani. It is known primarily for its extremely graphic scenes of sex and gore, including a woman's leg being slowly sawed off with a long knife. There is also a Brazilian VHS version containing XXX scenes under the title Pesadelo em Veneza.
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids is a 1972 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
The Weekend Murders is a 1970 Italian giallo film directed by Michele Lupo. It starred Ida Galli, Beryl Cunningham, Anna Moffo and Orchidea De Santis.
The Suspicious Death of a Minor, also known as Too Young to Die, is a 1975 Italian giallo film directed by Sergio Martino.
So Sweet, So Dead is a 1972 Italian giallo film directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero.
In the Folds of the Flesh is a 1970 Italian / Spanish giallo film produced and directed by Sergio Bergonzelli. The screenplay was co-written by Fabio De Agostini and Bergonzelli, from a story outline by Mario Caiano. Ferdinando Merighi and Juan Vilches were the assistant directors.
Midnight Killer is a 1986 Italian giallo film starring Valeria D'Obici and Leonardo Treviglio, and directed by Lamberto Bava.
The Editor is a 2014 Canadian black comedy giallo film by Astron-6 and starring Paz de la Huerta, Adam Brooks, Laurence R. Harvey, and Udo Kier. The film is an homage to and parody of giallo, a cinematic and literary subgenre originating in Italy and popularized through films like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Torso, Deep Red, and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin.
