Mario Bava was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the Macabre". His low-budget genre films, known for their distinctive visual flair and stylish technical ingenuity, feature recurring themes and imagery concerning the conflict between illusion and reality, as well as the destructive capacity of human nature. He was a pioneer of Italian genre cinema, and is regarded as one of the most influential auteurs of the horror film genre.
Ernesto Gastaldi is an Italian screenwriter. Film historian and critic Tim Lucas described Gastaldi as the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. Gastaldi worked within several popular genres including pepla, Western and spy films.
Carlo Rambaldi was an Italian special effects artist, winner of three Oscars: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1977 for the 1976 version of King Kong and two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects in 1980 and 1983 for, respectively, Alien (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He is most famous for his work in those two last mentioned films, that is for the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien and the design of the title character of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Camille Keaton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Jennifer Hills in the controversial 1978 film I Spit on Your Grave. She began her career in Italy, making her film debut as Solange Beauregard in the giallo film What Have You Done to Solange? (1972), and starred in several other Italian horror films through the early 1970s. In 2015, Keaton reprised her role as Jennifer Hills for the film, I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu, which was released in 2019.
Castle of Blood is a 1964 horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti and Sergio Corbucci. The film stars Barbara Steele, Arturo Dominici and Georges Rivière. The film was initially commissioned to director Sergio Corbucci, who had Gianni Grimaldi and Bruno Corbucci set to write the film. A scheduling conflict led to Corbucci's friend Margheriti being hired to complete the film. To avoid going over time, Corbucci was brought in to film one scene.
Web of the Spider is a 1971 horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti. The film is about the writer Alan Foster who accepts a bet from Edgar Allan Poe and his friend Thomas Blackwood to stay a night in Blackwood's castle. At the castle, Foster meets Blackwood's sister Elisabeth and Julia. Foster has sex with Elisabeth and wakes up to find that she was stabbed by someone whose body vanishes, allowing Foster to realize the house is possessed by ghosts.
Sergio Salvati is an Italian cinematographer who was born in Trastevere, a working-class neighborhood of Rome, Italy. His father, Aldofo Salvati, was already a key grip in the early days of Italian cinema, and through his father's contacts Sergio began his career developing negatives in a small photographic laboratory in Rome, the SPES directed by Di Ettore Catalucci.
Lover of the Monster is a 1974 gothic horror film directed by Sergio Garrone and starring Klaus Kinski.
Mannaja is an Italian 1977 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Martino. The main role, Blade, is played by Maurizio Merli. Other central roles are played by John Steiner, Sonja Jeannine, Donald O'Brien, Philippe Leroy and Martine Brochard.
Mario Bianchi was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Bianchi directed several features including sexploitation and pornographic films. He spent the majority of the 1990s directing pornography in Italy under the names Nicholas Moore, Tony Yanker and Martin White.
Massimo Dallamano, sometimes credited as Max Dillman, Max Dillmann or Jack Dalmas, was an Italian director and director of photography.
La strega in amore is a 1966 Italian drama-horror film directed by Damiano Damiani. It is based on the novel Aura by Carlos Fuentes.
Tragic Ceremony is a 1972 horror film directed by Riccardo Freda and starring Camille Keaton, Tony Isbert, and Máximo Valverde. Its plot follows a group of young people who find themselves haunted in the hours after witnessing a black mass while lodging at a remote estate during a rainstorm.
Fracchia contro Dracula is a 1985 Italian horror comedy film directed by Neri Parenti.
Ermanno Donati was an Italian film producer. Along with Luigi Carpentieri, Donati won the Nastro d'Argento award for Best Producer for the film The Day of the Owl.
Too Beautiful to Die is a 1988 Italian thriller film directed by Dario Piana. The film is an in-name only sequel to Nothing Underneath (1985). It is about a group of models and dancers who find that one member of their crew has been raped and then later murdered. The group finds that the killer is taking revenge on anyone involved in the original assault, just as a new person joins their group for a music video-styled project. The film has received negative reviews from Scott Aaron Stine, Roberto Curti and L'Unita who found the film to be all style with no substance.
