10 Awesome Italian Horror Films

As Halloween approaches, I’m keen to share some of my personal horror interests – my all time favourite type of horror film are the lavishly lit, hyper stylised, Hitchcock on steroids Italian horror films. Most commonly falling under the “giallo” genre (a term for the yellow paged detective books that became popularised in post-war Italy), the Italian horror film has evolved to embrace the supernatural and the absurd. Whether they’re straightforward murder mysteries with black gloved killers and third act twists or kaleidoscopes of technicolour madness involving witchs and demons, if there’s one country that knows how to do horror, it’s Italy. There are so many Italian horror films, and I’ve only really scratched the surface, but here are ten of my favourites to stick on with the lights turned off.

10. The Beyond

Fulci’s work is a bit hit and miss for me, but he’s delivered two all-time classics which are on this list. The first is The Beyond, a totally insane slow burn zombie film that’s the schlockiest schlock shot like a high art film. It’s set in the American South, with all the gothic architecture that comes with it. Primarily revolving around a cursed hotel, the film builds and builds to a crescendo of chaos in the third act. Don’t think about it, just get absorbed in it, it’s highly entertaining. 

I’ve only blogged once this month but no matter, let’s talk about some films!

This month’s been… something. I spent the first half of it in perpetual short story mode and editing my final essays to perfection, then I celebrated no more university with a cinema trip two weeks ago. Now, I could say that the reason I haven’t been writing is because Godzilla Vs Kong (which I’ve obviously already talked about) blew my mind so much I had to emotionally recover, but the truth is I just forgot to think of anything. No worries, I still watched some great films. Let’s talk about them –

Last Night in Soho looks great, doesn’t it? Here’s some films to watch beforehand

The first trailer to Edgar Wright’s upcoming psychological thriller/horror/this is gonna be the film event of the decade Last Night in Soho dropped about a week ago. In that time, I’ve done some rapid fire catchup on some of the film’s obvious horror influences, namely Messers Bava and Argento. But first, a rewatch of Baby Driver, his last film. Overshadowed by the presence of Kevin Spacey and, more recently, Ansel Elgort, it’s unfortunate this film is defined by the controversies surrounding the cast now because this is an awesome, awesome film. Stunning car chases, a fun cast, especially Jamie Foxx, and a brilliant soundtrack. Baby Driver has it all – it’s a filmmaker at the top of his game working with one of the best cinematographers (Bill Pope) and editor (Paul Machliss) around to create a thrilling action film that manages to be both original and a homage to several older films, namely Walter Hill’s The Driver which I’ve still yet to see but am keen to.

This is one of the funniest scenes in any Edgar Wright film, and that’s saying something.

Every film I saw in October 2020

I did watch a lot of horror films, don’t worry. But apart from my mandatory dives into October’s premier genre, I also returned to university and watched some films based around my courses as well. All in all, a nice, diverse bunch this month, and a surprise from a franchise I don’t normally care for.

• Night of the Creeps

I went into Night of the Creeps expecting a silly 80’s b-movie that’s so bad it’s good – what I got was a silly 80’s b-movie, but it’s actually full of quality. The film does a brilliant job taking itself seriously, with effective scares, genuine character building and great tension, as well as a fun vibe with horror references (characters are named after horror directors like John Carpenter and George Romero). Furthermore, the film’s campy aspects never detract from the great story or character moments and the balance of horror, comedy, action and thrills make for a surprisingly good zombie film that definitely deserves more attention.