A Blade in the Dark
An up-and-coming film composer named Bruno moves into a secluded villa in hopes of getting some extra creative inspiration for the horror movie he’s just been hired to write the score for.
However, life soon starts to imitate art when a vicious killer begins bumping off anyone and everyone who happens to pay him a visit! As each death leaves more and more clues and the pool of suspects begins to grow, Bruno begins to suspect that the film he’s been working on may itself be the key to unlocking the mystery and stopping the carnage.
The first major international hit from director Lamberto Bava (Demons), A Blade in the Dark is a classically structured giallo with a gory slasher twist.
ABOUT JANUARY GIALLO:
"Every January, we like to pour ourselves a glass of J&B whiskey, sharpen our straight razor and slip on those black gloves to celebrate our favorite horror sub-genre, the Giallo. For those of you who don’t know, a Giallo is Italy’s answer to murder mysteries and thrillers that was kicked off by Mario Bava with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (aka Evil Eye) in the early sixties. While filmmakers like Umberto Lenzi made some excellent Giallos in the late sixties/early seventies such as Orgasmo and Knife of Ice, the sub-genre became popularized by Dario Argento with The Girl with Crystal Plumage. Throughout the seventies, Argento along with Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Luciano Ercoli, Aldo Lado and many more made several visually stunning and viscerally violent cinematic excursions. The word Gialllo means ‘yellow’ in Italian, which was the color of the pulp and crime books that some Giallo took inspiration from. Although stylistically, the Giallo shares DNA with the German Krimi Films, the sub-genre took some wild turns mingling with occult, Gothic horror, Poliziotteschi, and psychedelia elements that created many unique variations." - Cinematic Void