Giallo

What do you want to see in a horror movie? If you are thrilled by a macabre atmosphere that runs a chill down your spine then you may prefer 'Rebecca'(Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) or 'The Shining'(Dir:Stanley Kubrik), if you want gore and torture then Tarantino and Rob Zombie is there for you. For slasher flicks there are 'Jason','Freddie' and 'Leatherface'.

But do you want to see a suspense thriller about a serial killer? or haunted houses that hide gateways to hell? do you feel there should atleast be a demon in the whole movie to scare you, then read on...


'Giallo'(Italian for yellow), is a genre of horror movies and literature that are characterized by pulp fictionesque gore stories of low production values nevertheless entertaining. As a fan of horror movies, I have explored all sorts of genre among  horror movies I could find, but have been in love with this particular type since I watched Dario Argento's 'Suspiria'.I have been obsessively watching 'Giallo' movies for the past few months and have unearthed quite a few gems that can surprise true spook afficionados.

The biggest name in 'Giallo' genre is definitely 'Dario Argento' who infact made a movie titled 'Giallo'(*ing Adrian Brody, Argento's last movie as director).But prior to him the maestro who first made the type famous and commercially successful was Mario Bava.

Mario Bava's 'Black Sunday'(Orig italian title 'Mask du Demon', why it was called 'Black sunday' in english is a mystery :( ) is a classic.Story of a witch coming back from her grave to put a horrible mask(an ancient torture device) on her present day lookalike. Barbara Steele was breathtakingly beautiful as both witch and the princess.Shot in black and white ,this movie is one of Mario's finest work.

Other than the above, Mario was brilliant as a director in Edgar Alan Poe's 'Pit and the Pendulum'(Barbara Steele and Vincent Price).Sadly this movie has a very less role for barbara. As a ghost of a dead wife of a rich spanish lord she mesmerizes viewers with her looks. in the final scene where she turns out to be a conspirator and gets locked down in an iron maiden is riveting.

Mario Bava's 'Black Sabbath' , considered by many as best among his works had three stories(last two were terrific specially 'The drop of water')and THE 'Boris Karloff' as 'Sutradhar'.I dont think there is any english version of this movie, you have to rely on subtitles.

Sadly some of Mario Bava's other works 'Blood and the Black lace','Hercules in the haunted world' were terribly disappointing.

The second king of horror is 'Dario Argento'. His best work 'Suspiria' remains the cult movie, poster of 'Giallo' till date. A young woman arrives in Munich to join a music academy. The students in the academy experience strange spooky encounters and discover a tomb of a witch in the basement. Haunting BGM and cheesy scares and a classic scene where the dog rips the throat of a blind musician, this movie is the 'Sholay' of 'Giallo' genre :) .

Argento produced several other classics 'Deep Red' (Profondo rosso),'Inferno', 'Tenebrae' (Italin for 'murder', one of my Argento favorites, the twist is predictable but interesting) and 'Phenomena'(Jennifer Connelly is brilliant as 15yr old insect loving Jennifer Corvino).

In his later days Argento actually urged Mario Bava's son Lamberto Bava to direct several of his films 'Demons','Demons2', 'The Church' (La Chiesa a.k.a Demons 3, probably Jr.Bava's best work, and certainly better than Demons1 & 2).

Argento's last work was Giallo(2009) which was a horrible horrible disaster.Its so bad that its hard to sit through it :( . As somebody put it up in IMDB message board "Dario, for god's sake ! please stop".
Its hard to believe the man who gave us 'The bird with the crystal plumage' and 'Cat o'nine tales' is making 'Sleepless'(2001).

Other notable mentions in 'Giallo' are Lucio Fulci("The beyond") and Sergio Martino("Torso")...

To be contd...

/* Published this longtime back in 2010 in 'InfyBlogs' :D */

Ramming Stone

"French might be the language of love, but German is the language of anger"-Oliver Reidel.

The Heavy metal bands of 80's and 90's have given way to the new age death metal or melodic heavy metal bands. Probably only 'Metallica' and 'Iron Maiden' have their own niche and fans will continue to worship them decades after decades.
'Anthrax', 'Megadeth', 'Slayer' of old times are now equally popular with the wave of Scandinavian bands, 'Eluvitie', 'Children of Bodom', 'Kalmah', 'Meshuggah'.
The lyrics and theme of all these bands are almost same, very dark, loaded with witchcraft, mythological reference to Satan worshiping and all the evil cult that looks so cool!

But somehow i found that very synthetic; as if done on purpose to attract listeners. In my opinion if any band that has truly pushed the boundaries, played with file(quite literally ;) ) , experimented with their sound infinitely and curved their own place at the heart of listeners is 'Rammstein'.

The band was founded by Richard Z. Kruspe, lead guitarist with Oliver "Ollie" Riedel, Christoph "Doom" Schneider and THE MAN Till Lindemann circa 1989. Till was a basket weaver in east germany. They won a contest on 1994 and caught the eyes of Paul H. Landers. He along with Christian "Flake" Lorenz joined the band and thus 'Rammstein' was complete. None of the band members have left the band so far.
The band was named after 'Ramstein' airshow disaster that took place in 1988, when a fleet of Italian airplanes crashed in the place 'Ramstein' near kaiserlautern.The extra 'M' gives the band name a meaning 'Ramming stone'.
Their hour of reckoning came in 1995 when they released the singles "Du riechst so gut","Hierate Mich".These two along with another single "Rammstein" skyrocketed the band into popularity. Though 'Herzeleid'(95) was their first studio album it was not quite as popular their following 'Sehnsucht'(96) which included all the above singles along with the ground breaking hits 'Engel' and 'Du hast'.
One can very easily have an idea how much Rammstein likes to play the audience's mind by looking at the lyrics of the song 'Du hast'. the lyrics is a wordplay on the German marital vows, where the groom is asked 'will you have (her)?'(Du hast),
'Willst du bis der Tod euch scheidet, treu ihr sein für alle Tage?'
'Willst du bis zum Tod, der scheidet, sie lieben auch in schlechten Tagen?'
which translates as "Will you promise to be faithful to her, love her until death even in her bad days?" , instead of a traditional 'Yes'(Ja) the reply in the song is 'No' :)
Also its very confusing whether the song translates as 'You have' or 'You hate' ,because in Deutsche there is only a subtle difference in pronunciation. To add to that Rammstein themselves released a single 'You hate' in English :D
In following years Rammstein produced several hit studio albums 'Mutter', 'Reise, Reise'(Journey,jorney), 'RosenRot','Liebe ist für alle da'.

'Mutter' had another popular Rammstein track 'Links 2,3,4'(left,2,3,4). The song re-affirms the belief that they are actually not Nazis and their heart belongs to left.("In an interview Till confessed that initially they were far right and attracted to Fascism but now they would rather be left").
The lyrics of Rammstein is generally very strong, hard hitting and bold; the lyrics of 'Buck Dich', 'Mann gregen mann'(Man eats man/man versus man) and 'Ich hab Keine Lust'(I don’t feel anything) are so blunt that i will have to break infy rules to post the meaning ;)
But then again there are songs like 'Spieluhr' which is so heart-touching and gut-wrenching that it will bring tear to your eyes.
Rammstein live performances are awesome, they have taken Pyrotechnics to a whole new level. The fire and lightworks in their show are jaw-dropping. Till once said "99%of the people in the audience does not speak German, we need alternate ways to get their attention". Their live performances in Nimes (Volkerball tour) and Berlin are full of adrenaline.
They released a great album 'Pruzhniki' with russian two-girl band T.A.T.U and also did a great show, but for some strange reason i see all reference to that album(wiki page) has been deleted!!! (wonder why!!)
Till radiates such a brutal masculine power that his presence is enough to get the crowd charged.He was a good friend of English midfielder Owen Hargreaves when he used to play for Bayern Munchen.
To me Till Lindemann is the greatest human on earth. Rammstein is my life.
Here are my top 10 Rammstein songs ..
10.Asche Ju Asche
9.Mein Hertz Bernt
8.Amor
7.Mutter
6.Das Model
5.Amerika
4.Keine Lust
3.Du Hast
2.Links 2-3-4

1.Spieluhr (It means a small clocking device in germany, the lyrics of the song tells a story of a small child who is buried alive, his little heart has stopped, but fortunately at the end of the song he is rescued.