Tenebre

The word "Tenebre" is a Latin/Italian term meaning darkness or shadows.

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The striking two-and-a-half-minute crane shot circling Tilda's house took three days to complete. American distributors wanted it cut from the film for its US release, but Argento refused.

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Close-ups show the killer's hands in black leather gloves.

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The film's harsh "modern look" and cinematography stemmed largely from Dario Argento's being influenced by Andrzej Żuławski's Possession (1981) — both films appeared on the DPP's list of "video nasties," officially the Prosecutable Obscene Films list.

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Director Dario Argento was reportedly inspired after being stalked by a fan.

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A murder victim falls from a window.

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Quentin Tarantino called Jane's axe murder his favorite death scene on screen, including the moment she "paints the wall with blood," because of its intense imagery.

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Director Dario Argento described star Anthony Franciosa as one of the most difficult actors he ever worked with.

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In the Italian version of the film, the opening narration is delivered by director Dario Argento.

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The original film's poster featured an image of a woman with her throat cut. The UK release (in 1983) censored the violent image by placing a red bow on her neck after posters displayed in the London Underground drew complaints. Some later UK video and DVD releases used the "censored" image. The most recent ones (including Arrow's DVD/Blu-ray release) restored the "original poster" image on their covers.

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The character summons clues from his memory.

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The word repeated in the film's main theme (through a voice encoder) is "Paura," which means fear in Italian.

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Christopher Walken was considered for the lead role.

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The film marked Dario Argento's return to the giallo genre he had popularized in the 1970s. In interviews, Argento claimed he was annoyed by other directors imitating his genre-defining work and wanted to reestablish his dominance in the genre.

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An unused "muzak" track by Goblin from Dawn of the Dead (1978) plays in the background of the scene in which Tilda and his girlfriend argue before the girlfriend leaves with a man (immediately before the scene with Argento's famous crane shot).

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In 1980, Dario Argento was harassed by an obsessive fan who repeatedly phoned him, threatened him and claimed he wanted to ruin Argento's life. Argento used the experience to begin writing a screenplay about "celebrity stalkers." That screenplay became the film "Tenebre."

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The girl in the red shoes in the flashback was played by a transgender actress.

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The film ends with the relentless screams of Daria Nicolodi's traumatized character. The original idea in the screenplay was a single, brief scream. Nicolodi decided to channel her frustrations in her personal and professional life into one long scream. Dario Argento was surprised but decided to keep her heartfelt scream in the film.

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Noted Italian giallo and horror directors Michele Soavi and Lamberto Bava (Mario Bava's son) appear in this film.

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To Dario Argento's surprise, Tenebrae was released in Italy with a VM18 rating, meaning it could not legally be seen by anyone under eighteen. Argento had hoped to reach a young audience with the film. He was told that the censors did not object to the violence or the depictions of murder, but only cut the film's lesbian scenes.

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In his biography of Argento, James Gracey considered that Tenebrae contained many of the recurring themes of Argento's work: "Freudian psychology, sexual perversion, repressed trauma, voyeurism, spectatorship and the fetishisation of violence and death."

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The film's title means "darkness", yet Dario Argento instructed cinematographer Luciano Tovoli to use as much bright light as possible. The director wanted the lighting to help create a "cold, stark and semi-futuristic look".

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One of the film's memorable scenes shows a character being killed in a public square. Some critics consider the scene a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers.

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A humorous side of the film is that homicide detective Giermani is a lifelong fan of mystery novels, yet he can never guess the correct solution to a mystery. This in fact foreshadows the outcome of Giermani's story. He easily falls for the misdirection strategies of the professional writer Peter Neal. In the end he is killed by Neal, who uses theatre sets to deceive Giermani one last time.

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Daria Nicolodi was reportedly reluctant to take an acting role in Tenebrae. She had previously had a romantic relationship and a working partnership with Dario Argento, but they had argued heatedly over the writing credit on Suspiria. She did not want to repeat the experience.

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Much of the film was shot in Rome's EUR district. It was commissioned by Benito Mussolini in preparation for the 1942 World's Fair. Many of its buildings combine architectural elements of neoclassicism and the Italian rationalist architecture of the interwar period. The film's locations were chosen to evoke Italy's retro-futuristic look.

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Although it is never stated in the film, Peter Neal appears to have a fetish for red high-heeled shoes. His earliest flashback memory depicts him (as an adolescent) being kicked and humiliated by a girl wearing red heels. When he kills the girl for revenge, he steals her red high-heeled shoes. Years later, as an adult, Peter presents red high-heeled shoes as a gift to his intended victim. He expects that she will wear them when he attacks her.

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The distant flashbacks set on the Rhode Island coast are a homage to the American mystery film Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Eva Robin's white costumes in the flashback scenes are reported to be based on Elizabeth Taylor's white costumes in Suddenly, Last Summer.

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The Italian rock group Goblin had provided the music for Argento's two previous films, Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977). In 1982 the group disbanded. Argento hired three former members of the group (Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli and Massimo Morante) to work on the music for Tenebrae.

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Cinematographer Luciano Tovoli used Kodak 5247 film stock (125 ASA speed rating) for the film's daytime scenes and Kodak 5293 (250 ASA) for the night shoots. To achieve underdevelopment and less colour loss in the laboratory, Tovoli rated both at 300 ASA, giving the negative controlled overexposure during shooting. The final aim was for the images to be "crystal clear" and for the night scenes to be filled with light.

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A sample of Goblin's theme song "Tenebre" appears in the songs "Phantom" and "Phantom pt.2" on the Cross (2007) album by the French house duo Justice.

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The sole purpose of the film's famous crane shot was to reveal the weak points of the lesbian couple's seemingly safe house. The setting is being prepared for their murder by a home invader.

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In the English version of the film, Daria Nicolodi was dubbed by Theresa Russell, Giuliano Gemma by David Graham, and most of the female voices by Adrienne Posta.

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Claudio Simonetti is credited as the driving force behind the film's music. For the main theme he decided to use primarily an electronica/rock hybrid style, along with some disco elements.

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Most of the scenes involving the murder of Maria Alboretto (the youngest victim) were shot at the private residence of the architect Sandro Petti. He was a personal friend of director Dario Argento and agreed to let his house be used as a filming location.

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The film was the first Italian production to use the Louma crane, for a long crane shot. The crane had to be imported from France.

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The scene featuring Jane McKerrow's severed arm was reshot several times because the blood spray did not look convincing enough. The special effects team eventually decided to use an explosive charge in the prosthetic arm.

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In the film, a character investigating a murder discovers that he is the actual killer and has a repressed memory of the crime. This is regarded as a tribute to Roy William Neill's film noir "Black Angel" (1946), which has an almost identical premise.

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Berti's female victims share many traits: they are mostly sexually liberated, physically attractive and self-confident women. Socially conservative and religious, Berti sees them as sexual deviants who must be punished.

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The close-ups of the killer's gloved hands depict Dario Argento's own hands. The director used gloved camera shots of his hands in many other films.

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The first flashback scene on the beach was shot at the Capocotta beach near Ostia. Much of the area belonged to the House of Savoy until 1985.

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The theft scene at the beginning of the film was shot in the La Rinascente store. La Rinascente was a prestigious chain of high-end Italian department stores.

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The film features two serial killers, the second imitating the original. The original killer, Christiano Berti, is portrayed as a typical religious fanatic. Because of his strict Catholic upbringing, he is motivated to kill lesbians and other "perverts" and sees himself as a moral warrior.

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Throughout the film, Peter Neal's appearance is followed or accompanied by a shot of water. His death scene in particular is part of scenes depicting a rainy night.

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The airport scenes set in New York City were shot at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

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A "George Kemp" is listed as the sole screenwriter on US posters in the credits and as co-screenwriter with Argento in some prints of the film.

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While recording the score, Claudio Simonetti used Roland Jupiter-8, Roland Vocoder Plus and Minimoog synthesizers as well as piano, electric piano, an Oberheim DMX drum machine, a Roland TR-808 drum machine and a Roland MC-4 music sequencer. Fabio Pignatelli played bass and fretless guitar, while Massimo Morante played electric and acoustic guitar.

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In the film, Peter Neal turns from victim into killer. However, there is another obvious transformation for Peter in the film. Early on, he passively accepts the events surrounding him. At later stages, he begins to control the events in his own story.

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Filming on "Tenebrae" began on 3 May 1982 and lasted ten weeks.

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The film's soundtrack album was first released in 1982 on the Italian Cinevox label. It has since been reissued multiple times in several different countries. Individual songs from the soundtrack were rearranged for use in dance clubs.

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In the English-dubbed version, Daria Nicolodi was reportedly voiced by the already well-known actress Theresa Russell. She has neither confirmed nor denied this.

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Italian censorship visa #78278 was issued on 27 October 1982.

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