Up next on the Giallo Score is Sergio Martino's The Case of the Scorpion's Tail. A film that is quickly becoming one of my favorite Gialli. 

Rounding out the Giallo Score catalog at an even 20 comes Mario Bava's super groovy Giallo Five Dolls for an August Moon - a film that requires you to check your logic at the door and enjoy the scenery!

Next up on the 'Score is Aldo Lado's classic Who Saw Her Die, a somber yet riveting Giallo with an effective cast, intriguing story, and haunting score by maestro Morricone. 

I'm happy to report that GialloScore has now reached a milestone of 200 followers on Twitter! So I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their support and continued promotion of this site.

Staying with the Giallo-Slasher theme this week is Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood. Another example of how the Italians did if first!

Continuing with my goal to score a new film each week, I present Sergio Martino's Torso. A film that inspired a generation of American Slasher directors.

Despite suffering from a challenging bout of apathy, the GialloScore.com is still very much alive. When I initially conceived GialloScore.com I expected it to be a long term project. The 5 year process of building the site, analyzing the films, refining the criteria, and finally publishing the initial version last year left me with a burning desire to take a break from all things Giallo.

Some Gialli are considered by most to be major academic achievements in cinema, but the 3 that I've just scored and added to the site are definitely NOT those type of Gialli. Instead these films are a blunt reality check to remind you why Gialli are included in the Exploitation category - in other words, the "Guilty Pleasures" of the genre. But the great thing about the Giallo is that it allows for both types and we (the fans) couldn't be happier! So without further ado:

Happy October everyone! This will clearly be the busiest month for most horror movie enthusiasts and I'm grateful to anyone that can help promote GialloScore.com

I wanted to acknowledge the folks at Giallo Fever NYC for their dedication to the obscure genre of Italian Thrillers from the 1970s. I was lucky enough to attend one of their screenings and was really impressed with the venue and the quality of the prints. My only regret is not being close enough to NYC to enjoy all the screenings. Hopefully the Giallo Fever NYC folks will organize another festival closer to Philly.

Paracinema has published comprehensive coverage of the event including a nice plug for GialloScore.com on day three!


I also wanted to thank Mike, the host of the Badasses, Boobs and Bodycounts podcast for mentioning GialloScore.com on his latest episode where he and guest host David Anders from Devour the Podcast review Aregnto's Cat o' Nine Tails. They also present an unfavorable review of Argento's Inferno, but we won't fault them for that!

Coming soon to GialloScore.com - 3 new films scored and reviewed: Umberto Lenzi's Eyeball, Crimes of the Black Cat, and The Red Queen Kills 7 Times.

GialloScore.com has been live for less than a week and is already generating some activity. To keep things moving, I've added two new films to the score: Mario Bava's seminal Blood and Black Lace and Giuliano Carnimeo's The Case of the Bloody Iris.

There are a lot of films in the queue to be added, and I hope to continue at the pace of adding one to two new films per week. If you'd like to suggest a film to be scored feel free to contact the GialloScore @ feedback@gialloscore.com and also remember to use the comments section at the bottom of every film page.

In other news, I'm excited to have the opportunity to attend a triple-Giallo screening in NYC this weekend. The Giallo Fever event sponsored by Malastrana Films Series and held at the Anthology Film Archives starts Thursday, September 20th and runs until the following Sunday. If you're even slightly interested in the genre and live in the NYC area, you'd be crazy to miss this event.



The opening night event will feature a screening of Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage with an in-person appearance by Tony Mustane! I'll be there on the 22nd to see The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Deep Red, and What Have You Done to Solange?

...Halloween comes early!

It's hard to believe that GialloScore.com has finally launched! After coming up with the initial concept in the fall of 2006, the site has had a few false starts and a hiatus due to general apathy. There were many times when I felt like launching an incomplete site, but I'm really glad that I waited as long as I did.

The criteria section has undergone many revisions. The research needed to refine the criteria to this point involved multiple viewings of about 15 or so "classic" Gialli. As the criteria reached its final stages of refinement, the one thing that really stood out for me is how re-watchable these films are. I seem to notice something new and interesting about them with each viewing.

Having grown up as an avid horror movie fan, Gialli were initially difficult for me to appreciate since many of them don't offer the instant gratification that zombie and slasher films do. As is the case with most fans of the genre, I initially latched on to the Giallo through the conduit of Dario Argento and his first two hyper-violent supernatural horror films, Suspiria and Inferno. I loved these films so much that it was natural to believe ALL of Argento's films were just as great (from a horror perspective) as these two. But when the credits started to roll on my rented VHS copy of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, I sat back, a little distraught and confused, and wondered what all the fuss was about. I may have even fallen asleep at one point.

Ten or so years (and a couple of college level film appreciation courses) later, I obtained a copy of Adrian Luther Smith's ultimate Giallo companion, Blood & Black Lace and was absolutely overwhelmed at the number of films that fall into the (somewhat difficult to define) Giallo genre - somewhere around 150 by most counts.

I then started re-watching the few films I had seen before and seeking out new ones. At that time, out-of-print and very expensive imported laser disc versions were the optimal format for viewing, but once DVDs took over the video market, studios like Anchor Bay began re-releasing many Gialli, making them easier than ever to obtain. Today, with the convenience of high-speed internet and HD video encoding, just about any Giallo can be found on the internet. Some of them even turn up, in full uncut format, on Youtube!

And so, now that just about every barrier for obtaining these once elusive films has been broken, the classic Gialli (released between 1970 and 1975) are enjoying a revival of interest and appreciation. I hope this site will serve not only as a resource for discussion among die-hard fans, but also as a way to introduce new people to the genre. Now that the initial site has been populated with ten films, I hope to add one or two more each week with the eventual goal of accumulating and maintaining a repository for the genre.

I welcome all commments, questions, and criticisms so feel free to post a comment on the site or drop me a line @ feedback@gialloscore.com.