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1
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
Dario Argento makes witnessing an attack less reassuring than understanding it. The clean investigative hook gives a newcomer something firm to follow while colour, sound and the arrangement of a gallery complicate the evidence. A particularly good first giallo because the question of how a person looks is built into the mystery itself.
2
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
Mario Bava turns a fashion house into a richly coloured map of secrets, display and danger. The masked figure and elaborate movement through rooms supply pleasures later gialli would develop. Its treatment of women is brutally objectifying, so choose it for the force of the visual construction with that cruelty clearly in view.
3
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)
6.9/10on IMDb
Released
An American visitor's attempt to understand a Roman mystery gives Bava a playful way to turn looking into uncertainty. This is an early, black-and-white route into the tradition rather than a later colour spectacle. The American release titled The Evil Eye was reworked, including its music and tone, so check the version being offered.
4
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
6.6/10on IMDb
Released
A blind former reporter and a younger journalist organise the investigation through unequal access to information. Argento's second feature is more conventionally procedural than some later work. The appeal lies in watching details migrate between observers, with its scientific intrigue and melodramatic turns better approached as heightened thriller logic than sober deduction.
5
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
6.5/10on IMDb
Released
A musician's apparent mistake becomes leverage for someone who knows more about his movements than he does. Argento gives blackmail an expressive life through framing and sound. The eventual mechanism is gloriously fanciful, so choose it for anxious style and strange images rather than a mystery that could survive a laboratory demonstration.
6
Deep Red (1975)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
An amateur witness keeps revisiting what he thinks he saw, while Goblin's music gives the investigation a restless pulse. Argento makes domestic interiors feel full of readable details that remain awkwardly difficult to interpret. A strong next step after the earlier films, with graphic deaths and different release lengths worth recognising when choosing an edition.
7
Tenebre (1982)
7.0/10on IMDb
Released
The bright modern spaces make looking unusually exposed, replacing the reassuring idea that danger needs a dark old mansion. Argento turns an author's encounters into a game of interpretation and scrutiny. It is a forceful later entry for viewers who enjoy precise visual information, with extreme violence and a pointedly unpleasant gender politics to reckon with.
8
A Bay of Blood (1971)
6.4/10on IMDb
Released
Bava makes a contested property and shifting motives generate a ruthless succession of attacks. The investigation matters less than in the clearest whodunits here, placing it near the tradition's proto-slasher edge. Choose it for spatial invention and the mercenary logic of the killings, with gore and a deliberately nasty comic sensibility.
9
Torso (1973)
6.5/10on IMDb
Released
Sergio Martino moves from a broader murder mystery towards sustained danger organised around a confined location and limited knowledge. The changing shape gives it a useful place after more introductory gialli. Sexualised violence and objectifying material are pronounced; the recommendation rests on suspense construction, not an assumption that those conventions are harmless.
10
The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)
6.4/10on IMDb
Released
An apartment building supplies neighbours, private routines and a ready-made network of things people might conceal. Giuliano Carnimeo mixes a relatively accessible mystery with colourful, sometimes comic social encounters. Edwige Fenech's presence is a draw, while the voyeurism and sexualised threat make it a taste-dependent rather than neutral thriller recommendation.
11
What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)
6.9/10on IMDb
Released
Massimo Dallamano gives an investigation around schoolgirls a persistent sadness beneath its thriller machinery. The relationships make the eventual explanations more bruising than the mystery's surface initially suggests. Sexual abuse and violence involving young people are central; try it for atmosphere and emotional weight only if that material is within your tolerance.
12
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)
7.0/10on IMDb
Released
Lucio Fulci moves suspicion into a rural community whose certainty about outsiders is itself dangerous. The setting gives the mystery a distinct social texture beyond glamorous urban interiors. Violence against children and persecution make this one of the harsher entries, with the visual force serving an unusually bitter view of communal judgment.
13
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
6.8/10on IMDb
Released
Fulci lets dreams, desire and possible evidence occupy overlapping visual spaces. Florinda Bolkan's uncertainty gives the elaborate imagery a human centre. Choose it when unstable perception is more appealing than tidy procedure; the sexual material, hallucination-like violence and notorious animal imagery make this a particularly confronting giallo.
14
Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)
6.6/10on IMDb
Released
A man's apparent physical helplessness makes the investigation depend on what his mind can recover. Aldo Lado's Prague-set thriller has a more oppressive political atmosphere than a conventional masked-killer puzzle. Its unusual framing is the invitation, with the social world gradually making ordinary explanations feel inadequate.
15
All the Colours of the Dark (1972)
6.6/10on IMDb
Released
Sergio Martino makes a woman's fear pass between dreams, domestic relationships and a group offering apparently useful reassurance. Edwige Fenech keeps vulnerability at the centre of the ornate style. This is a giallo-tinged occult thriller at the boundary of the selection, best chosen for unstable atmosphere rather than a strictly rational whodunit.
