Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 27 Feb 1970Dario 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…0
  2. 2Blood and Black Lace (1964)Blood and Black Lace (1964) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 14 Mar 1964Mario 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…0
  3. 3The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased 10 Feb 1963An 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…0
  4. 4The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased 12 Feb 1971A 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…0
  5. 5Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) 6.5/10 on IMDbReleased 17 Dec 1971A 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…0
  6. 6Deep Red (1975)Deep Red (1975) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 7 Mar 1975An 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…0
  7. 7Tenebre (1982)Tenebre (1982) 7.0/10 on IMDbReleased 28 Oct 1982The 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…0
  8. 8A Bay of Blood (1971)A Bay of Blood (1971) 6.4/10 on IMDbReleased 8 Sept 1971Bava 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…0
  9. 9Torso (1973)Torso (1973) 6.5/10 on IMDbReleased 4 Jan 1973Sergio 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…0
  10. 10What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased 23 Mar 1972Massimo 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…0