Madness

"If they kill someone with an electric drill do they take it out on Black & Decker?"

Lovercraft Publications (sic) is under attack from the media for promoting violence with their giallo comic book series "Doctor Dark," but artist Giovanna (Monica Carpanese), writer Nico (Gabriele Gori) and publisher Marzio (Achille Bregnini) insist that art imitates life and not vice versa. Never the less, someone dressed as Doctor Dark is murdering people just like in the comic books and Giovanna finds that she is the next target! The police quickly apprehend a suspect but is he the real killer? What motivates Doctor Dark to gouge out his victim's eyes? And could someone close to Giovanna be responsible?

Madness (originally titled Eyes Without a Face, but not to be confused with the French thriller of the same name from 1960) is a decent late-period giallo that really leans in hard to the classic tropes. You'll find an interesting pool of possible suspects, some good mis-directs and laughably over-the-top acting that borders on Telenovela-style emoting. The story seems to be lifted from Dario Argento's Tenebre, but with enough minor changes to make it a compelling watch.

• Thirty years into the history of giallo, the writers managed to create a murder weapon I've never seen before on screen - a two-pronged dagger that, when inserted in the victims nose, pops their eyeballs out of their head. Very gruesome. Bravi.

• The threatening answering machine messages Giovanna gets on her phone count as "tape recorder used as a mis-direct" in the checklist above.

• The police apparently figured that their first suspect wasn't the real killer and followed Giovanna and Nico to their vacation retreat, expecting the killer to follow. Basically, they used Giovanna as bait without her knowledge or consent. I think that qualifies them as "inept."

 

• No composer is credited, but some really good cues were selected, including a sultry flute theme that harkens back to giallo's groovy 70's heyday.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

Sometimes when the color yellow pops up in a giallo it has special significance, marking a person, place or object. Madness has quite a few significant pops of yellow, but only a few seem to be intentionally placed.

 

The first few times we see her, Publisher's Assistant Emy (Emy Valentino) uses yellow as a signature color. But after a few scenes, she changes to shades of pink.

Later, Doctor Dark looms over this crime scene in the background, against a yellow background.

Besides the two-pronged dagger, the killer's other weapon of choice is a yellow poison.

Finally, the sailboat that acts as the setting for the whole third act is full of yellow accents, possibly foreshadowing danger for our characters and directing our attention to boat captain Marco (Carlo Granchi).

Fashion Moment:

Madness really is trying to get back to the classic era of giallo and nothing communicates that more than the look of the classic giallo killer: a black trench coat, hat and gloves with an eyeless black mask. This guy could have walked out of The Fifth Cord, The Case of the Bloody Iris or any number of 70's gialli.