A Complex of Carnage

Book excerpt: Dario Argento is the visionary Italian giallo director whose films such as Bird With The Crystal Plumage, Four Flies On Grey Velvet, Deep Red, Suspiria, and Inferno have shocked and disturbed audiences since the 1970s. Argento's films assault the eye with incredible colour schemes, transgressive twists, and bloody human carnage -- but that is merely the surface. In-depth analysis of Argento's narratives reveals an occult undercurrent seething with abjection, compulsion, paranoia, schizophrenia and sexual psychosis; Ae ^COMPLEXe ^OFe ^CARNAGE reveals and explores this buried syndrome of manias in four separate essays, and is illustrated with over 80 illuminating photographic images, including 40 in stunning full colour.