Thirty-five years ago, Italia Uno was dyed blood red with Notte Horror. A regular appointment for us teenagers with the television in our bedrooms, the historic summer series was broadcast for two decades strictly on the second Tuesday evening, from 1989 to 2009. The rendezvous with monsters and demons was introduced by Uncle Tibiaa puppet-narrator with a rotten face born in American comics Creepy. So, it was called Uncle Tibia Picture Show and aired on Fridays. The popular format will become Horror Night after the first two seasons with the consequent liquidation of the zombie puppet, change of name and day of programming. Victims of the easy jumpscare, we couldn’t wait to get under the sheets with a fan on full blast and equipped with the inevitable VHS, in the hope of being able to videotape some first viewings (yes, admission of guilt!).
The review deserves credit for making the great masters of the genre such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Sam Raimi or Stephen King accessible. The king of terror from which some of the works that accompanied us during adolescence have been adapted (Living Cemetery, The dark half, Precious things) passed in front of generalist TV. Without forgetting, Italian horror classics such as …and you will live in terror! – The afterlife of Fulci or The church of Soavi. But not only masterpieces, the programming as darkness fell was also dotted with very bad films which over time became real scult. Some examples? The Sleepwalkers, Dr. Gigglese Freaked – Sgorbi. Notte Horror had a revival in summer 2021 but, in the era of platforms just a click away, it did not have the desired effect. Let’s rediscover the 10 (more or less) memorable horror films that aired during those hot thrilling summers.
Estate 1989: Nightmare (1984)
Looking under the bed before going to sleep became (almost) a routine, after watching Freddy Krueger and its blades instead of fingers, ready to shred everything. The first chapter of a saga composed of nine films, Nightmare – From the depths of the night, Wes Craven’s cult film, draws inspiration from a series of articles that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on the mysterious case of a group of refugees of Laotian origin who died in their sleep, following violent night terrors.
Estate 1989: Hellraiser (1987)
A skull pierced by pins and a hellish portal in the form of cube box puzzle: the perfect combo for sleepless nights with profuse sweats. Hellraiser, the horror film written, produced and directed by the English Clive Barker, based on the story entitled Slaves of hell (The Hellbound Heart) by the same director, generated a series consisting of eleven films.
Summer 1990: Vampire Slayer (1985)
Written and directed by Tom Holland (The Killer Doll), here in his debut. The film follows the story of a high school student who discovers that his neighbor is a vampire. When no one believes him, the boy decides to convince a self-styled vampire hunter, a TV star, to stop the newcomer’s killing spree. A cult that masterfully combines the traditional stereotypes of the genre with a contemporary setting. One of the most terrifying scenes is when the villain changes from his human form to that of a thirsty bloodsucker.
Summer 1991: Pet Sematary (1989)
Undead kittens hungry for human flesh and zombie children armed with scalpels. From Mary Lambert, the first female director to bring to the big screen Stephen KingPet Sematary arrives. Lambert was friends with the Ramones and asked the iconic punk band to sign the song for the closing credits.
Estate 1995: Scanners (1981)
David Cronenberg’s classic. The scanners, those individuals with telepathic powers that blow your brains out. The king of body horror he decided to insert the “memeified” head explosion scene ten minutes from the start, as a provocation for all those spectators who arrived after the film had already started.
The Shrouds, the review of Cronenberg’s film: death does not make you beautiful
Estate 1996: Splatters (1995)
Before the Ring Saga, Peter Jackson was “Lord of the blood”. Splatters, the brain squirts is a little gem that made the New Zealand director a craftsman of horror. From rat monkeys to undead newborns, this is said to be one of the goriest films of the 90s, given the exaggerated quantities of fake blood spurted during production (300 liters for the epilogue alone).
Estate 1996: Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
In a cemetery, the guardian Francesco Dellamorte has the task of permanently deadening the deceased who emerge from the tombs. Macabre and grotesque, the supercult by Michele Soavi from the novel by Tiziano Sclavi: the father of Dylan Dog, of which Dellamorte is an alter ego. We still weren’t ready for the sex scene above the tomb, with Rupert Everett and Anna Falchi who go at it.
Estate 1997: Brainscan (1994)
An introverted teenager plays a video game that forces him to kill. A title that should be said, if it were not for the presence of Edward Furlong (John Connor of Terminator 2) we’ve probably never seen it. Simple, but not stupid, because the screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker (that of Seven and in general, one of Fincher’s favourites) deals with a theme that is still extremely relevant today, thirty years after the release of Brainscan – The Game of Death. contemporary exploiting the narrative register of teen horror.
Summer 1998: The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
A policewoman played by Asia Argento follows the trail of a serial killer. She finds it at the Uffizi where, in the presence of works of art of extraordinary beauty, she loses consciousness (Stendhal syndrome, who fainted in front of the Sibille del Volterrano in the Niccolini Chapel in Florence). The psychoanalytic thriller by Dario Argento marks the return of the Master of Thrills to his homeland, after the American period, and his conversion to CGI instead of practical ones.
Summer 1998: …and you will live in terror! – The Beyond (1986)
Let’s conclude ours marathon-amarcord with a masterpiece of the Italian horror scene. Eyeballs torn out, delirious whispers, hands coming out of the walls to grab you. The fear of the unknown according to master Lucio Fulci. Quentin Tarantino loves it so much that, that year, he restored the film and distributed it for the first time in the United States.
