article – Anomalous Cinema

I recently received a question from Anomalous Cinema enthusiast Max P about Italian cult films. It wasn’t specifically about sub-genres, but I got onto the topic in my reply, and could not find a simple online article covering the subject. I am trying to fix that here.

Italians are well known for creating film sub-genres primarily motivated by cashing in on other popular movies. “Oh, The Road Warrior and Escape from New York were successful? Let’s do a cheaper version, and make some quick money.” Occasionally this made for some very entertaining films like 2019: After the Fall of New York. Here are the main Italian Film Cult Sub-Genres, with examples linked to imdb. If I am particularly fond of the example, it is in bold.

Three Arguably Original Italian Sub-Genres:

CANNIBAL – NOT FOR THE SENSITIVE VIEWER! Jungle adventure films that began firmly in Italy with The Man from Deep River (not recommended, it is slow and overstuffed with animal abuse). Most of these films are very nasty and only for die-hard cult film fans. This is primarily because of horrible real-life animal killing for the camera. Italian cannibal films are often sexploitational, naively racist, and a little bit violent, to full-blown G-R-O-S-S. Examples (all by Ruggero Deodato): Jungle Holocaust (a good starting point), Cut and Run, and the most notorious of them all, Cannibal Holocaust. The latter is particularly nasty, but honestly borders on art film quality at times, if you can stomach it. Thankfully Grindhouse Releasing added an “animal cruelty free” play option to their discs. The Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack is also stunningly beautiful. You should definitely check out Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox as well if you appreciate Deodato’s cannibal films.

GIALLO – Giallo is Italian for yellow, like the covers of cheap murder mystery paperbacks. They are a spin on Alfred Hitchcock-type mysteries and horror thrillers. Some are quite tame and heavy on the thriller, while others are more like slasher horror films. The stabby ones range from mildly to EXTREMELY violent. Gialli are often erotic, and/or psychedelic as well. Examples: Blood and Black Lace, Tenebrae, All the Colors of the Dark, The Fifth Cord, and A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin.

PEPLUM (often referred to as Sword and Sandal) – Peplum is a reference to Ancient Roman / Greek clothing. This sub-genre was inspired by films like Ben-Hur, and the excellent Jason and the Argonauts (1963). I am saying this is arguably an original Italian deal, as they added their own action-packed twist. Examples: Hercules, The Colossus of Rhodes (the first film by Sergio Leone) and Hercules in the Haunted World.

Here are the other major sub-genres to the best of my knowledge:

NAZI EXPLOITATION – Nazi-themed films inspired by The Night Porter, that spun off into the sleaziest and most ridiculous concentration camp trash because of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. In case you’re thinking, how AWFUL, well… the bad guys always get their just desserts in these flicks. Examples: Salon Kitty, Gestapo’s Last Orgy, and Women’s Camp 119.

NUNSPLOITATION – Naughty nun flicks inspired by Ken Russell’s excellent film The Devils. Examples: Flavia the Heretic, The Killer Nun, and Images in a Convent.

POLIZIOTTESCHI – Italian crime films influenced by The French Connection and Dirty Harry. There’s a good documentary called Eurocrime! if you want a full rundown. Examples: High Crime, The Big Racket, Contraband, and Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man.

POST-APOCALYPSE – As mentioned above, films influenced by The Road Warrior and Escape from New York, that also sometimes mixed in elements of The Warriors. Examples: 2019: After the Fall of New York, Endgame, and 1990: The Bronx Warriors.

SPAGHETTI WESTERN – I don’t need to explain this one right? Well, if you like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, check out these examples: The Great Silence, Cut-Throats Nine, and The Big Gundown.

ZOMBIE – This movie craze happened because of Dawn of the Dead, and should be self-explanatory. Examples: Zombie, Burial Ground, and Nightmare City (yeah, yeah, they’re technically not zombies, but CLOSE ENOUGH).

There’s are also Macaroni Combat (WW2), Post-Star Wars, Post-Exorcist, and Animal Attack films that I am not even getting into. If you’re feeling adventurous, check out crazy sub-genre mashups like Cannibal Apocalypse, and the arguably terrible films Conquest and Zombie Holocaust.

Do yourself a favor and just watch films by director. Most Italian filmmakers touched on several of the above sub-genres. I suggest Mario Bava (his son Lamberto made some decent movies too), Enzo G. Castellari, Joe D’Amato, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and Sergio Martino. Proceed with caution, all of them made some AWFUL films. I recommend using imdb ratings and critic / user reviews to avoid the stinkers.

And BEYOND….

What about Italian cult movies after 1994 or so? There are almost ZERO good spaghetti cult films after Dellamorte Dellamore. That film’s director, Michele Soavi, went on to work in TV, including the very good Uno bianca, and three episodes of the well-received Rocco Schiavone. Dario Argento keeps making movies, but they all range from meh to suck after Tenebrae in my opinion. Well, Jenifer and Sleepless were not bad.

The only good stuff I’ve seen come out of Italy in the last 25+ years are their mafia / crime related movies and series. The best feature film example is Gomorrah, and it is a serious movie with no exploitation elements. EDIT / ADDITION – In late 2023 I saw the Italian Hitchcock-esque mystery The Best Offer (2013). It’s got none of the blood / violence of a Giallo, but it looks great, has lots of twists, and features a very good late Morricone score.

I am familiar with two decent Italian crime series, but they’re mostly drama. When the action kicks in they can be great, but you have to sit through a lot of talking. I watched quite a bit of Suburra: Blood on Rome, but fell off watching it (because of all the TALKING). That series is on Netflix – I recommended the movie version on Anomalous a long time ago, but they took it down. The other series was Romanzo criminale, but again, I stopped watching because there was SO… MUCH… TALKING. Additionally, there’s a series based on the movie I mentioned earlier, Gomorrah, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Here’s a list of a BUNCH more Italian crime series. It seems as Italian film budgets shrank in the late ‘70s, the industry shifted to TV. This must be why there are no great spaghetti cult sub-genre films after 1994. All the damn money goes to criminale shows! What a pity.

Thank you and buona visione! -Jonathan Canady

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As I’ve told you before, I am not a real writer, much less so on the topic of cinema. I bust out my recommendations every week in a matter of minutes before going to work. Travis Crawford was a true writer, as well as an exceptional film programmer. The world of movies was his full-time commitment. Travis suddenly passed away sometime around July 18th, and I felt compelled to write about him here.

In 2001 I was still a newcomer to Philadelphia, and happened to be given an open guest pass for the Philly Film Fest. I grabbed a copy of the massive schedule book from the local video store, and studied it until I settled on six screenings. The highlights were Coffin Joe’s This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse with the documentary The Strange World of José Mojica Marins, plus Dead or Alive, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, and The Isle (a pretty great week, no?). Each screening was hosted by a man named Travis Crawford. He was the programmer of the fest’s “Danger After Dark” series. This serious looking man, dressed in black, charmingly rattled off facts like a human film encyclopedia, and also did a fascinating live interview with one of the Coffin Joe doc directors. I liked this Crawford guy. Every time the fest season came up again I made sure to attend one of Travis’ screenings. I have many fond memories from these events, but a personal favorite was when I saw him conduct a Q and A with actor Jeffrey Combs where he wisely said something to the effect of “we would all be happy with you just reading from the phone book all night.”

As my love of offbeat cinema grew during my years in Philadelphia, I kept seeing Travis’ name pop up. A reprint of his teenage review of Spider Labyrinth in Stephen Thrower’s Eyeball Compendium blew my mind. That was followed by my discovering his DVD liner notes, commentaries, and many print and online reviews. Eventually Travis and I connected through Facebook (his feed was awesome). I had always intended on saying hello to him in person, but never got the chance before moving to Portland in 2014. Not long after that, Travis had some personal issues that lead to him being temporarily homeless. I paid for a couple of nights stay in a hotel, along with many other friends and followers. We spoke on the phone briefly then, and I’d like to think that I expressed my gratitude for his work. What he gave me as a movie fanatic was worth far more than I paid for his room. He eventually got settled into a stable life again, so I consulted him a bit for Anomalous Cinema. He was always quick to help, even though my “writing” must have made him wince in agony when he dared look at it.

When the news came that he had passed, I was struck by a deep sadness. From what I knew at a distance, Travis was a good, but troubled man. He was funny as hell, and probably the most educated person I’ve known on the topic of cinema. To remain informed about current movies Travis watched new screeners almost every day, often more than one. Many of those films none of us will ever have an opportunity to see. My condolences to all that knew him personally. Their loss must be crushing. He was far too young and talented to leave us so soon. Rest in Peace Travis. Thank you for the incredible movie experiences, and for teaching this amateur cinemaphile so many lessons.

I highly recommend this podcast from a few years back featuring Travis (there are several good links on the episode website as well), and this brief article from Filmmaker Magazine. You can read some of Travis’ writing for that publication here. His audio commentary for Arrow’s beautiful Blu-ray of The Fifth Cord is strongly recommended as well.

Also, to give you an idea of the scope of Travis’ film knowledge, check out this January 8, 2022 Facebook post:

So finally, my favorite films of 2021, in order of preference:

1.) Ryusuke Hamaguchi X2: WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY and DRIVE MY CAR
2.) THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
3.) BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN
4.) TITANE
5.) DAYS
6.) PLEASURE
7.) BENEDETTA
8.) THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY IN THE WORLD
9.) THE INNOCENTS
10.) STATE FUNERAL

Honorable mention (alphabetically): FAYA DAYI, HOTEL POSEIDON, IN THE MIRROR, LICORICE PIZZA, MAD GOD, THE MEDIUM, MEMORIA, THE NOVICE, RED POST ON ESCHER STREET, RED ROCKET, SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF, SHORT VACATION, THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND.

This time, I tried to just focus on films with U.S. distribution (although some won’t be released here until later in 2022), but there are a couple in the “honorable mentions” section that still need to be acquired. Also, actual release years are older on a couple titles, but those saw some form of release in the U.S. in 2021. Feel free to argue, or inquire about omissions.

Thanks to Joseph Gervasi for help with the above.

Thank you. -Jonathan Canady

Tag: article

Italian Cult Film Sub-Genres & Beyond

RIP Travis Crawford (1970-2022)