Book Review: Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989

Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989
Published by McFarland, 2019. 232 pages.
By Roberto Curti

Being that this is the 3rd book in the series by Curti involving the gothic horror films of Italy, this latest one, covering the ’80s, it’s sort of a nice little walk down memory lane for me. The ’80s is when I started to become aware of these films. With the boom of VHS tapes, the horror section was filled with these flicks from Italy, promising (and usually delivering) the bloody and gory goods to us eager viewers. So getting to read several pages on some of my favorites, namely the ones from Argento, Bava, Fulci, and Soavi, there is plenty to be learned here.

Not only will you get to read about some of your favorite classic Italian horror flicks like Argento’s Inferno (1980) or Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond and House by the Cemetery (both 1981), as well as Claudio Fragasso’s Monster Dog (1985) and Luigi Cozzi’s Paganini Horror (1989), you will get so much insight and information that I bet you’re going to want to re-watch some of these if you haven’t seen them in a while. You’ll learn maybe why Monster Dog turned out like it did, which could make you give it (and Fragasso) a little more credit. Maybe.

But there are also plenty of titles covered in here that you haven’t heard of, or maybe you have and even seen it, but it was years ago. For me, one of those titles is Red Monks. I can still remember getting a bootleg of it and excited to see it because Fulci’s name was attached to it. Granted, I barely remember much of it, but after reading about it, I now want to bust it out and check it out once again.

And that right there, my fellow horror reference book fiends, is the sign of a great book. When you put it down and immediately want to investigate a movie further, that shows the author has intrigued your brain enough for you to move further down that path. So congrats to Curti for succeeding in that once again.

This book is available through McFarland’s website by clicking HERE.