To understand why there are so many Giallo films, you must have an understanding of how Italians watched films in the early ’70s. During this time, Italian TV stunk. People didn’t stay inside on the sofa glued to TV. Instead they would come home from work, head out for dinner at a nearby restaurant and see a movie with pals. This wasn’t just a Friday or Saturday thing. This was a weekday thing. This meant that single screen theaters were constantly swapping out titles so they could keep an audiences coming back. If a genre was hot, this worked out great for a theater that wanted to attract that audience. Studios were extra eager to produce numerous titles in that genre to keep the audience coming back. That’s how even though Giallo was hot genre for a few years, it contains over a hundred titles. Vinegar Syndrome digs into the vault for three titles that played in Europe, but never made it across the Atlantic with Forgotten Gialli: Volume 1.
Trauma and The Killer Is One of 13 were produced in Spain. The Italian The Police Are Blundering In The Dark has a killer loose with a pair of scissors. All three are getting their first legit releases in the USA. You can order the boxset directly from Vinegar Syndrome’s website at https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/forgotten-gialli-volume-one
So plan on three scoops of gelato to take in the vintage mysteries. Here’s the press release from Vinegar Syndrome:
This limited edition and painstakingly crafted boxset (designed by Earl Kessler Jr.) is limited to 5,000 units and is only available here at VinegarSyndrome.com!
Note: this box includes three Blu-rays and cases (no DVDs).
The giallo remains one of the most popular sub-genres in Italian and Spanish film history. But for all of the well-known and classic films the genre has spawned, so many others have been nearly impossible to enjoy since their theatrical debuts. This first entry in our ‘Forgotten Gialli’ series presents three rarities, two from Spain and one from Italy, none of which have ever been legally available in the English speaking world.
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TRAUMA:
Daniel, a writer seeking seclusion to work on his new book, finds himself stranded at a rural bed and breakfast run by a strange and prudish young woman and her ailing, wheelchair-bound husband who remains shut in his room all day. However, as night falls, a psychotic, razor-wielding killer begins stalking the bed and breakfast, brutally slashing the throats of its most sex-crazed guests, whose bodies and luggage then mysteriously disappear the following morning…
A satisfyingly trashy low-budget Spanish giallo which inadvertently also ranks as one of the country’s earliest proto-slashers, León Klimovsky’s (The Vampire’s Night Orgy) TRAUMA aka Violación Fatal is filled with gratuitous sex and nudity, along with bloody killings. Barely released outside of Spain, Vinegar Syndrome presents TRAUMA on Blu-ray, in a brand new 2K restoration of its camera negative and in its longest version ever presented on home video.
Directed by: León Klimovsky
Starring: Ágata Lys, Heinrich Starhemberg, Ricardo Merino, Isabel Pisano
1978 / 87 min / 1.85:1
• Region Free Blu-ray
• Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm original negative
• Original Spanish language sound with newly translated English subtitles
• Historical commentary track with European cult cinema author Troy Howarth
• Promotional image gallery
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KILLER IS ONE OF 13:
A recent widow has invited a group of family friends to her large and secluded country home. However, what the guests don’t know, is that the reason they’ve been assembled is because their host suspects one of them might be her husband’s killer and she’s intent on uncovering the identity of his murderer. As the guests begin to suspect each other, revealing long kept and sinister secrets in the process, an unknown, black-gloved killer begins bumping them off in a variety of nasty ways.
A unique Spanish take on Agatha Christie’s oft-adapted novel, and giallo source material favorite, And Then There Were None, exploitation auteur Javier Aguirre’s (Count Dracula’s Great Love) THE KILLER IS ONE OF 13 is uncharacteristically literary-in-structure, but never skimps on its requisite bloodshed. Featuring some of Spain’s top genre film stars including Patty Shepard (Rest in Pieces), Jack Taylor (Female Vampire), and Paul Naschy in a supporting role, Vinegar Syndrome brings THE KILLER IS ONE OF 13 to Blu-ray, newly restored in 2K from its original negative and available in North America for the first time in any format.
Directed by: Javier Aguirre
Starring: Patty Shepard, Simón Andreu, José María Prada, Jack Taylor, Paul Naschy
1973 / 95 min / 1.85:1
• Region Free Blu-ray
• Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm original negative
• Original Spanish language sound with newly translated English subtitles
• Historical commentary with author and Editor-In-Chief of Diabolique Magazine Kat Ellinger
• Promotional image gallery
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THE POLICE ARE BLUNDERING IN THE DARK:
A young nude-model is violently stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. It soon emerges that three other women have already fallen prey to this unknown maniac, and that all three victims have a single and unique connection: they all served as models for an eccentric photographer named Parisi. When another young woman with a date to be photographed is murdered, her journalist boyfriend decides to investigate the crimes and quickly finds himself mixed up with Parisi, who reveals that he’s working on a camera capable of photographing people’s thoughts!
The only film credit from ‘one-and-done’ director, Helia Colombo, THE POLICE ARE BLUNDERING IN THE DARK is a satisfyingly sleazy and decidedly oddball giallo rarity, filled with bloody killings, plentiful nudity, wild plot twists, and plenty of general weirdness. Unseen outside of its native Italy, Vinegar Syndrome presents THE POLICE ARE BLUNDERING IN THE DARK in a fresh, 2K restoration of its original negative and in its first official home video release anywhere in the world.
Directed by: Helia Colombo
Starring: Joseph Arkim, Francisco Cortéz, Gabriella Giorgelli, Elena Veronese
1978 / 87 min / 1.85:1
• Region Free Blu-ray
• Newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm original negative
• Original Italian language sound with newly translated English subtitles
• Historical audio essay with film historian and critic Rachael Nisbet
• Promotional image gallery
