Giallo Cinema and Its Folktale Roots: A Critical Study of 10 Films, 1962-1987

The Italian giallo film genre--the equivalent of the American whodunit but incorporating extreme violence and sex--was based on popular British and American fiction of the 30s and 40s, adapted to the explicitly liberal filmmaking of 1970s and 1980s Europe. Seldom released in American theaters, these films were usually distributed as redacted bootlegs, awaiting digital technology to be restored to their original content and pristine visual form.

This book analyzes the censored sex and viole...