Spaghetti Nightmares: Italian Fantasy-Horrors As Seen Through The Eyes Of Their Protagonists [Paperback]

Luca Palmerini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1996

Authors Luca Palmerini Gaetano Mistretta have comprised the first literary work on the Italian horror film industry, allowing producers, directors, screenwriters, make-up artists and actors an opportunity to express their views.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English
Original Language: Italian

About the Author

Luca M Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Fantasma Books (June 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963498274
• ISBN-13: 978-0963498274
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential for the die hard fan, March 10, 1999

By 

Alan ([e-mail]) (Chicago, Il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spaghetti Nightmares: Italian Fantasy-Horrors As Seen Through The Eyes Of Their Protagonists (Paperback)

Any gore hound or Italian horror film buff will no doubt find much to savour in this volume. It is peppered with richly colorful pictures and poster art and much information in the form of interviews. Much is revealed in them, such as the confirmation that there was infact a rivalry between Argento and Fulci (which made their later day colaberation all the more remarkable and heartwarming before Fulci's untimely death) as well as inside odds and ends on some of the most violent, controversial, and daring films in history. The only draw backs are the potentially useful index of Italian films in the back which uses only the original Italian names of the films and during the interviews only the Italian language titles are used. Since the names are changed for their releases abroad, it makes this reference difficult to utilize. Also, some of the interviews are unfortunetly much too brief, as in the case of Ruggero Deodato. There is so much that could have been explored that is not due to their sparce length. Also, I found that at times the interviewers were pushy, or even accusing, in their questioning. As is the case in the Argento interview when they question him concerning his film Trauma and inquire whether he has sold out (not bluntly but in an indirect manner) that is both not impartial and counter productive. I also understand that a MUCH longer version of the book was available in Italy but the English edition was butchered for its release. Whether this is true or not I am not certain, but it could explain the seeming incompleteness of some of the interviews. Nonetheless, this book has much to offer, and my knowledge of the horror cinema is greatly enriched because of it. It gives a very fascinating portrait of how they make their films over there, and as they say, no information is better than that which comes directly from the source. Recommended.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you are into italian horror, you have to get this., September 17, 2000

By 

Peter Neal - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spaghetti Nightmares: Italian Fantasy-Horrors As Seen Through The Eyes Of Their Protagonists (Paperback)

It's true that only italian titles are included here and this makes reading quite frustrating (for instance, the italian title for the recently released on DVD "Autopsy" is "Mache Solari"!). Of course, there is always IMDB to find out the film's english title. The point is that the interviews included here are very good with very few exceptions (the Terence Stamp interview is a joke). Argento's is great and so is Fulci's. David Warbeck gives a very good interview too and check out Tom Savini and Gianneto De Rossi. There is also a great interview with Argento's muse, Daria Nicolodi, a good reason alone to buy this book.

All in all, this book maybe flawed, but if you are into this thing, you got to have it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Spaghetti Nightmares is a bit of a mixed bag., October 30, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Salem, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spaghetti Nightmares: Italian Fantasy-Horrors As Seen Through The Eyes Of Their Protagonists (Paperback)

I eagerly anticipated getting my copy of Spaghetti Nightmares and as I read through its almost 200 hundred pages I felt it was a bit of a hit-or-miss affair. While the cover claims the tome is "the first complete reference" it consists almost completely of interviews with people involved in the Italian horror/fantasy film industry. All this makes for good reading for the most part, but there are some weak parts. While director Dario Argento's interview is first rate, that with American expatriate actress Mimsy Farmer is somewhat stilted and off-puting. Most are quite interesting, however, and the interviews with late splatter director Lucio Fulci and New Zealand born actor David Warbeck were both exciting and hilarious. One thing that authors Luca Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta err in is the all Italian presentation of the diiferent films' titles throughout the book, an especially big problem in the reference guide that takes up the last 30 pages. They should have included at least English tranlations of the film titles, if not the titles of the films as they were released in the U.S., as they are often completely different. Obviously this creates a problem for a person unfamiliar with the Italian Horror genre. All in all, however, this was an obvious labor of love by the authors, who obviously know their stuff and should be applauded for going to such great lengths to provide these almost 30 interviews and the exhaustive movie index. A treat for hardcore fans, but perhaps not for the beginner.