Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is essential reading for any fans of 'degenerate cinema' such as myself, though it may be a little difficult to navigate for newer delvers into Italian Horror, for reasons already mentioned in previous reviews; the films are only referred to by their Italian titles, without the translations. But that's no reason to stay away from this, or you'll miss out on some really great interviews, especially those involving Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci as well as many others. There are some great insights into the Italian filmmaking of the 70's/80's, and getting it straight from the parties involved makes for fascinating reading. I can assure you, you'll be surprised and delighted at some of the discussions. Rivalries are exposed, some trash talking and - finger pointing - abound. Great stuff from the wonderfully strange world of Italian Exploitation. Pick this up!

One of the top three on the subject - the others, also highly recommended, are Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Films of Dario Argento and Eaten Alive!

A very interesting book with interviews with the most important people in the italian horror/fantasy filmindustry like Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, Ruggero Deodato and Aristide Massaccesi (Joe D'Amato) to name a few. The bad thing with this book is that all film titles is in italian wich is especially annoying in the review chapter, it can be very hard to find the film you are looking for if you don't know it's original title. But if you can stand this fault this is great stuff, a must for all fans of euro horror.

Next to the Cathal Tohill book, this is about the best you're gonna find concerning Italian giallo and horror. Many of the films described are also now available on DVD so you can judge for yourself. The only big flaw is that the titles are in Italian so you better get yourself a good translator or be prepared to look them up on the imdb.

I also find the review by JJJJS of Toronto to be utterly bizarre. Why would one review a book for a genre one doesn't like to begin with? What a waste of time!

This is for fans only, since more obscure titles by directors I've yet to discover are included, as well as photos and color stills from the various films. If you don't appreciate this kind of film then stay away.

It's been a while since I've read this, but it still sits on my shelf (where the life span of "unimportant" books is very small. A lot of the information presented will be well known by afficionados, but for people who are mildly interested in learning something new about Italian cinema -- this is the book for you.

This is truly the bible for getting to know information about Italian film makers! Including 26 interviews with some of your favorite Italian movie directors! This amazing bible of Italian cinema contains tons of black and white pictures as well as color ones too. The book itself is broken down into six sections including; horror, thrillers & mysteries, violent adventure, science fiction, peplum & heroic fantasy, the "Dead Zone" (strange & unclassified films), and comedies & fables. This book is a must have any Italian movie fan or anyone curious or interested in Italian cinema and wants to know more information about there favorite movie director.

If you enjoy fast-forwarding to the goriest death scenes and watching them over and over again... or if you think that X Italian horror-movie heroine is SUPER HOT when she's dead, then you'll enjoy this book. The most horrifying thing about it is the fact that it's a book for Eraserhead-tshirt-wearing angry loner fanboys COMPILED by Eraserhead-tshirt-wearing angry loner fanboys.

The directors give uninspired interviews (not surprisingly), and the actors bring absolutely nothing to the table (also, not a surprise). It is vaguely - and I mean REALLY vaguely - informative, but really... unless you want to impress your friends with pointless trivia, go elsewhere.

The introduction pretty much says it all - the authors/editors are obviously the guys who sat behind you in film class and guffawed every time boobies appeared on the screen. They also seem unaware that Ray Bradbury lifted "Something Wicked This Way Comes" from Shakespeare's "Macbeth."

A terrible experience. Avoid like the plague.