Tenebrae

To be honest, the only reason I purchased this is because NF does not offer the blu-ray. I had seen it a few years ago, long enough to forget who did it, and weighed my options. For me, the overall stylishness is what made it worth owning on blu-ray as opposed to renting again on DVD. Beautiful poured concrete architecture, '80s women with powdered faces and red lips, old synthesizers, etc. The arterial sprays and other death scenes are impressive and make me queasy to think about. But it's the modern art deco which makes this sort of a 1930s murder mystery, but with more murder and lots of bright red blood.

4 stars because the story, although good, isn't any better than an episode of "Murder She Wrote". Also, there are only two options for audio: all Italian or all English. This means English lines are dubbed over in the Italian version and most lines are inauthentic in the English version. The DVD I remember was mostly subtitled with any English dialogue coming through in English (the main character is an American and his English lines match his lips). I wish there was this third audio option, but the ones presented here are good enough. Two subtitle tracks are available, one which exactly follows the English audio and one which seems to be a closer translation of the the script.

Many people jump on this Blu-ray transfer and yes it may not be the best transfer but its all relative to the print negative. The DVD was rough around the edges too but I will tell you this Blu-ray is sooooooo much of an improvement from my Anchor Bay DVD. It actually looks quite nice at times, definitely worth the upgrade.

Buy Tenebrae Now

What is this the reviewer below me talking about?The blu ray transfer is amazing and a lot more sharper and better than any us version i have seen....Do Urself a favor and ignore the other review as of now and snatch this up before it goes out of print..comes with 4 reversable artwork and a booklet amzing blu-ray for collector's....

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Dario Argento's 1982 giallo "Tenebrae" is what I feel to be the legendary Italian filmmaker's best film. It features a great cast, an unsually strong plot/script for an Argento film, breathtakingly violent murders and some of the most unique & virtuoso camera work either before or since. If you haven't seen any of Argento's classic output, "Tenebrae" is a great one to start with!

As for Arrow Video's blu ray release of the film, if you scour the internet you'll see a lot of grumbling & controversy about a supposedly inferior hi-def transfer. This couldn't be further from the truth! I own bot the anamorphic Anchor Bay DVD and this blu-ray and have done a direct comparison and I can safely say that the blu-ray blows the DVD out of the water and is truly like seeing the film again for the first time. Where there is possibly a slight problem with the film is that throughout the movie, there is a slight layer of video noise that isn't film grain that is somewhat noticeable but not intrusive at all in my opinion. A lot of recent blu-rays of Italian films have had the same slight visual peculiarity so maybe it's just how the negatives were back then or the production house used to author the hi-def transfers themselves. Colors though are very strong and the detail is truly astounding compared to past DVD releases.

There was also a slight issue with the old Anchor Bay DVD in which it was missing approximately 30 seconds due to print damage with the only print they had access to at the time. The Arrow Video blu ray is the full 1 hour 40 minute 54 second uncut version. Extras involve some interviews with Dario Argento, actress (and Dario's former wife) Daria Nicolodi and composer Claudio Simonetti. You also get two commentary tracks and a live performance by Claudio's former band Goblin too. The audio includes both the Italian & English tracks.

So, if you've been on the fence about picking up this particular blu ray, don't be and pick it up immediately. The film looks truly stunning and the nice array of extras compliment this classic giallo very nicely. Highly recommended!

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Since this is one of my favorite Dario Argento films, I was really pleasantly excited to be able to get this great giallo on Blu-ray. However, upon watching this version, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment. Instead of seeing Blu-ray sharpness, the picture is grainy and mushy. Picture resolution is not nearly as good as on the older, standard DVD. It appears that transfer on this one was made straight from an old, VHS tape without any clean-up being attempted. It's really a shame, too, because this item comes with a really informative booklet describing the film, a film poster, and an appreciable number of disk extras. I have a substantial collection of Blu-rays and Tenebrae has absolutely the worst picture quality of the lot. Maybe someday, someone will issue an acceptable edition of this great thriller but this one is better to pass!