Black Belly of the Tarantula

My first giallo! Actually, it was a little tamer than I expected after the first couple of minutes. The first murder was by far the goriest, and I figured that each muder would escalate in goriness, but that wasn't the case. The first instead set the tone and you just let your imagination run away with what was going on in the other ones, if you wanted. Which I kind of didn't. Or did. I dunno.

I was surprised, though, that the most interesting parts of the movie were actually the parts when the inspector guy is just hanging out with his wife. Interesting in a way that was not at all forced. They didn't try to be anything other than just them hanging out, talking about furniture, I think, mostly. The sex scene was really nice and, well, loving. I assume it was done that way so when we see the rooftop peeping tom watching them, we don't feel implicated along with him. I think if there had been nudity in that scene (or more nudity), if it had been filmed to be an obviously sexy sex scene that the viewer is supposed to get off on, we would have then felt complicit when it cut to the peeping tom guy watching them. It also helped us feel extra embarassed for him when all the police are watching the tape and making crude comments. It was all handled actually kind of deftly in a movie that elsewhere has a decent amount of boobs and blood, and opens with a long slow shot up and down the naked body of the woman getting the massage.

The score was wonderful, of course. Ennio Morricone rules. I especially liked the whispers and hums that seemed to come out at random times.

The whole "psychological" explanation of the killers motives seemed kind of pointless, though, if an obvious nod to Hitchcock. It didn't add anything really to the movie, because we were never wondering about what made the killer click. Kind of like how all the investigation into the life of that VTech shooter guy and his movies and his plays and stuff doesn't make the tragedy any less disturbing or more meaningful, if that had been the point of the final scene. But I don't think it was the point. It seemed like they thought it was some kind of necessary conclusion to that part of the story, but it just seemed empty to me. A place where "depth" isn't actually deep, doesn't actually open up your understanding of anything. It's really just more noise.