r/Giallo • u/No_Green_4156 • 3d ago
Should Dressed to Kill be considered aGiallo movie?
Well, The nudity, the disguised killer, the female protagonist, and the gore which are in most Giallo movies are featured in this movie.
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u/bmoody345 3d ago
I think most people who think that countries other Italy can make giallo consider it one.
What about Eyes of Laura Mars?
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u/No_Green_4156 3d ago
I haven’t seen that film, but I’m looking forward to seeing it
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u/bryanthebryan 3d ago
Absolutely. Laura Mars and Dressed to Kill would make an amazing double feature.
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u/Odd_Fix8849 3d ago
Italy or Spain only for me.
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u/bophadeeone 2d ago
Not shure why people are downvoting you for being correct. If you weren’t then why call anything Giallo instead of Krimi?
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u/bophadeeone 2d ago
I’d say Italy and Spain because of all the early co-productions between the countries.
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u/Walterkovacs1985 3d ago
I just watched Blow Out the other day and need to go through the rest of BDPs filmography. Dressed seems awesome.
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u/jingo_mort 3d ago
Will have to give it a shot 🙂 just saw it’s on prime so bonus 😁
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u/bicho01 3d ago
Hope you like it. Early De Palma was incredible.
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u/bmoody345 2d ago
This is mid period depalma. Early depalma, every film has either split screen, a fake documentary sequence, or both!
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u/jingo_mort 2d ago
Added it to my list of movies for my big Saturday movie watch 👍 got apocalypse now, the man who fell to earth, wicker man (OG), Cass, The Vanishing, Peeping Tom & dressed to kill to finish 🙂
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u/gialloscore 2d ago
Check out Body Double too. It's free on Tubi right now (in the US at least).
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u/jingo_mort 2d ago
Checked and not on Tubi & not there here in the UK 😩 but can see it with free trial on Amazon with BFI player so added it to my list to try. Maybe next Saturday. Thanks for the rec 🤘
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u/OriginalMidnight 3d ago
True or not, I’m p sure I remember BDP on record at the time saying he didn’t watch the Giallo films of the time and that they weren’t an influence.
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u/MirandaReitz 2d ago
Black gloved killer, stylized violence, amateur detective, score by Pino Dinaggio. All the elements are there.
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u/michaelavolio 3d ago
I think of it as giallo-adjacent (and included it in my Letterboxd list of my favorite gialli and giallo-adjacent films). I don't think I'd consider any movie made in the US a true giallo, but it has a lot of the same elements, even down to a similar tone. And the use of the straight razor!
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u/pumukidelfuturo 3d ago
No "Alice, sweet Alice"... when is the most giallo movie not done in Italy. Very sad times.
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u/No_Green_4156 3d ago
I’ve also recently made a Letterboxd list of Giallo movies that I’ve made so far
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u/michaelavolio 2d ago
Nice. I've seen most of those but just added Pieces and The Crimes of the Black Cat to my to-watch list.
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u/SpeakAllEvilPod 2d ago
Dressed To Kill doesn’t meet the formal historical definition, for reasons well outlined by someone else here, of a giallo film but it’s obviously influenced by, paying homage to, and very much resembles giallo. You could call it giallo adjacent or American giallo or…you can just call it kind of a giallo and nobody can write you a ticket!
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u/CynonLad 3d ago
No. The giallo films come from the filone tradition. Not genre per se. So what makes a film a giallo is not genre rules—razors, fedora hats, etc—but that it was part of a particular film wave. True, some filone can be genres—eg the Spaghetti westerns are westerns. But some filone may be more aesthetic.. such as gothics, or be inspired by the success of a particular film.
The point of filone was, in the spirit of exploitation film, satisfying audience appetites for a particular theme. Filone would sort of resemble a wave—initially a film would spark interest, then more films would be produced. As more films in a theme competed for attention they would sometimes become more extreme. Then, as interests waned and audiences moved onto the next thing, there may be parodies.. often by Franco and Ciccio.
So the giallo proper were basically part of that wave of Italian film inspired by yellow covered pulp crime stories. That said, there the giallo did settle into a formula. And from there we get the "genre rules". These may inspire filmmakers internationally—but it is not the presence of particular tropes that matters. What happened in the giallo wave was giallo, what comes later is homage.
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u/kirby_krackle_78 3d ago
That’s a lot of words to say: no, because gate keeping.
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u/gialloscore 2d ago
Actually, it's an adequate amount of words to say "no" and it has nothing to do with gatekeeping. CynonLad is well educated on the subject. Give a listen to episode 107 of "The Video Archives Podcast with Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary" for more info on the American Giallo.
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u/SpeakAllEvilPod 2d ago
No, that is just a well informed and accurate answer to the question. You can always look further if you’d like to learn more, and there is more, but nothing said there is “gate keeping”.
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u/kirby_krackle_78 2d ago
So yeah, gatekeeping.
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u/SpeakAllEvilPod 2d ago
How so? What is inside the gate and who is being kept out how?
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u/CynonLad 1d ago
Its not gatekeeping of course. But I do get where the sentiment comes from—where a genre is born from criticism I can see how critics deciding what is deemed as "in" or "out" can be seen as gatekeeping. Could arguably be the case with noir. But, as you no doubt know, Italian filone was driven primarily by commercial considerations and as such was based on audience demand at the time and producer response. Its producer led. Indeed, giallo, is not a genre as such—It is a film wave. What links one to another is the attempt replicate the box office success of the prior film. Usually by taking what was believed to be the reason for the success, and doing it again. But moreso.
I guess the modern equivalent would be the Hollywood sequel or commissioning another season of a series.
With giallo, while Bava had already minted the formula, I would suggest the first film in this filone cycle was likely Bird With The Crystal Plumage. But its not gatekeepers or critics who here get to decide what is a giallo. Producers pretty much decided this when their response to pitches would be not to ask what a film is going to be like but what film the film was going to be like.
Also, worth adding, that since different writers or directors would focus on different aspects of the film they sought to emulate, films can be considered part of the giallo wave even where they do not conform to a universal set of genre rules.
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u/Gee-Arr 3d ago
Not a giallo.
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u/Giallo-666-2026 2d ago
Brian De Palma Made a Huge Tribute to Dario Argento and you say it's not Giallo?
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u/Glittering_Fail694 3d ago
I wouldn't put it 5 Reddit if you think it is, it is There have been plenty of films on this that have been passed off as giallo that aren't, and vice versa
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u/Expert_Effective267 3d ago
Yes. It's a movie that was inspired by 70' giallo scene. A De Palma masterpiece. Sisters 1972, by De Palma is inspired too