Buildings, bodies and a giallo stunner

Boasting incredible photography and a keen design sense, 'The Fifth Cord' is a genre gem

- Uday Bhatia

Horror is my biggest blind spot. As an easily rattled kid, I never took to it; even today, I start at basic jump scares in films. Body horror and gore don’t faze me, but it’s not like I’m fascinated by them either. Still, in the past few years, I've been actively trying to watch more horror. Perhaps this is paying dividends: Two of my favourites this year are the dazzling zombie horror 28 Years Later and the wacky, eerie Weapons.

Since I have no real grounding in the genre, I've played catch-up haphazardly, trying out ghost stories, monster movies, psychological thrillers, creature features. I've found myself drawn especially to giallo. This is a strain of slasher film that originated in Italy in the 1960s. These films usually have some or all of the following: hyper-stylised visuals, extreme fetishised violence, a black-gloved killer, elaborate, almost loving murders, and some manner of perversity. As you might imagine, they have a huge cult following, which has resulted in lavish physical media releases for Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Sergio Martino and other major giallo directors.

If you're just getting into giallo, you could of course start with the film that kicked off the genre, Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964), or the most widely known title, Argento's Suspiria (1977). But I have another recommendation for a gateway giallo, a 1971 thriller called The Fifth Cord. Luigi Bazzoni only made four other films: two spaghetti westerns, a mystery thriller, and a proto-giallo called The Possessed