Explore The History Of Italian Horror And Cult Cinema With New Book DARKENING THE ITALIAN SCREEN

Anyone who has an interest in Italian cult cinema needs to purchase a copy of the new book Darkening the Italian Screen by Eugenio Ercolani, as it offers a comprehensive analysis of how horror and related genre films evolved throughout the country.

Throughout the massive 334 page tome, Ercolani describes in detail the full history of Italian genre films, including horror, westerns, police thrillers, and more. He starts off with the routes of Italian cult cinema, detailing how the country’s film industry started to rebuild itself after the end of World War Two, before going on to examine more contemporary films such as the works of Sergio Martino, who you may know as the director of Torso and The Mountain of the Cannibal God.

The book largely consists of interviews from some of Italy’s most well known cult filmmakers, with one particularly amusing account describing how Eaten Alive! director Umberto Lenzi forces guests in his home to sit on a sofa surrounded by a literal shine to his life’s work, with a giant poster for the aforementioned 1980 film being the most prominent item on display. So if you’re looking for first-hand accounts from the auteurs who helped shape Italian cinema into what it is today, this book is absolutely a must-buy.

Ercolani clearly underwent an extensive period of research in order to complete Darkening the Italian Screen, and he was also kind enough to provide us with the following quote about what he hoped to achieve by writing the book:

“The concept of the book is a simple one but at the same time not one I’ve often seen attempted. I chose a diverse selection of directors, each one with a different function, a different background and approach. I think the combination of personalities is a special one. That said, my only philosophy while conceiving the book was not to apply any kind of censorship to the interviews and secondly to have a narrative approach to the topic. I like to think this book has a somewhat novel like quality to it. These two decisions infused Darkening with particularly candid interviews often injected with outrageous, scandalous and subversive comments, and secondly a never judgemental tone to the personalities and films mentioned within. All the contradictions and absurdities, all the melancholic nuisances are there creating a multicoloured mosaic, which hopefully is entertaining as much as it is informative.”

Darkening the Italian Screen has already been praised by numerous industry professionals, including Elvira’s Haunted Hills director Sam Irvin and film historian David Del Valle. So if you’re looking for an in-depth insight into the history of Italian cult cinema, you need to head over to Amazon, Waterstones, Mcfarland Books, or your local physical book store as soon as this pandemic blows over, to purchase your copy.

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