5 DEAD ON THE CRIMSON CANVAS

5 DEAD ON THE CRIMSON CANVAS

Focusing on style and mood more often than traditional plot or the nuances of characterization, the Giallo, a specialized dark corner of the psychological horror genre, has courted controversy and admiration in equal amounts for its unapologetic depictions of violence, sexual perversions, and stylistic intensity. Specializing in convoluted plots, red herrings, and lovingly captured excess, Giallo evokes the physical horror of damaged flesh while celebrating it in loving color; at the same time, it evokes emotional terrors of betrayal, the modern world's sense of alienation, and the threat of loss. Celebrating the very baseness of nature that it condemns, the Italian thriller asks for few friends, content to depict humanity at its worst.

The term Giallo, meaning yellow, referred traditionally to the mystery and crime paperbacks so popular in post-fascist Italy. These lovingly lurid volumes re-printed both American and British crime and mystery thrillers, featuring then likes of Agatha Christie, Cornell Woolrich, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Wallace, whose works had defined the crime thrillers of the earlier Crimis in Germany. Applied to cinema, the Giallo genre is comprised of equal parts early German thriller and literary mystery. Focusing on mood and atmosphere over the mechanical unraveling of plot, favoring excess of atmosphere over the art of deduction so very popular in the mystery novel, Giallo embraced sensationalism. Making violence itself the major character, and murder the central art form of its thriller-inspired formula, the Giallo was undeniably more concerned with exploitative actions of sex and mayhem than with the more suggestive, character-orientated 'who-done'its?' of the British and American traditions upon which its narrative structures were based.

5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas celebrates the stylish and thematic conventions of the traditional Giallo while revising it. Both an homage and a re-imagining, this film is a frightfully fiendish ménage of sensationalism and intelligence, capturing the atmosphere of its cinematic ancestors while effectively returning the form to its storytelling roots. The plot, a creative and thought-provoking parable of madness, greed, and internal terror, is magnified by the deadly if beautiful atmosphere. Tension is evoked by inspired direction and settings convincingly rendered despite a meager budget, focusing our (and its) attentions on the problems of perception and the process of deduction that were so important to the thrillers upon which Giallos tacked their blood-bathed imagery. The film is almost post-modern, an experiment of content and form. A respectful re-imagining of seventies sleaze, this piece of subversive sensationalism is as thoughtful as it is visceral, visually lurid while the story stays focused on character and the logical progression of events.

Richard Streeb (Mony Damevsky), a mentally troubled painter, suffers a morbid obsession with death and the horrible atrocities possible to commit on human flesh. His paintings reflect his emotional fascination, just as film is often a physical embodiment of a director's internal geography. Already we can see that the film operates on more than one level, telling its own thriller-type tale while simultaneously critiquing several themes and motifs of the Giallo sub-genre. The character of Richard embodies a major Giallo theme, with the intensity of his love for violent art mirroring the genre's love song to graphic violence and sexual exploitation (and our own appreciation of such). Creating a fervour when released to the wider world, his art is an extension of personality, and when it takes on a sinister tone -- 'life imitates art.' Soon Richard is stabbed, his own flesh made canvas as a maniac in symbolic black gloves (nods to the murder operas of Bava and Argento) is lovingly depicted . . . you may think that from here on out the film will become yet another lifeless parody of the police procedural, and you might have been right, if the body didn't disappear . . . Bill Streeb, eager to discover Richard's killer, discovers that his brother's friends and associates are all rather sinister, convoluting the plot in the best Giallo tradition, giving everyone a motive for murder. In a wonderful slight of hand that feels organic to plot without being obvious or straining belief, discovering the murderer isn't half so strange as determining the motive.

A tribute and a challenge of preconceptions of form, this movie dives face-first into its excesses of style. Capturing the atmosphere of seventies and eighties Italian thrillers with an admittedly stronger focus on character and plot, 5 Dead On the Crimson Canvas succeeds more often than it fails, carving out its own identity with brazenness and poetry. The visuals are baroque and beautifully morbid as only a Giallo can be, displaying rare visual talent. The direction is often inspired, and the story well paced. The lighting helps make surroundings characters in their own right, as believable as the human beings slaughtered for the staring eye of the camera. And for those who prefer sensationalism over story, worry not: the nudity is raunchy, and murder ser-pieces emit the deep red enthusiasm (if not the raw perfection) of early Argento. Focused on the art of suffering, Parda makes death beautiful!

The acting is competent if not inspired. While lead Joe Zaso (star of Parda's Guilty Pleasures), is believable as brother Bill Streeb, many of the bit parts are granted less delicacy and often come through as caricatures instead of characters. Regardless, the strength of the story, polished camera work, and a lively style make this a pleasure to watch. The director uses his camera to tell the story rather than to simply capture it, keeping things lively and suspenseful. At the same time it's difficult for devotee of Giallo not to enjoy his in jokes, odes, and cinematic nods to the horror heroes of old.

Presented in 1.66.1 widescreen, the image, while certainly not pristine, is acceptable. If grain occasionally coats the picture, this and the DVDs somewhat darkly lit interior scenes help give the picture a further visual flair of 70's grindhouse. Intentional artistic choice or lucky effect of cheap production values, the result is a furtherance of mood, particularly in those scenes where colored gels enhance the emotional effect of key scenes. Audio is Dolby Digital, sounding quite crisp. Extras are surprisingly generous for a low budget release, offering insight into the creative process of filmmaking. These include a commentary with Writer/Director Joseph Parda and Actor/Producer Joseph Zaso, discussing background, the filmmakers, and, most importantly, the look and feeling that the film so wonderfully captures. Audition tracks are also included, followed by a wealthy still gallery, promotional art, and a trailer. A minor menacing masterpiece of savage death, desire, and psychosis, 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas is a conscious ode to classic carnage that carves out its own identity across a canvas of sultry flesh!

Review by William P Simmons


 
Released by Joseph Zaso
Region All - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
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