This 1993 volume on the Italian Fantasy Cinema (CFI) by Luca Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta exists in two versions, the original Italian and a somewhat selective English translation.
By one of those spooky coincidences I happened to find myself in the possession of both within a week, picking up a copy of the English version on Ebay on the Sunday and then, whilst visiting a second hand book store in town, seeing the Italian version right in front of my eyes…
Anyway, both volumes are comprised primarily of interviews with and profiles of the protagonists of the CFI, followed by useful genre-based checklists of films, complete with key credits and capsule reviews.
For the most part the choices made for the English language version are the right ones, covering most of the more major figures. There are, however, two or three exceptions.
It might be argued that any volume on the CFI has to acknowledge Dario Argento but whether this means also running an interview with Tom Savini on the apparent grounds that the American was doing effects work on the Italian's films at the time of writing ( Two Evil Eyes , Trauma ) is debatable.
The inclusion of a lengthy interview with Romano Scavolini, the expatriate Italian who made his sole genre entry Nightmare in the US, is less excusable and comes across, quite frankly, as extreme partiality on the part of the authors.
But against this selectivity the fact remains that, even in translation, Spaghetti Nightmares remains a useful source of information and opinion on the CFI that simply is not readily available elsewhere.
Though ten years old, the book has not dated as badly as one might expect. Sadly this is due to the fact that the CFI, as described herein, is all but over. It's alarming to see how many of the personnel featured – Lucio Fulci, Aristide Massaccesi, Antonio Margheriti, David Warbeck – are now dead – and how little those still active have achieved since. Michel Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore / Cemetary Man seems about the only film of note.
One hopes that someday the untranslated materials will be brought up to date and a second English language volume produced. As it is, the English version of Spaghetti Nightmares remains, for all its flaws, a valuable and rewarding read for the genre enthusiast.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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