Horror Fight!: Between Rounds

Hello again, Fright Fans, and welcome back to Horror Fight!: Between Rounds. Your mid-fight breather where the Spooky Bois regroup, swap cinematic blows, and gear you up for the next main event. I’m MeZ, your loyal corner man in the Horror Fight arena, taping your gloves, icing your cuts and loading up your watchlist with deadly precision.

We’re finally back after a slightly extended hiatus. We encountered some recording issues in January, so our recording and release schedule was all over the place. Because of this I wasn't able to get a newsletter together. But now, we’re back on track! “But then why is there 2 newsletters coming out in the same week Consider this a “bonus” issue to rekindle your reading enthusiasm. Then on Friday, we’ll drop our regularly scheduled issue.

Now, let’s dive into this issue. We have part one of Corey’s deep dive into some Black Gloves and Boobs. MeZ explores a snowy ‘Spiral’. And The nominees for The Blairs’ have been announced.

Quick note: We use neon borders to help differentiate which spooky boi is talking. Pink=MeZ. Green=Corey. Blue=Pat.

I used to think Giallo just meant "Italian Horror Movie."  Then you mature, you google, and learn that it is an entire subgenre of its own. I have always loved Italian horror, but my Giallo obsession began in earnest after I married into a family full of swarthy Southern Italians.  Not a single one of them knows who Lamberto Bava, or Sergio Martino is, but after spending three weeks in the summer of 2017 in Southern Italy with them all speaking Italian, I wanted to feel a deeper connection to the culture.  When I say culture, I mean smoking cigarettes in elevators, eating gelato for breakfast and washing it down with a bottle of Budweiser while smoking, and having a second dinner circa 9pm.  Once the lockdowns of the pandemic hit, I became full on obsessive, seeking out every Giallo I could find, good or bad.  I had always enjoyed lurid sex and violence on film, and my feelings on Law and Order and Columbo are well known.  Giallo is a perfect marriage.  Over time, I have lost the ability to be objective about the genre; I enjoy most of them, the only unforgivable sin is being boring, which even the worst of the worst rarely are.  

I've long though to myself, as we all surely have at one point or another, "The collective of Italian filmmakers in Dario Argento's orbit really seems to mirror the the Wu-Tang Clan, who would everyone's respective counterparts be?" I am very open to suggestions but as for now I have:

Dario - RZA
Mario Bava - GZA
Claudio Simonetti - Raekwon
Daria Nicolodi - Ghostface Killah
Michele Soavi - Inspectah Deck

And finally, Lamberto Bava, the director of this sleazy mild gem is where I am torn between Ol' Dirty Bastard and Method Man. I'll think on it more. This movie is a piece of shit, I love it.

I enjoy Umberto Lenzi's disgusting cannibal films, so I figured I'd give one of his Giallos a taste. Its definitely a Giallo!! The pacing is decent, the dub on Tubi is abominable, and the murders, while tactile and brutal, are fairly tame. The cops in this are particularly bumbling, and they also hate each other which is a nice little side dish. Extra half star for the score from the late great Riz Ortolani.

FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET is early Argento at his most restrained. There are no gaudy colors, the score is pedestrian outside of the diegetic rock music, and the murders are fairly ho-hum. It isn't a showy picture, but do not be fooled, the Maestro is hitting on all cylinders, moving the camera like no other, shooting the shit out of shadows and light and bonking ladies' heads off of stairs. Sure, there is a beatnik character named "God" with a parrot named "Fuck You," but it really is almost a normal movie.

With these Giallos (Gialli? whatever) I have taken to watching the English dub because everyone is speaking a different language anyway, but leaving the subtitles on for the Italian dub. They vary wildly, so much so that it is almost like watching two movies at once. The plot remains largely the same, but there are more than a few instances of totally different dialogue between characters. For instance, in English the parrot's name is "Jerk-off," not "Fuck You." 

The genre is often unkind at best, and harmful at worst in its depiction of queer characters, but this one has a private eye who happens to be a gay guy, and not a whole lot is said about it, which is refreshing. Having said that, the reveal is your usual problematic Giallo trope, but hey, at least this was one of the first to do it. 

Decent early Argento with a whiz-bang ending.

OPERA is a borderline Giallo, and Argento's last great film. It's a transition from trailblazing auteur to journeyman gorehound; you can almost see him discover his cheapo bloodlust here. He dances with pure exploitation, but is still grounded in cinema. It's the last masterpiece we got from the Maestro.

First time watch of the "Creepers" cut, which is a full 30 minutes shorter. It is sort of a jarring experience, as the Italian cut is among my favorite Argentos. The trimmed down version feels like a Fulci movie, in that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense sometimes, but you still get the gist.

I used to think this was not a Giallo, but I'm not really sure why, all the hallmarks are here: an outsider, detectives, black gloved killer, batshit mystery reveal. It is tangentially supernatural I suppose, but who am I to say that maybe Jennifer Connolly isn't just tuned into bugs and shit. Regardless, this is Argento's most fun good movie. He's got a handful of bad movies that are fun, but PHENOMENA is both.

If you're in the market for a classy Giallo you can watch with the family, this is in the conversation. Sure, there's some boobs and sex stuff, but it's all a rather quaint and wholesome affair; think more Agatha Christie than Sergio Martino. A bit dull, but silly and solid. Also, it's barely a Giallo? There's no flavor or flair at all, outside of the cool set, there is nothing that separates this from a bad Columbo (There are no bad Columbos.). Whatever, it's part of the Arrow "Giallo Essentials" box set, so who am I to argue?

A "Giallo" to recommend/watch with people who don't appreciate the genre.

*I should note, there is some truly horrific implied sexual violence and a crucifixion, so perhaps wholesome is a poor choice of words.

Ever watch something that sends you into a total spiral? One movie leads to another, then another, and suddenly you’ve fallen down a cinematic rabbit hole with no way out. Welcome to THE SPIRAL; a once in a while feature where one watch becomes an obsession and every path leads somewhere weird, wild, or wonderfully unhinged.

I don’t know about the rest of the country but the NorthEast has been dealing with freezing temps and snow lately. So when we got snowed in a few weekends back, it was the perfect time to fall down a Snowy Spiral.

The grizzly bear has cornered the market when it comes to bears in animal attack movies. So when I heard there was a killer polar bear movie, I was fired up… and they’re genetically altered?!? Oh baby give it to me! Silly me, i should have known better. When the bear is fucking shit up, it’s a good time. But they treat this like fucking JAWS. The first bear attack happens off camera. We just hear the sounds and then blood coming spilling out under the lab door. Lame.

This is definitely not gonna be for everyone. But this was totally my shit. An EVIL DEAD ripoff in the snow with stop motion monsters and a fake Prince song playing on the radio. What more do I need!

This was a fun little discovery. I would best describe this as SPECIES in High School. The effects aren’t great but I dug the creature design of the aliens.

A really well made paranoid horror film set in a wintery cabin. Is the dude losing his mind? Is there a government conspiracy to cover up the existence of aliens? The ending is going to lose some people but I dug it. I have a few movies by this director/writer on my watchlist. Going to check out his stuff… maybe that’ll be my next edition of The Spiral?

Big fan of the creature design in this one. But sadly just like the Polar Bear in UNNATURAL, we don’t get enough of it.

Celebrating all the movies that made it to the top of a Horror Fight! list in 2025 (not counting Franchise Fights. We’ll be crowning Best Movie, Best Actor and Best Director. Here are the movies that are eligible.

The Blairs will function as a regular episode for the most part. We will each do our nominations for the best movie we watched in 2025. Then we’ll Slash, Rank and Fight till we can crown a winner. As for the other two categories, we’re going to do something a little different. Each Spooky Boi will get 1 movie to nominate. We’ll have a top 3, and then we pick the winner.

I’ll be talking about how things are going to work with The Blairs in our next newsletter. For now, catch up on these movies if you have not already. And as always please let us know what you think should win?