Blood and Black Lace (1964) – Mario Bava
Giallo originally referred to the pulpy crime novels penned by Italian authors in the Mussolini era, after Il Duce banned the import of American and British books of the popular genre. They sported yellow covers, hence the name—giallo means “yellow” in Italian.
In the 1960s, the genre shifted to include movies, with Italian horror masters Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento taking the lead.
In other words, if you were looking at a shelf of giallo DVDs, you’d find films produced in Italy in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s that could also be classified as historical horrors, crime dramas, and mystery thrillers.
The boundaries of what makes a giallo aren’t as well-defined as, say, those of 1980s American slasher films, which tend to follow the same exact story beats. But there are stylistic elements that are inextricable parts of giallo DNA. Nearly all contain gushing gore, erotic themes, a heavy emphasis on visuals (with things like script coherence often taking a back seat), questionable/campy English dubbing, characters gripped by paranoia, gorgeous women in peril, and ruthlessly brutal masked killers fond of sharp objects, rope, and black leather gloves.
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