Killer Art

Of all the cult/exploitation genres, Giallo stands as one of the more visually & art-based- be it with the grand/ dramatic location, choreographed murder scenes, or great poster art.  The focus of this interview is on the last of these three- looking at the two classy/ glossy full colour Giallo Posters books put out by Germany's Creepy Images.  Below is an interview with Thorsten Benzel, one of the key minds behind the books. To date, there are two volumes, with a third coming next year.

M[m]: What are some of your earliest memories of film & TV programmes, and do any of these hint at your later interest in the horror genre?

Thorsten: I was born in the mid-70s. When I was little, in the mid-80s, we only had three television channels in Germany. That's why it was rather rare for anything exciting to be on TV – and even rarer for me to be allowed to watch it. Every now and then, however, classics of the horror genre were broadcast, often old black-and-white films, which I was then allowed to watch. There were also Roger Corman's adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. At the time, I was also a big fan of the slightly creepier episodes of the old Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. So, I actually started to get excited about fantasy films in the broader sense at a very early age.

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Then there were comics and “radio plays” on cassette tapes, which were very popular in Germany at the time and also offered a lot of fantastic content. Actually, for as long as I can remember, I've always been a fan of horror, science fiction and similar themes.

When video recorders became popular and affordable in the mid-1980s, it quickly became clear where my journey would take me. As a teenager, I started collecting old and sometimes rare tapes, which, with a little effort, could still be found in video stores at the time. Little by little, I built up my first collection. 

 

 

M[m]: What was your first experience with the Giallo form? And what do you see as the first impactful film you saw in the genre?

Thorsten: I probably didn't really perceive the first Gialli as such but rather watched them in the context of horror films, and of course, films like Dario Argento's Tenebre were absolutely formative for me, especially Profondo Rosso, which is still one of my absolute favourite films to this day, not only in the genre. I was only able to work my way back to the older stuff a little later, partly because, for example, the classic of the genre, Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace, was, as far as I know, never available on video in Germany, and I actually saw it for the first time when the DVD came out.

 

M[m]: Do you still have any of the VHS tapes you collected in the 80's? And if so, what are some of your prize tapes?

 Thorsten: I’ve only hung on to a small handful of tapes – just the ones that really mean something to me. One of them is the first truly expensive ex-rental tape I ever bought: a copy of City of the Living Dead, I picked it up in the early 1990s, and it set me back 450 DM – roughly 400 euros today. I’ve also kept ex-rental copies of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, one of my all-time favourite non-Naschy horror films, and Luca il contrabbandiere, which I brought back from a holiday in Greece.

In the late 1990s I sold almost all of my videotapes and switched my collection to Laserdisc. While that format was still alive, it was so expensive that I basically had to sell my tapes in order to afford Laserdiscs. But once DVD hit the market, lots of people started selling their Laserdisc collections, and by the early 2000s I ended up with more than 2,000 discs – almost entirely horror, with tons of Japanese imports and lots rare titles that I picked up for next to nothing. But that’s another story, and just like with my tapes, I’ve only kept a few Laserdiscs that really mean something to me.

 

M[m]: You mentioned that there weren’t many horror/ genre films on German TV- did Krim films get shown? And what are your thoughts on this genre?, as It’s seen as an influence on the Giallo genre.

Thorsten: Writers like Agatha Christie or Edgar Wallace had a huge influence on the giallo novels published by companies like Mondadori long before “giallo” became a film genre. And I think the success of the German Edgar Wallace films that started in the late 1950s also had a major impact on the giallo as a cinematic genre. Those films already blended crime, thriller and horror elements into something quite unique, and even though the later gialli had a completely different tone, they used many of the same narrative ingredients.
And of course, we shouldn’t forget that some of the best and most well-known gialli were marketed in Germany as Edgar Wallace films even though they had nothing to do with him. Even Argento’s masterpiece The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was released in Germany as a film “by the son of Edgar Wallace

 

M[m]: Please talk a little bit about how/ when the idea for the Giallo poster books came about?

Thorsten: I have been collecting movie posters for over three decades, and at some point, I started to focus on material related to Paul Naschy. Since 2009, we have been publishing CREEPYIMAGES, a small fanzine that deals exclusively with rare film posters and promotional photos from the horror, exploitation and science fiction film genres, and we also publish books on this topic from time to time. The idea of making a book about Giallo film posters is actually well over 10 years old. Back then, as part of our work on CREEPYIMAGES, we bought a collection of film posters, and there were some pretty exciting Giallo film posters among them, so we considered whether we could use this collection as the basis for a new book project.

However, we quickly realised that we were missing some important posters that we definitely wanted to include in such a book. Even though we have good contacts with fellow collectors and can borrow some items for our publications, this would have meant that we would have had to purchase a whole series of posters. It should be noted that the photos featured in our publications are usually scanned or photographed directly from the original, and any subsequent editing is time-consuming and extensive because that is the only way we can offer the quality that our readers have come to expect from us. And we simply have to admit that we do not have the budget for such an undertaking.

However, we had the idea for the giallo book more or less in the back of our minds the whole time, and when was that? It must have been in 2022 or 2023, when the topic became a little more concrete. Originally, the idea on the table was that we would not publish a book in the form it now has, or a book series, but rather a kind of special edition of CREEPY*IMAGES.

We then drew up a brief concept, created the first layouts, and purchased the first posters that we felt absolutely had to be included in the book, but then unfortunately realised that this simplified form was not at all what we wanted, so we completely discarded this version and spent a long time thinking about how we could create the book that we ourselves would want to read. In the end, we settled on the four-part series Giallo Movie Posters, two of which have already been released.

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M[m]: What pulled you to Paul Naschy as your first focus with the zine? And what do you rate as your favourite films by the actor? with a brief explanation of your choice?

Thorsten: Some years before we started our fanzine Creepy*Images, I had already put out an early version of what would eventually grow into Muchas Gracias Señor Lobo – my first attempt to document the posters, lobby cards, and promotional materials from Paul Naschy’s films. When we started Creepy*Images a few years later, we didn’t focus on items from Naschy’s films, apart from featuring one or two of his movies in some of the very early issues. And when we decided to release a new version of Muchas Gracias Señor Lobo, we stopped including Naschy material in the fanzine because we didn’t want to feature the same items in both the magazine and the book.

And when it comes to the films themselves, I enjoy almost all of Paul Naschy’s early horror movies and thrillers, as well as much of his later work. But my favourite Paul Naschy film – and one of my favourite films in general – is La noche de Walpurgis. I had seen two or three Naschy movies before that and liked them a lot, but at that time I didn’t know anything about him as an actor, writer, producer, director, and so on. So, I didn’t really see them as “Paul Naschy movies” yet.

That changed the moment I watched La noche de Walpurgis for the first time. The film completely blew me away, and as soon as the end credits rolled, I wanted to learn more about the guy playing the werewolf. And that’s how my journey began.

That was back in the early 1990s, and without the Internet it was incredibly hard to dig up any real information about him or his work. Most horror collectors at the time were completely focused on the gorier stuff, especially tapes that had been banned in Germany. Compared to that, Paul Naschy’s much less graphic movies simply didn’t have an audience.
I ran into the same difficulties when I tried to track down posters or lobby cards from his films. Honestly, it felt like nobody cared. Collectors were chasing the bloodier, more notorious titles, and professional poster dealers didn’t bother with Naschy material either, because there was almost no demand and hardly anyone knew anything about those items.


At some point I thought it would be a good idea to put everything I had learned about these materials into a book, so that other collectors wouldn’t have to go through all the same hassle. That thought (in general, not limited to items from the films of Paul Naschy) was one of the sparks that eventually led to our fanzine Creepy*Images a little later on — and, if you will, it’s also part of the motivation behind our Giallo Movie Posters series.

 

M[m]: Are all the posters featured in the books from your personal collection, and if not, where else do they come from?

Thorsten: The posters come either from the creepy Images collection or from fellow collectors, and we purchased several hundred posters specifically for this project. Once the books have been published, we will also be offering them for sale on our website, creepy-images.com.

 

M[m]: Who do you see as the key/ important artists in the golden age of the genre? And what are some of your favourite posters by them?

Thorsten: In the 1960s and 1970s, Italy had a wealth of truly fantastic artists who designed magnificent posters, and it is difficult to single out individuals for exhibition here. One artist who is very close to my heart, who designed many important posters and yet does not seem to receive the international recognition he deserves, is Sandro Simioni. Simioni designed some truly important Jean posters, including two of my personal favourites, namely that for Due Fogli for PROFONDO ROSSO and for COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE.

 

M[m]: When looking through both books, one of the fascinating things about them is are multiple/ at times very different posters made for different countries. Which countries' posters are the most difficult to get hold of?

Thorsten: I don't know if you can generalise like that. Of course, posters from exotic countries or from countries of the former Eastern Bloc are usually very rare, but there are also posters in Italy and Germany that are almost impossible to find. It always depends very much on the film and the distributor.

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M[m]: What’s the rarest poster in your collection? And could you please discuss when you purchased it, and what makes it so rare?

Thorsten: In my personal collection, there are a whole series of posters that I have only seen once in over three years, and in hindsight, I have to say that if I hadn't snapped them up at the time, I wouldn't have been able to buy a second copy to this day. And here, too, there is no rule of thumb. Some of these posters come from countries such as Lebanon or Venezuela, but there is also, for example, a German cinema poster that I have only ever seen offered for sale once, namely the poster for Paul Naschy's LA ORGIA DE LOS MUERTOS. I got it over 20 years ago from a good friend who sells old cinema posters for a living and stumbled across it while buying a collection from another collector.

In this specific case, I know of two or three other collectors who also have this poster in their collections, but there are also lots of posters of which the one in my collection is currently the only known copy. Now you have to be careful: as I already mentioned, I collect posters for films from Paul Naschy, which is of course an extremely niche topic, and here, extreme rarity does not automatically mean that you are dealing with very expensive posters, which is a good thing because otherwise I would not be able to afford them.

 

M[m]: Both books are beautifully presented with lovely paper stock & spot on reproduction of the posters- did it take long for you to find and select a printer to produce the books?

Thorsten: Not really. We work in the advertising industry, so producing a book like this is pretty much what we do every day. The same applies to the photo shoots and scans, where we are very fortunate to have both the technology and the expertise at our disposal. Time is the decisive factor here, as our publications are primarily our hobby, and much of it is done outside of our working hours.

 

M[m]: What do you see as your top ten favourite Giallo films?- Please give a brief explanation behind each choice?

Thorsten: Phew, that's a very difficult question because with over 300 films, it's hard to limit myself to just 10. I'll try to list 10 of my absolute favourite films – in no particular order, though.

PROFONDO ROSSO
COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE?
LA CASA DALLE FINESTRE CHE RIDONO
NON SI SEVIZIA UN PAPERINO
6 DONNE PER L'ASSASSINO
LA DONNA DEL LAGO
NUDE... SI MUORE
ORGASMO
LA MORTE RISALE A IERI SERA
LO STRANO VIZIO DELLA SIGNORA WARDH

But you could just as easily add another 20-30-40 films to the list. There are simply an incredible number of good entries in this genre, and sometimes very different films at that. I believe that addressing individual cases would, unfortunately go completely beyond the scope of this interview.

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M[m]: What can we expect from Vol 3? And how long do you envision the series continuing?

Thorsten: We planned four volumes from the outset, and that won't change. This is mainly because we did a great deal of preparation work on all the volumes even before the first volume was published so that we had a rough idea of how many films, posters and, ultimately, pages we would be dealing with.

The years covered in volume 3 have not yet been finalised. However, we already know that volume 3 will be the most comprehensive book in the series.

 

M[m]: What are your thoughts on recent takes on the Giallo form? And do you enjoy any of these films?

Thorsten: Over the last 10 to 15 years, there have been a few films that can be seen as homages to giallo cinema, although most of them weren't even made in Italy. To be completely honest, none of them really convinced me 100%, but that's probably more down to me than the films, as I generally find newer films a bit difficult to get into. For me personally, the best of these non-Italian gialli in recent years was UN COUTEAU DANS LE COEUR by Yann Gonzalez. The last giallo by Dario Argento, OCCHIALI NERI, left me feeling very ambivalent. On the one hand, I liked it much better than a lot of what Argento has done in the last 20 years, but on the other hand, it's unfortunately a world away from what made me a giallo fan in the first place, and I think it wasted a lot of potential quite unnecessarily. Nevertheless, I am of course glad that the genre continues in some form, even if my personal focus is naturally on the films of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

 Thanks to Thorsten for his time and effort with the interview. To buy both volumes of the Giallo Posters books, drop by here. Giallo Movie Posters 3 (is scheduled for spring 2026). regular paperback edition of SON OF BANZAI (also in Spring), as well as the new and expanded edition of MUCHAS GRACIAS SENOR LOBO (Summer) next year.