The most wonderful time of the year approaches. You may think I am talking about Christmas, but this time, I am talking about the yearly celebration of January Giallo! It’s that thrilling time that comes every year when masked killers invent new killing machines, put on their trench coats, and the occasional owl head, and the bottles of J&B are everywhere. Did you lock the door? Maybe you should go and investigate that weird noise? Wait, would you like to hear how January Giallo will slash again?

Cinematic Void has been keeping the Giallo flame burning since 2017, with screenings of these classics every year. As the popularity of Giallo, the classic films themselves and the influence they have on today’s filmmakers has grown, the series has gotten more intricate and interesting each year, like last year as you can check out in my write-up of January Giallo 2020. The pandemic limited the growth a little bit in the last couple of years, but I have wonderful news for all of you raging cinemaniacs out there. Cinematic Void, the brainchild of James Branscome, has taken January Giallo to the next level. This year’s event will not only take place in Los Angeles, its home, but it will stalk the Coolidge Corner Theatre, Coolidge After Midnight, in Brookline, Massachusetts and haunt the Music Box Theatre, Music Box of Horrors, in Chicago, Illinois, and in late-breaking news, the Central Cinema in Knoxville, Tennessee and The Little Theatre in Rochester, New York through the Anomaly Rochester Genre Film Festival.

The Los Angeles screenings will happen at the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz Three Theatres in none other than beautiful Los Feliz. For January Giallo fans who don’t live in any of these cities, you haven’t been left out. Cinematic Void will co-present a special online January Giallo Screening of Cinematic Void Up All Night and the Cinemadness Movie with Severin Films on January 14, which is the usual Friday night schedule with the Void. Which amazing Giallo film will they screen? The gloved hand over my mouth indicates that it will be a surprise.

Before you go, are you ready for the amazing film line-ups?

First of all, if you are somewhere in the world where you can’t make it to one of the five theatres screening a January Giallo line-up. Perhaps you’re in hiding from a masked Giallo killer? There will be a virtual screening just for you. Just don’t forget to pull the shades and pour the J&B.

The virtual screening:

January 14, 8:30 p.m. Severin Films will present a mystery Giallo film as a Cinemadness movie. Which film will it be? Only Severin and perhaps the killer themself knows. Watch here!

These amazing poster designs by Eagle Barber and for sale at Cinematic Void Big Cartel along with other merchandise.

Los Angeles January Giallo, all films in glorious 35MM:

January 3, Creepers aka Phenomena, directed by Dario Argento starring Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasance, and Daria Nicolodi. This screening will be of the Creepers cut, so it is the director’s cut version.

January 10, The Perfume of the Lady In Black, directed by Francesco Barilli, starring Mimsy Farmer, Maurizio Bonuglia, and Mario Scaccia

January 17, The Girl In Room 2A, directed by William Rose, starring Daniela Giordano, Rosalba Neri, and Brad Harris. Get tickets here!

January 24, The Corruption of Chris Miller, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, starring Jean Seberg, Marisol, and Barry Stokes. Get tickets here!

January 31, Something Creeping In The Dark, directed by Mario Colucci, starring Farley Granger, Lucia Bosè, and Giacomo Rossi Stuart. Get tickets here!

Here’s that sweet Los Angeles trailer:

The lineup for the Brookline, Massachusetts January Giallo screenings:

January 8, Blood and Black Lace, directed by Mario Bava, starring Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Arianna Gorini

January 15, Orgasmo aka Paranoia, directed by Umberto Lenzi, starring Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, Colette Descombes. Cinematic Void’s James Branscome will appear in person. Get tickets here!

January 22, Creepers aka Phenomena, directed by Dario Argento also starring Fiore Argento, Michele Soavi, and a real chimpanzee. Get tickets here!

January 29, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, directed by Sergio Martino, starring Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, and Ivan Rassimov. Get tickets here!

Is there a sweet trailer for the screenings at the Coolidge? Well, of course, there is:

There are two late entries into the theatres participating in the January Giallo series nationwide.

After press time, the Central Cinema in Knoxville joined the killer lineup.

Here’s that poster:

January 5, Giallo Essentials: Blood And Black Lace, directed by Mario Bava, starring Eva Bartok, Cameron Mitchell, Claude Dantes and what is the first masked and black gloved Giallo Killer and Deep Red, directed by Dario Argento, starring David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi and Gabriele Lavia with the first driving Goblin soundtrack in an Argento film.

January 12, Directed by Sergio Martino: Torso, directed by Martino, underappreciated Giallo maestro, starring Suzy Kendall, John Richardson, Tina Aumont and a bandsaw. The alternate title of the film is The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence and Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have the Key, directed by Martino, starring Giallo Queen Edwidge Fenech, Anita Strindberg, and Giallo bad guy Ivan Rassimov.

January 19, Directed by Lucio Fulci: Don’t Torture A Duckling, directed by another underappreciated Giallo maestro Lucio Fulci, starring Florinda Balkan, Barbara Bouchet and Irene Papas with a soundtrack by Riz Ortolani and A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin, directed by Fulci, starring Florinda Balkan, in another outstanding performance, Stanley Baker, Jean Sorel with a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

January 26, Ennio Morricone 1972: Who Saw Her Die, directed by Aldo Lado & Vittorio De Sisti, starring George Lazenby, Anita Stridberg, and Dominique Boschero with one of Morricone’s all time greatest soundtracks and What Have You Done To Solange, directed by Massimo Dallamano, starring Fabio Testi, Karin Baal and Camille Keaton with an “abundantly creepy score”.

Restored prints courtesy of Arrow Films and the American Genre Film Archive.

The very latest theatre to join our dangerous celebration of Giallo is The Little Theatre in Rochester, New York. Anomaly, The Rochester Genre Film Festival is sponsoring a screening of My Dear Killer on January 28. Here’s the poster:

The film is described as a “little-seen 1972 Italian thriller that has it all: a buzzsaw decapitation, a mustached inspector, blackmail, deceit, kidnapping and music by Ennio Morricone.”, directed by Tonino Valerii, who was best known for his work directing spaghetti westerns after working as an assistant director for Sergio Leone on A Fistful Of Dollars. I must say that I am a bit jealous of Rochester for getting such an intriguing Giallo for their first foray into Giallo January. I toast them with my glass of J&B. Cin, cin! Alla nostra salute!

Here’s the final lineup for Chicago, Illinois. That’s funny, did the lights just go out?

January 5, Trauma, directed by Dario Argento, starring Christopher Rydell, Asia Argento, and Piper Laurie. This screening is the Vinegar Syndrome restoration of the film.

January 12, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, directed by Sergio Martino, starring George Hilton, Anita Strindberg, Janine Reynaud

January 19, The Pyjama Girl Case, directed by Flavio Mogherini, starring Ray Milland, Dalila Di Lazzaro, and Mel Ferrer. Get tickets here!

January 26, The Perfume of the Lady In Black, directed by Francesco Barilli, starring the underrated Mimsy Farmer, Nike Arrighi, and Laura Wendel. Note: this film is stunning and the print is not much longer for the world and these are its final screenings. Get tickets here!

Rest easy, there is a trailer for the glorious Music Box theatre screening as well!

Here’s the full line-up on one handy graphic. Those hands!

Be a darling and pour me another glass of J&B and ignore those stealthy footsteps coming down the hall. Don’t let your heart stop when the door starts to open quietly. I swear, there’s nothing to worry about.

Yet.

Be sure to catch the biggest January Giallo yet in three cities and online. If you haven’t caught on to why Giallo is one of the most entrancing of the Horror film subgenres, here’s your chance to learn of Giallo’s seductive wiles. Don’t miss out.