Tenebre (1982)'s activity

It seems I'm predisposed to like Dario Argento's thrillers more than his supernatural horror films, and Tenebre is no exception. Anthony Franciosa plays what might as well be an Argento stand-in, here a novelist who doesn't consider himself a misogynist, but his detective fiction nevertheless IS. And so the film acts as a lurid slasher in which the killer claims to be inspired by the author and seems to target beautiful women who have some connection to his book (tenuous as the link might be). And you never quite shake the feeling that the author himself could have a Mr. Hyde persona, if his duality is to be made manifest. The detective story itself is fine, but it's those shocking murders, beautifully staged even as they are exploitative and grotesque, that excite. His style doesn't really live in the bad dubs of talking heads in hotel rooms and offices, but in the extreme close-ups, dripping inserts, and crashing synth music, which in Tenebre is like Carpenter in acid.