The film was released in Italy and through most of Europe without any reported censorship problems, but was classified and banned as a Video Nasty in the United Kingdom. Its theatrical distribution in the United States was delayed until 1984, when it was released in a heavily-censored version under the title Unsane.
Franciosa stars as Peter Neal, a American writer of violent mystery novels. In Italy to promote his latest work, he is accompanied by his literary agent Bullmer (Saxon) and his assistant Anne (Nicolodi). He is unaware that he is also being followed by his embittered ex-wife Jane (Lario).
Prior to Neal's arrival in Rome, a young woman is brutally slashed to death by an unseen killer. The murderer sends Neal a letter informing him that his books have inspired him to go on a killing spree. Neal is soon contacted by the police, who put Detective Giermani (Gemma) in charge of the investigation.
While the killings continue, Neal notices that TV interviewer Cristiano Berti (John Steiner) appears to have an unusually intense interest in the novelist's work.
Just when you think you know who the killer is, he is violently killed himself.
This film provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: In the end, Anne accidentally kills Neal when she pushes a statue and a sharp piece falls off, transfixing his chest and pinning him to the wall — a death that is as accidental as it is a merciful stroke of luck, as it prevents him from stabbing her as well.
- The Alibi: Deliberately invoked by one of the killers. Neal uses Berti's killings, which happened before Neal came to Italy, to throw suspicion off himself as he plans the murders of Berti, his agent, his wife, and his secretary. He advises the police that, in his opinion, all of these killings are being committed by the same person — and since he wasn't in the country yet, that rules him out, right?
- An Arm and a Leg: Peter's ex-wife Jane has her hand chopped off with an ax right before being killed.
- Angry Guard Dog: Maria is frightened by one. She then foolishly aggravates it further, providing a chase scene that leads her to the killer's basement.
- Anyone Can Die: By the end of the movie, everyone except Anne is dead.
- Ax-Crazy: Both Cristiano Berti, who was inspired by Peter Neal's books into acting into his maniacal homophobic desires, and then Neal himself, who was inspired by Berti's getting inspired by his books.
- Big Bad: Subverted with the reporter Cristiano Berti, who indeed kills the first few victims but is killed by Peter Neal who then takes over as the Big Bad.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Cristiano Berti, who was indeed the murderer of the first few victims, but is killed off by Peter Neal, the actual Big Bad.
- Bury Your Gays: Tilde, the lesbian reporter, and her girlfriend Marion are soon killed off after their introduction. Justified, since the killer was homophobic and targeted them because they were lesbians.
- Combat Pragmatist: Part of the method of the original killer. Quick ambush attacks, giving little or no opportunity to the victims to actually react to his presence.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: While waiting for his date at a public place, Bullmer gazes at the people around him. He watches a couple arguing and apparently breaking up. A little later, Bullmer is staring at the crying woman (of the couple) while she walks away. This prevents him from noticing that the killer is standing right beside him with a knife at hand. The killer could not have arranged for the distraction.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: Gianni returns to his parked car after a solo investigation of the crime scene. The killer was waiting for him, hidden in the backseat of the car. He easily strangulates the young man from behind.
- Decoy Protagonist: Initially, the film follows Peter Neal. However, after Neal takes over as the Big Bad, the climax follows Anne instead.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Christiano Berti is the killer at first, but is himself killed by protagonist Peter Neal about halfway through. Neal takes over as the killer afterwards.
- Double Meaning: Peter apologizes to Gianni for getting him involved in the murder case. The apology takes place hours before Peter killed Gianni to silence him. He was apologizing in advance for a murder which was already planned.
- Downer Ending: Peter is revealed to be the killer and after killing the inspector among others, he lastly attempts to kill Anne only to get impaled to the wall. While Anne survives, she is the only survivor, and the last shot of the movie is of her in a violent screaming fit of hysterics, sealing the fact that she is going to be traumatized for the rest of her life at the very least.
- Epic Tracking Shot: A truly spectacular one going up and around of multiple floors of a building leading up to a double murder.
- Establishing Character Moment: Peter Neal's rather cavalier attitude toward his own success is revealed at our first sight of him. He owns a Rolls and pays a chauffeur, but instead of being driven to the airport he bicycles behind his car all the way; he retrieves his luggage from the car boot, puts his bike in it, and is next seen hurriedly changing from his tracksuit into a business suit in the airport men's room. All this seems to suggest it's not the lure of money and fame that keeps him writing; he has other concerns. Like the opportunity to exorcise his own personal demons.
- Final Girl: Anne. The last surving character, since she accidentally kills the serial killer.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Due to the revelation that Peter Neal was the killer for the later act and that his literary work (which in turn inspired Disc-One Final Boss Berti to go on a murder spree) stems from his Dark and Troubled Past as a teenager who killed a girl out of revenge for the humiliation he suffered, Neal acts as this for Berti in the first half of the film.
- Has a Type: The victims of the killer/killers do not physically resemble each other. But Elsa, Tilde, and Maria had feisty personalities, fiery tempers, and (in Elsa and Maria's case) decent self-defense skills.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This happens to the killer in the climax.
- The Killer in Me: Peter Neal has always had repressed feelings of misogyny and violence. He attempts to exorcise them in his books, but once somebody starts killing due to his books, he loses any control he had, kills the actual killer and embarks on a spree of his own.
- Metafictional Title: Tenebre is Neal's latest book.
- Ms. Fanservice: Marion, the promiscuous (and apparently bisexual) girlfriend of the lesbian reporter Tilde. Marion is naked for almost entire duration of her role.
- Once More, with Clarity: We originally warch the murder of Christiano Berti through the eyes of Gianni, who was spying on him. He got a good look of the victim's face and the murder weapon, but never noticed the killer's face. He also overheard a brief conversation between Berti and his killer, but could not undestand its meaning. Much later, Guanni revisits the crime scene and has a flashback to what happened before his eyes. He now realizes (and the audience sees) that Berti was confessing to all of the previous murders, and that someone else killed and replaced him. Unfortunately for him, Gianni has this epiphany moments before being killed.
- One-Word Title
- The Oner: The three minute shot that pans up and over Tilde's house.
- The Quincy Punk: While waiting for Jane to have lunch with her, Bullmer notices two punks hanging around.
- Red Herring: All male characters, but particularly John Saxon as a sleazy agent. Subverted with Berti — he is the killer in the first few murders we see or hear about but gets killed by Neal halfway through the film.
- The final telephone conversation between Anne and Jane, when Jane asks for help and gives her secret address to Anne. Anne drives through a rainy night to get there as soon as possible, and Jane waits for her with a gun at hand. The implication for the viewer seems tha they are heading for a confrontation, and that Anne is about to attack Jane, or vice versa. Neither of the women is the killer.
- Sadist: Peter Neal himself, who murdered a girl in his youth to vent his sexual frustrations, and starts killing again when the new murders awaken his bloodthirst.
- Pet the Dog: Though he kills Gianni because He Knows Too Much, he didn't kills him in a gruesome manner, implying he liked the young man somehow.
- Previously Overlooked Paramour: One of the subplots of the film. Anne has been Peter's assistant and right-hand-woman for six years, but they never slept together or even shared a house. During their stay in Rome, he starts treating her as a love interest, invites her to stay at his new apartment (supposedly for company), and romantically kisses her for the first time. Unfortunately for Anne, his new lack of inhibition is part of a shift in his personality. Peter is becoming a serial killer, and killing her is in his wish-list.
- Scenery Dissonance: The group attack in the killer's memory takes place in a beautiful beach in broad daylight. The murder of the unnamed "Girl on the Beach" took place in a nice-looking public place in broad daylight. So did, Bullmer's murder. The scenic beauty contrasts with the brutality of the events.
- Slashed Throat: This is how Elsa, the first victim dies.
- Two Dun It: Berti for the first half of the movie, Neal for the second.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: It didn't take much time for Neal to stab the girl who sexually humiliated him to death. It also evidently didn't provide him with any solace either, as many, many years later his obsessive hatred remained as strong as ever, festering in the depths of his soul and resurfacing during the most opportune moment.
- Video Nasties: It was one of the 39 prosecuted films.
- Villain Protagonist: Peter Neal turns out to be a misogynistic murderer whose bloodlust remained dormant for many years, which made him both appear and believe himself to be gentle... until it comes back with a vengeance.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: A variation. Berti asks Neal, with an excited voice, if he agrees with the view of the killer in the novel that homosexuals are disgusting and disposable perverts. A visibly disturbed Neal comments that the novel's main character is a psychopath. Considering that Berti is Ambiguously Gay, it adds a subtext and motivation, too.
