Dark Favourites

An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.

A church is built during medieval times on top of a pile of dead bodies that were considered possessed. Hundreds of years later a young librarian unleashes the evil within by removing a rock in the catacombs, and many strange events occur, and many people seem to have changed suddenly. Father Gus, the only one not possessed, must save the city from the pandemonium by finding the ancient secret of the church so it can crumble to pieces.

In Italy, American writer Sam Dalmas witnesses a murder attempt on an art-gallery owner, Monica Ranieri, a few days before he's supposed to return home. Inspector Morosini, who is in charge of investigating the three previous murderers of the serial-killer, asks Dalmas for help and takes his passport. Dalmas decides to stay with his girlfriend Julia and to help the police in the investigation. The killer threatens Dalmas and Julia by phone and the police overhear a strange noise on the tape. Soon the serial killer stalks Julia and Damas. Who might be the killer?

Anna Manni is a policewoman trying to capture a vicious serial rapist and killer. The problem is that she suffers from "Stendhal's syndrome", a psychosomatic disorder that gives her dizziness and hallucinations when she is exposed to the sight of paintings and artistic masterpieces. When the maniac lures her into a trap inside Florence's famous Uffizi museum, her troubles are just beginning...

While rehearsing a musical play in a theater, the dancer Alicia twists her ankle and the costume designer Betty drives her to a nearby hospital. However, the place is a mental institution but a doctor treats Alicia's ankle. They return to the theater but the dangerous psychopath Irving Wallace escapes hidden in Betty's car. He kills Betty outside the theater and Alicia finds her body. They summon the police and the director Peter decides to promote the play using the press and supported by the producer Ferrari. He rewrites the screenplay and casts six actors and actresses to immediately rehearse to the opening night, promising additional payment. He asks the actress Corinne to lock the theater and hide the keys. But Irving Wallace has sneaked in the theater and starts a crime spree. Will anyone survive the serial-killer?

Isabella, a young model is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a boarding house run by Max Morlan and his lover Countess Christina Como. When Isabella's boyfriend is suspected of the killing, her diary, which apparently has some incriminating evidence linking her to the killer, disappears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find the diary.

A psychic who can read minds picks up the thoughts of a murderer in the audience and soon becomes a victim. An English pianist gets involved in solving the murders, but finds many of his avenues of inquiry cut off by new murders, and he begins to wonder how the murderer can track his movements so closely.

After the abduction of a British tourist in Rome, police inspector Anna Mari is contacted by the criminal, who self-entitles The Card Player, challenging the police department to dispute a video poker with him where the prize would be the life of the victim. The Chief of Police refuses to participate and the victim is tortured and killed in front of an Internet web cam. British detective John Brennan is assigned to investigate the case and when another woman is kidnapped, they invite the addicted player Remo to play for the police. Anna and John lead the investigation trying to disclose who might be the serial-killer.

Dr. Eswai is called by Inspector Kruger to a small village to perform an autopsy on a woman who has died under suspicious circumstances. Despite help from Ruth, the village witch, Kruger is killed and it is revealed that the dead woman, as well as other villagers, have been killed by the ghost of Melissa, a young girl who, fed by the hatred of her grieving mother, Baroness Graps, exacts her revenge on them. Dr. Eswai, along with Monica, a local nurse, are lured into a fateful confrontation at the Villa Graps.

Franco Arno is a blind man who lives with his young niece and makes a living writing crossword puzzles. One night, while walking on the street, he overhears a weird conversation between two men sitting in a car parked in front of a medical institute where genetic experiments are performed. The same night, someone breaks into the institute and knocks out a guard. Arno decides to investigate with help from reporter Carlo Giordani.

Roberto, a drummer in a rock band, keeps receiving weird phone calls and being followed by a mysterious man. One night he manages to catch up with his persecutor and tries to get him to talk but in the ensuing struggle he accidentally stabs him. He runs away, but he understands his troubles have just begun when the following day he receives an envelope with photos of him killing the man. Someone is killing all his friends and trying to frame him for the murders...

Young opera singer Betty gets her big chance when the previous star of a production of Verdi's 'Macbeth' is run over by a car. Convinced that the opera is bad luck, she accepts--and becomes the target (in Argento's unmistakable style) of a psychopath--a man who has inhabited her nightmares since her childhood.

An anorexic young woman escapes from a psychiatric clinic and meets a young man who wants to help. She is caught and returned to her parents, who are soon beheaded by a garrotting stranger making the rounds about town, apparently striking only when it rains. The orphaned young woman and her new lover launch their own investigation and are endangered when a link is discovered between the victims and a particular operation that was performed years before.

Standard story of the Phantom does have one major variation - The phantom is not a disfigured individual, but rather is an unwashed orphan abandoned in the sewers under the Paris Opera & raised by rats. The Phantom invokes death upon anyone who dares harm his beloved rats. In fact, The Phantom's nemesis is the chief exterminator who develops a rat-catching machine.

Art imitating art is the basis of this demonic tale of a group of invited guests to the screening of a horror film that brings naturalism to life. They are baited and penned, and their walled-in feeling quickly turns to screaming fear as those who are dead lust after the flesh of the living. In this full-scale cinema of hell, it's only a question of time before demons from the abyss are asking for second portions.

With Argento's trademark visual style, linked with one of his more coherent plots, Tenebrae follows a writer who arrives to Rome only to find somebody is using his novels as the inspiration (and, occasionally, the means) of committing murder. As the death toll mounts the police are ever baffled, and the writer becomes more closely linked to the case than is comfortable.

A documentary is shown on TV of group of teens who investigate the legendary forbidden zone, in which a demon infestation once took place (see Demoni I). Finding a lifeless corpse of a demon, one of the teens causes the resurrection of it, and the demon makes its way into the nearby world by TV-broadcast - An unlucky girl having her birthday party at that time gets possessed by the demon while watching the documentary, and soon the entire building in which she lives turns into a living nightmare..

A young rich orphan loses his fiancée to voodoo doll mischief on the part of his housekeeper who is jealous of his attentions. He digs his girlfriend up, cleans her out, stuffs her, and puts her in bed at the mansion. Following this, he tries out and disposes of a series of young maidens, trying to find the right replacement for her, and the disapproving housekeeper helps him with the disposals.