Turin in the spotlight: among Dario Argento’s nightmarish locations

The Monumental Cemetery, whose design was approved in 1827, is located in an area far from the city centre of Turin, in the Regio Parco district, near the Dora River. If the mere thought of cemeteries makes you shudder, bear in mind that this one is the final resting place of around 400,000 souls. Do you think the master of Italian horror , Dario Argento, would have missed out on this perfect location? Of course not: he set The Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971) and Sleepless (2001) there. In the first film, the two protagonists, on the trail of a murderer, find themselves in the cemetery thanks to a clue. In the shot, you can see the monument honouring the workers who died in the fire at the Regia Fabbrica di Polveri (Royal Gunpowder Factory) in Borgo Dora, in the Campo Primitivo district. More glimpses of the cemetery are revealed in the second film, including the sculpture of a peasant with a scythe and that of a woman lying on the ground.

A twenty-minute walk will take you to Turin’s most iconic landmark, the Mole Antonelliana which, of course, houses the National Cinema Museum. The museum takes advantage of the building’s height by spreading the interactive and constantly updated exhibition across several floors. It begins with the early development of the “Seventh Art”, with the various techniques used in the industry, moving on to themed films with special effects and rooms divided by genre and subject, and ending with an overview of cinema posters through the ages. From 2022 to 2023, a documentary on Dario Argento, featuring interesting facts and other revelations about his extensive body of work, was screened inside the museum.

As you leave the Mole, just a few steps away is another symbol of the city of cinema: the Galleria Subalpina arcade, made for leisurely strolls and other quintessentially bourgeois pastimes. Built in Renaissance and Baroque style (at the end of the 19th century), it houses one of Turin’s oldest cinemas and cafés: the Cinema Romano, frequented back in the day by Edmondo De Amicis, and the Caffè Baratti e Milano. A few scenes from Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) were filmed in this arcade. It’s where the office of private investigator Gianni Arrosio is located.

After your leisurely stroll through the Galleria Subalpina, you’ll come out in front of the magnificent Teatro Carignano, which has seen performances by greats such as Paganini, Toscanini, Eleonora Duse and Dario Fo. Up until the late 17th century, it was not a theatre but a hall where the aristocracy held parties and played games, and the building has retained this opulent atmosphere. Its red velvet armchairs and warm, soft lightning must have greatly influenced Dario Argento, who has chosen to include it in two of his films. In Sleepless, the theatre is the location where the dancer is murdered, but more screen time is devoted to it in the masterpiece Deep Red (1975). The theatre is framed from different angles and the camera darts between the seats and the audience attending the parapsychology conference at the beginning of the film.

The Cat o’ Nine Tails features the nearby Piazza Solferino, which is just a 10-minute walk from the theatre. Exhausted after a car chase, the two protagonists, Anna and Giordani, stop for refreshments in a bar on the rooftop terrace of one of the buildings overlooking the square. The bar featured in the film doesn’t actually exist; all you’ll find there are some offices, but you can sit down in one of the bars in the square and take in the surroundings. The epicentre of the oval is the monument to Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa, depicted in battle on his dying horse, but the Teatro Alfieri and Palazzo Ceriana also overlook the centre of the square. Another striking feature is the Fontana Angelica, dedicated to the four seasons.

There are plenty of squares in Turin, but one in particular is closely linked to cinema and, above all, to Argento’s nightmares. This is Piazza CLN (acronym for Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale – National Liberation Committee), not far from Piazza Solferino. The director chose to shoot some scenes from Deep Red in this square, which he described as “so geographical, almost like an alien metropolis”. First and foremost, it features as the residence of Marc and Helga, the film’s protagonists. The residence is dominated by the Fontana del Po, personified by a man holding ears of wheat in his right hand (the other fountain, the Dora, is personified by a woman holding a piece of fruit). The film also features the Blue Bar. Take a good look at it... does it remind you of anything? Does Edward Hopper ring a bell? Yes, Dario Argento was inspired by Edward Hopper’s famous 1942 painting, Nighthawks, to design the shape of this venue. To pay even greater homage to the painter, the director ensured that all the extras remained almost motionless throughout the scene, just like in a painting (creepy, right?).

Make the most of the 20-minute walk between Piazza CLN and the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art by looking around and perhaps imagining yourself in a film (although it might be best to avoid one of Argento’s...).

This museum (which may also contain paintings that inspired the director, as was the case with Hopper) is another location chosen for the filming of The Cat o’ Nine Tails. The rear of the gallery (“the large cube on Via Magenta”) is the exterior of the Terzi Institute for Genetic Research: this is where, under cover of night, the film’s first murder takes place. Inspired by this story, take the opportunity to visit the museum’s galleries, including 19th-century paintings by Hayez, Renoir and Pellizza da Volpedo, as well as 20th-century avant-garde and Arte Povera artists. The GAM welcomes visitors with an enormous tree made of Carrara marble, bronze, lime wood and ivy, which conveys a sense of the sanctity of the art it houses. 

The last stop is the most eerie and fascinating one, but to get there you’ll need to travel a little further: it’s located in the Borgo Po district, a 40-minute walk (or a 10-minute drive) from the GAM. This is Villa Scott, featured in Deep Red, although in the film it is located near Rome. The protagonist Marc is searching for Amanda Righetti, author of an essay entitled “Modern Ghosts and Black Legends of Today”, in which the villa is referred to as the “house of the screaming child”. In the story, a hunter hears the disturbing cry of a baby followed by screams in the night. The man is said to have alerted the police and then discovered that the house was uninhabited; the same thing had reportedly happened to others.

The villa is one of the most extraordinary examples of Art Deco architecture, discovered by chance by the master of horror as he was looking for places in Turin to set the film. At the time, the residence housed a girls’ boarding school run by nuns. Dario Argento recalled that in order to ensure the location was completely clear during filming, he treated the women to a holiday in Rimini, which they very much enjoyed. This is one of the horror master’s most visited locations and arguably the most fascinating: the Art Nouveau style, the floral decorations, the gates and the walls covered with climbing plants make it the perfect villa for a horror film.