Yeah… This Giallo Is Basically Cruising

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:01][music] [music] [music] >> Welcome back horror fans, cinephiles, and giallo enthusiasts. This is Tanner Listener, your host for all things giallo and giallo adjacent here on the King of Giallo. And this is another unscripted talking head movie review.

[00:00:39]This is for the second of the um Vinegar Syndrome Forgotten Gialli box set nine.

[00:00:46]Uh the second of those films, this is Buio Rosso, I believe is how to say that in Italian. English title is The Final Scoop, and I'm wondering why [music] they didn't just put the English title on the movie like they do with most of them, but whatever. This is directed by Pierfrancesco Campanella. This is the second of the three movies that I've watched, and I have to say that I think I enjoyed this more than um Madness.

[00:01:09]Yeah, I believe I I I I did enjoy this one more initially. So, I'll say this right away. I'm watching this like So, this is kind of like Cruising, but more overtly a giallo versus Cruising is an American psychological thriller, I guess we would call it. But, to be very brief with talking about Cruising, Cruising sometimes gets lumped into the American giallo net. I would say it's more giallo adjacent. I don't know how much of an influence giallo films had on William Friedkin. I really don't know. That it could be that there was some influence, or it could be that he didn't watch any.

[00:01:45]Um I have covered Cruising on the channel before. I've also done a podcast with my friend talking about Cruising.

[00:01:49]And also, if you're on my Patreon, I did an entire review of the book going like chapter by chapter. So, I have read the book Cruising. but this, The Final Scoop, Budje Ross, uh uh the IMDb plot is wanting to make a scoop TV journalist Marco delves deeply into an unfamiliar world within the metropolis follows the trail of a serial killer and gets himself entangled in in case entangled in a case believes what that meant to say. You are following this journalist as he is essentially cruising. He is going around trying to seemingly trying to pick up gay men, but every time they go to every time the other person is like, "Well, shall we go back to my place or shall we get started?" He's always like, "Ah, no, no, no, no. I'm I'm tired actually. I think I'm going to go home." So, I'm wondering what what exactly is he trying to do?

[00:02:37]What exactly is the story? As the movie goes along, you find out that there have been six homosexuals murdered in the span of like a two months or so, a month or two. And they mention that all the killings occurred on a Saturday or a Sunday and they always occurred with a knife. And while he was out, meets up with a guy, they go back to the guy's place and then he leaves shortly after and he goes right back out to the same spot where he was cruising and he sees the same guy who he just left that the man's house minutes ago back there as well also walking along cruising while he's sitting in a car.

[00:03:07]This other guy comes into his car and the guy robs him at gunpoint. And while this is happening, the man who he was at his house previously gets killed, but he gets killed bludgeoned with a with a hammer if I recall. And also meanwhile, there is a peeping Tom sort of guy who you see in these scenes who's just always there watching people meeting up and getting really excited. And yeah, so then our journalist character Marco played by Tomas Arana, who by the way, I thought looked like a number of characters. Initially, I thought, "Okay, he looks like Sam Neill." And then there's a moment where he looks over when he's in a club and I'm like, "Oh, he looks like Ben Stiller there." And then later on halfway through the movie, I'm like, "He also looks like Klaus Kinski." So, he looks like a hybrid of these other other men sort of, in my opinion. Marco is talking with the police. He's getting this information.

[00:03:58]He's saying that he's kind of doing his own investigation into it. And so, there's our answer. Okay, that's what he's doing. All right. And that actually took me aback. I actually had to go back a few times and be like, am I missing something? Like, does he have a vested interest in this? Like, does he know someone who was killed? Or does he just really want to get a story? So, I guess he's His plan is to meet up with the killer somehow. Not too unlike Cruising where you're following a character who is a cop who is going undercover, play a gay man to pick up other gay men, hopefully find the killer. So, that's a similarity. And also, to be brief and not just keep saying this is Cruising rip-off, cuz I don't think it is. I don't think it's a Cruising rip-off. I will say that the likelihood that the director or writer Is it the same person? Yes, the direct the writer-director. The odds of him seeing Cruising and making this movie are more likely than William Friedkin seeing giallo films and making that film.

[00:04:53]However, there are There are a few similarities, but that's about where it ends. The other similarity is the main character does have a female partner significant other. In Cruising, it's like a girlfriend. In this, it's a wife.

[00:05:07]And eventually, it's stronger in Cruising, but in this movie as well, as it goes along him continuously doing this, going undercover, he starts kind of questioning his own sexuality. And that's appears in the editing, where he'll be about to have a sexual encounter with a woman and he's recalling seeing these like meeting with these certain men, their faces or them like leaning over in the shower or so.

[00:05:31]So, that was another similarity. And that's about where they stopped. Although, I do think Cruising did a better job of portraying that. And that also kind of goes to the book, cuz that's in there. But, beyond that, it the main thing is just guy going to an area to pick up gay men to find a killer. But it does it it goes in a in a different direction and it is way more true to a giallo film than Cruising is, which like I said is more adjacent.

[00:05:57]So, if you have seen Cruising and you're a giallo fan, check this movie out if you haven't seen it cuz you will see what that movie would be like if it was full on Italian giallo. Uh but yeah, he meets with his uh friend then who is a prosecutor. They talk. That's about it.

[00:06:12]They're best friends. Uh you meet his his wife. What else can I say about this movie? I don't I don't know if I really want to spoil this one. This one actually is pretty good. It's pretty well written. I will say though, however, I think it was just the state of mind I was in. I did have a really hard time paying attention. So, I would watch like the first 20 minutes and then all of a sudden I would kind of disengage for like another 20 minutes and I'd be like, "Oh fuck." And I'd go back and rewind it and then I would start disengaging again, but I don't think that's the fault of the movie. I just it's just been difficult trying to read or watch all these movies back-to-back-to-back as well as I got interrupted in doing this. I was trying to knock it all out in a day and the software that I use to rip my movies, it was not ripping it with the subtitles for some reason. It I've tried four times and it four five times and it still will not rip it with the subtitles. So, I was forced to watch it in the living room, which is not a problem. Then there is a scene where the main character goes to a nightclub.

[00:07:06]Again, in Cruising it is it is like a BDSM leather club and they actually filmed those in real clubs with real page friends. Everything you saw in those scenes in Cruising was real. So, you see you see a guy get I'll just bleep this, but you see a guy get and it's real. And those those uh clubs were legitimately run by the mafia and that is where that movie also got a lot of controversy because a lot of people a lot of people in the gay community were protesting saying you are not portraying us in a great light and this is also at the height of like the AIDS crisis. So, can you maybe not make us look like perverts? But then you had a huge part of the of those communities, the BDSM and leather club communities, who came out and said, "No, this he's doing a good job of like showing us how it showing you what it is. This is the reality of it." But again, sorry I digress. In this movie, the club he goes to is way less seedy, way less sketchy.

[00:08:05]It actually seems like it's a fairly well like like respectable establishment. And it's not all gay people. There appear to be straight women, straight guys there, guys meeting girls, guys meeting guys. And then there's also like an old couple. The old man is clearly a [ __ ] and they're looking for a a bull.

[00:08:22]Uh so, you're seeing more it's a little bit more diverse there.

[00:08:26]>> [snorts] >> Also, another thing I thought was interesting is when they brought up the series of murders and how the gay community is asking for help in resolving this matter, I thought, "Wow, um to my understanding in the '90s, things have come a come a ways in Italy versus in the '70s." I don't know if this is true or if this is just the impression I get from all the giallo films, but it seemed like homosexuality was illegal in the '70s. I don't I don't know or maybe it was just buggery was illegal, but um yeah, in the '90s in this movie, there it's like they mention a gay community is asking for help. I'm like, [snorts] I feel like you that wouldn't happen in the '70s, at least not in their movies. But that was that was something interesting I noted. One thing I wanted to also point out is there's a scene where he goes back to the cruising spot, uh finds a guy, and this person assumes that he's the killer. And so, he and his buddy who's hiding, they after luring our main character Marco somewhere, they knock him out, they attack him, knock him out, and then they put like towels or some sort of fabric around him, and they douse it in gasoline, and light it on fire like they're going to kill him. And I wondered, "Why didn't they just cover him in gasoline?

[00:09:40]Why didn't they just immolate him instead of the area around him?

[00:09:45]I don't know. The reason is because if they did that, he would have died. And in the case of what happens in the movie, he's rescued by someone who we don't know who it is, not until later. I did find the writing to actually be really good in this movie.

[00:09:56]You You really have to pay attention. If you're If you look away for 40 seconds, all of a sudden you you missed a lot depending on what's being talked about.

[00:10:04]I do give the credit to the writing. It was really good. The acting was also pretty good. The The dubbing I don't even know if this was dubbed. It didn't seem like it was. But yeah, I would say quality-wise, this just kind of all around was better than Madness. Madness was a a little bit more fun, I would say. It was a you could kind of turn your brain off. And it also it was dubbed in English. That movie was made for like English-speaking audiences, so they dubbed it in English. This movie was more Italian, made for Italians, I'm assuming. You really did have to pay attention to what was being said because it was It was a very well written versus the other film was not. That being said, I I don't necessarily want to spoil this, but I will.

[00:10:44]I won't spoil the whole thing, but I will at least spoil what my prediction was and what happened. So, timestamp here.

[00:10:51]Go to this point if you don't want to be spoiled. Okay, so within the first 15-20 minutes, I'm assuming that the killer is going to be a character we've met. I immediately ruled out the the the creeper who's like just hanging around the cruising area, who's just watching.

[00:11:06]I just felt okay, that's the red herring, too obvious. What characters do we beyond that do we meet? Besides the other guys he's running into, his friend the prosecutor. I'm like, could be him.

[00:11:17]And they're dropping hints that it that not hints that it could be him, but they're dropping like character hints.

[00:11:23]And so one of the things is Marco's wife used to be this guy's girlfriend until Marco took her. He's He's talking to another woman who has the hots for him, and he mentions that Roberto and then Adria is the wife. Roberto always used to snatch this guy's girls, the girls that he liked, and Adria, his his now wife, is the only girl he ever got from him. Okay, so that's a little something.

[00:11:45]Adria and Marco go to meet with Roberto's mother because I guess she's just fond of both of them, which is interesting but not out of the ordinary.

[00:11:56]You get the sense that both that that like I said, the mother dotes on both of them. Whenever they talk about Roberto, there is this kind of sense that he's just always alone. Not alone like he's not How do I put this? He's not in He's not ever committed to anybody.

[00:12:11]Kind of reminds me of Goodfellas, the mom just being like, "When are you going to settle down? Find a nice lady." But you get the sense that he doesn't have stability in that sense of a relationship. And so that to me was another indicator, okay, maybe it's him.

[00:12:24]But then also through the course of the movie, you can start seeing how this investigation is affecting Marco's relationship with his wife, and I start wondering, "Maybe it's her." The only reason I wasn't totally putting my chips in with with Adria was it wouldn't explain why why the murder started. It could explain why the murders happened at a certain point, but before that I'm like, I don't know what would what what she would have to gain. And then the other person I suspected was Roberto's mother because she I don't know. She just There were just little hints in there that I was getting a little bit of like a Deep Red vibe with the friend and the friend's mom, little bit. Anyways, so spoiler, we get to the end. He He starts like having like a pseudo relationship with one of the one of the gay men. That man gets shot by someone.

[00:13:09]Well, it can't be Marco, obviously, cuz he was there. He saw it. But he ends up meeting this person a few minutes later at the spot, and it's the mom. And it's like, "Oh, no." And I'm thinking, "I mean, I did suspect her, but this just doesn't totally make perfect sense." But as we see eventually, she's not the killer, but she really wanted to hook up with Marco. We find out the killer is Roberto, and I'm like, "Okay, well, that's that's what I thought." And it has it's a whole thing that has to do with blackmail with a few other people who were killed off earlier, and goes deeper with that with him, you know, having to kill the people he loves, that whole thing. Like, I love you so much, I have to kill you. And Marco's even like, "Where does it end?

[00:13:53]Are you going to kill me? I'm your best friend. You love me. Are you going to kill Adria? You still love her. Are you going to kill your mother? You love her." But then it ends a kind of sweetly, I don't know.

[00:14:03]Roberto embraces Marco, has the gun to his head, and then he puts it to his head, and that's the end. And then we have a like a very brief denouement, like 30-40 seconds.

[00:14:14]So, at least it was a little bit of a wrap-up, and it wasn't just like gunshot credits, which all these other giallo films do. They're like, "You don't get an ending. That's it."

[00:14:22]But yeah, solid entry. Really good for a '90s giallo film. I wonder why it's not really talked about. Like, I think I had heard about it before, but as a lot of these titles go, if I don't follow up on them and watch them immediately, they kind of just slip out of my memory under the radar. And because I've been doing these movies in order as best I can, it was like, "Okay, well, that's a 1993 or 1994 giallo. So, it's like I'm not going to worry about that for years until I get to the '90s."

[00:14:51]But with this the release of this box set, I was like, "All right, fine. I'll cover it now.

[00:14:56]Might as well just cover all three movies, cover the the product in general." So, yeah, so far two movies have been decent. The first one, like I said, was mid, not terrible, but not really great, probably a bit of fun.

[00:15:10]This one was surprisingly well-written.

[00:15:13]Yeah, I did enjoy that. Directing Directing was fine. I can't say that a lot of things will really I will remember a a of like visuals from this movie. I will say that. Like the other one was probably more visually memorable. But it was good. And then And then there were some awkward sex scenes that I'm like, "Okay. All right."

[00:15:32]>> [laughter] >> Like can we move along now?

[00:15:34]Yeah, I think I've said everything that I wanted to about this movie. Uh so yeah, I will see you in the next one where I cover What is it called? Murder in Blue Light? Anyways, uh so that one actually has two cuts, I noticed. As of right now, I don't know what's the difference between the two. I don't know if one is a television cut. I don't know if one is a an Italian cut and a US cut. I do know that one of the cuts is restored and the other one not quite so much. So it's kind of like Delirium. If you've seen any of my videos on Delirium or you've seen it yourself, uh you will recall that Delirium has like a really clean cut, which is the original Italian. And then there is a US cut, which is like it looks like [ __ ] Like they didn't put a whole lot of work into the restoration, but maybe there's a different reason. But um it's a it's very different in terms of how they edited it. They shot all these like Vietnam sequences to try and explain things.

[00:16:29]But interesting. So I am wondering if I should watch both cuts and then do a review or do separate cuts or separate reviews for each cut. We'll see.

[00:16:40]But until then, well, you'll find out eventually. But thank you for watching this and um leave your questions, thoughts, comments, curiosities, concerns in the comments below. Have you seen this movie? Do you like it? Um if you've seen Cruising, uh what are your thoughts on that? Or at least what are your thoughts comparison with this movie? To reiterate that one more time, I know I've probably already said it enough. Uh apparently this movie does get called the Cruising rip-off or the giallo Cruising. I do think calling it a Cruising rip-off is not fair, but I do think calling it a giallo Cruising is accurate. I will say that. It it definitely is like, "Well, no, no, no. It's that movie if it was a giallo cuz Cruising is like unabashedly American. It's just a very American made movie. Um, but yes. So, yeah. Leave some comments. I'm curious to hear what you all thought about this movie and um, I will see you at the next one.

[00:17:31]Thank you once again for watching this.

[00:17:32]This is Tanner Leader for The King of Giallo and nothing else. I'll see you next time.

[00:17:38]Thank you for watching.