GIALLO SOURCE CODE [Tracking the Tenebrae Moment (pt. 1)]

Halloween seems as good a time as any to start a Source Code series that will attempt to document as many instances of "The TENEBRAE Moment" as possible. The moment in question is surely as well-known as (if not better than) this moment in DEEP RED. But what's maybe not as well-known is how often it's appeared on film. Not only has it been imitated by other filmmakers (De Palma chief among them), Argento himself has done it more than once. (The Movie Matters guys trace it all the way back to Anthony Dawson's attack on Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER [1954]). 

In this first installment of the series, I'll cover its appearance in Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970), Romano Scavolini's NIGHTMARE (aka, NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN [1981]), Brian De Palma's RAISING CAIN (1992), and De Palma's FEMME FATALE (2002).  

BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970)

NIGHTMARE,
aka NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN (1981)

  

 RAISING CAIN (1992)

 FEMME FATALE (2002)

The next installment will likely include a few films I haven't seen, but that others have identified as containing the same Moment. Kim Newman, in his commentary on the Arrow disc of TENEBRAE, cites a scene in Kenneth Branagh's DEAD AGAIN. And Letterboxd user JuanCostrada has suggested that 1978's THE SILENT PARTNER involves a shot with Elliott Gould that qualifies. If you have info on any other movies that've used the Moment, drop it in the Notes section below and I'll be happy to include it in an upcoming post.