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Fans of Dario Argento are in for a treat when Federico Zampaglione’s Tulpa, a sexy and blood drenched homage to the giallo genre hits the big screen in 2013. And to wet your appetite, check out the red band trailer which gives a tantalising insight into the terrifying world of Tulpa.
Starring Claudia Gerini (The Passion Of Christ), Michele Placido (Ages Of Love) Nuot Arquint (Shadow) and Michela Cescon, Tulpa tells the story of a powerful stock broker who frequents a sex club owned by a mysterious Tibetan guru. Unshackled from the pressure of her job she will do anything to attain a higher consciousness, but when her lovers are murdered in shocking ways, she tries to unmask the anonymous assassin with nightmare consequences.
“A Tulpa is a manifestation of mental energy” explains Zampaglione. “It’s an entity that attains reality solely by the act of imagination. It’s supposed to help you, but sometimes things go wrong and it can become very sinister”.
To help develop the idea, Zampaglione collaborated with veteran screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti whose impressive list of credits include Cat O Nine Tails, Twitch Of The Death Nerve and Zombie Flesh Eaters.
“Dardano is superb at creating violent death sequences” said Zampaglione. “All he needed was the core idea of a person’s self-hallucination turning evil and he was away”.
Producers Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Giovanna Emidi and Silvia Natili of Italian Dreams Factory decided to produce Tulpa after watching a ten minute prologue which Zampaglione created to attract finance. “It was Federico’s enthusiasm for horror and the opportunity to bring back one of Italy’s beloved genres that convinced us to go ahead”. said Cucinotta. “For a long time now Italy has been waiting for the heir to Dario Argento and Federico certainly has all the qualities to achieve that lofty role”.
Not content with just making Tulpa a fanboy homage, Zampaglione set out to create a “neo-giallo” bringing this iconic 70’s genre into the 21st century. “We knew what worked in the genre but we were also aware of its short comings and that is why we test screened a rough cut of the film to an audience at London’s Frightfest” explains Zampaglione. “We shot the film in English, so we needed to guage the response of an english speaking audience, and as a result of that screening we took the film back to the editing room and cut out 20 minutes”.
Tulpa went on to wow audiences at Sitges, San Sebastian and recently won a jury award at Noir Fest in Courmayeur.
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