Lucio Besana
Storie della serie Cremisi

Some of you will surely have appreciated the horror film The Nest or, more recently, A Classic Horror Story just released on the Netflix platform. However, not everyone knows that the screenwriter of these two films is the Italian Lucio Besana. But Besana is not just a screenwriter, he's also a writer, and what a writer he is. We have proof of this thanks to his anthology Storie della serie Cremisi just published by Edizioni Hypnos. The author came into the spotlight at the Hypnos Prize with a series of stories that we find, at least in part, in this volume. These are not stories that have an immediate impact; however, once you enter the "besanian" universe, satisfaction is guaranteed. Besana writes very well: his dreamlike and hypnotic style surely owes something to Thomas Ligotti. The author himself recently stated that Teatro Grottesco by Ligotti opened many doors for him. This does not mean, however, that we are faced with a sterile copy of the Detroit writer. In truth, the "ligottian" influence is particularly noticeable in the first part of the stories in the Cremisi series.

In Un viaggio nella Matamonia di Esagro Noroi and the subsequent Subotica (which the most attentive already know for having read it in Hypnos magazine), we are in the realm of dystopian science fiction that owes something to a film like Stalker. I indeed find the obsession with the presence of an unreal "space" (like "the zone" in the aforementioned Stalker) but which, at the same time, is real and connected to the surrounding reality. Una stagione al Teatro della Scena Rossa is perhaps the masterpiece of this collection. There are references to the more elusive Ligotti with his obsession with mannequins and masks. But it remains a story that stands on its own regardless of possible comparisons with Teatro Grottesco. The story tells the tale of a man who is hired at the Teatro della Scena Rossa, a place that may exist only in his mind but could be part of a parallel universe. It is not known what the truth is, but the metaphysical thrill that remains with the reader in the end does not leave one indifferent. La primavera della Città itinerante is very dreamlike and insane in its development: the appearance of a mobile city that invades the surrounding space is something truly disturbing, just as one cannot forget the gravediggers, strange figures who knock on the doors of houses always claiming something and bringing distress and despair to the inhabitants. Ronda, on the other hand, is a more classic horror tale (but always a "sui generis" horror): the protagonist is a little girl who will find herself questioning the boundaries of her daily life: the house she lives in becomes a sort of "Borges-style" labyrinth where she enters another dimension. The author warns us of how the prosaic reality we live every day hides cracks and fissures where it is possible to look into the Abyss. Veglia has an apocalyptic end-of-the-world atmosphere: a father obsessively digs a grave after the death of his daughter while outside the world changes in a disturbing manner. The concluding Zucchero (inspired by events that occurred in the town of Dryden in America) is another small horror gem: the story describes a woman who, arriving in a town where everything seems calm and almost unreal, ends up settling there, forgetting her previous existence. But appearances are actually deceiving: an obsessive and unsettling dream constitutes the key to understanding the true nature of that inexplicable place that hides a series of horrid, seemingly forgotten secrets. A story from which a remarkable horror film could be made. After Epistassi by Stefano Cucinotta with Storie della serie Cremisi by Lucio Besana, we have another confirmation of how Italian weird fiction is in excellent health and now has nothing to envy from anyone. Available on the Edizioni Hypnos website: http://www.edizionihypnos.com/.

Lucio Besana "Storie della serie Cremisi" – Edizioni Hypnos – 255 pages – Euro 16.90 – 2021