Animal Trilogy

The Animal Trilogy consists of three consecutively released Italian giallo films by Dario Argento: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972). The giallo trilogy has had an influence on horror films and murder mysteries made outside of Italy since the late 1960s.

Dario Argento’s directorial debut is considered as a landmark in the Italian giallo genre that turned the giallo into a major cultural phenomenon.That film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, was greatly influenced by Blood and Black Lace, and introduced a new level of stylish violence and suspense that helped redefine the genre. The film was a box office smash and was widely imitated. Its success provoked a frenzy of Italian films with stylish, violent, and sexually provocative murder plots, (Argento alone made three more in the next five years) essentially cementing the genre in the public consciousness. In 1996, director Michele Soavi wrote, "there's no doubt that it was Mario Bava who started the "spaghetti thrillers" [but] Argento gave them a great boost, a turning point, a new style...'new clothes'. Mario had grown old and Dario made it his own genre... this had repercussions on genre cinema, which, thanks to Dario, was given a new lease on life." The success of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage provoked a decade which saw multiple gialli produced every year. In English-language film circles, the term "giallo" gradually became synonymous with a heavy, theatrical and stylized visual element.

Written by Argento, the film is an uncredited adaptation of Fredric Brown's novel The Screaming Mimi. It stars Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall and Enrico Maria Salerno.

It was placed 272nd in Empire magazine's "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list.

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