Il fantastico italiano fra pubblico e critica

The essay explores the issue of spectatorship for Italian fantastic genre in the early 1960s. By taking into account the data related to film distribution and an analysis of para-texts which came with the film release, the essay reconstructs the profile of the spectator as resulting of the action of totally different interpellation mechanisms: one activated by promotional strategies making of the genre something destined to a particular kind of spectator, another activated by national criticism, fiercely inimical to the fantastic genre on both ethical and aesthetic grounds; and finally the one triggered by non-Italian reviewers who absolved the genre and promoted it to a role of a product fit for consumption by a niche, fueling true and proper fanzine phenomena.