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| “ | Not anxiety or fear, but freedom. You wrote these words. page 46. Freedom to strike again. [...] You taught me how, Peter Neal. You and me together. We've just begun! Someone's with you. I can see a woman, that's your girlfriend. Maybe she should be next, but I've got other plans, you'll like them. Just wait and see! | „ |
| ~ Berti on the phone. |
| “ | Pervert! Filthy, slimy PERVERT! | „ |
| ~ Berti whispering during his murders. |
Christiano Berti is the main antagonist of the first half of the film Tenebrae. Berti is a serial killer and the stalker of Peter Neal, a violent crime author, with a book titled "Tenebrae" feeding Berti's hatred of women, which leads to Berti provoking himself into a series of misogynistic, brutal murders. Halfway through the film, he's murdered himself by the next killer and film's main antagonist.
He was portrayed by the late John Steiner.
Biography[]
| “ | Now, Tenebrae is about human perversion and it's effects on society! And I'd like to know how you see the effects of deviant behavior on our lives! | „ |
| ~ Berti during his interview of Neal. |
Christiano Berti was a TV reporter specializing in literature for his channel. He grew to have an obsession with the works of mystery novelist Peter Neal over previously having a hatred of women by unspecified factors. When Neal was visiting Rome on a tour, Berti snapped and obsessively chased after Neal's attention by killing women based off his latest book Tenebrae, a novel about a murderer who kills his female victims (“dirty” women such as prostitutes, petty criminals and lesbians) with a straight razor. As souvenirs, Berti would photograph the crime scenes, also in the interest of preparing the documentation for Neal to see.
His first victim is Elsi Manni, a frequent shoplifter and seductress. Berti followed her home after he saw her attempt to steal a copy of Tenebrae and stuffed pages of the book into her mouth before slashing her throat with a straight razor. Berti would send multiple letters addressed to Neal, then call him in the phone booth across from his room, quoting his book to voice his "inspiration" and saying "We've only just begun," before cutting the call off.
Later on, he attacks two more women, Tilde (a journalist and Neal's friend) and her girlfriend Marion, in their home. Berti grabs Tilde while she's putting on her shirt, ripping a hole in her clothes before slashing her throat as well. Marion comes downstairs after showering and sees her girlfriend dead. Berti chases her up the stairs and slashes her on the back before cutting her throat and causing her head to crash through a glass panel on the stair rail.
During the murders, Berti personally visits Neal for an interview, which Neal finds him suspect from since he voices extreme misogyny and uses language uncannily similar to killer in the call and letters.
Maria Alboretto, Neal's landlord's daughter, is murdered next, having fled into Berti's mansion to escape an angry dog and stumbling into his darkroom, full of photos of his victims. When Berti finds her, she runs, closing the door on his arm and causing him to drop his razor into his pond. He retrieves an axe and chases her outside, eventually catching up to her and hacking her to death.
Berti and his aid Gianni go to investigate Berti's house later on, but get separated. Gianni sees Berti in his living room through the sliding glass door and hears someone whisper "It was me, I killed them all!” before seeing an assailant strike Berti in the head with an axe, killing him. Gianni runs back and sees Neal dazed from a blow to the head.
Somehow, the murders, now deviating from the original MO, continue, despite the case seeming closed after Berti's death. Gianni goes back to the house and remembers that he saw Berti say "It was me, I killed them all!" Gianni ends up being killed as well before being able to tell. It's later revealed that Neal is the new killer, provoked both by Berti's killings and his ex-wife, Jane's, affair with his agent Bulmer, resulting in him flashing back to murdering a teenage girl after having attacked and humiliated him. His deep-seated misogynistic psychosis, that he previously expressed through his books, resurfaced and caused him to kill the people he believed wronged him.
Gallery[]
