 In an interview that appeared in Cinefantastique , Argento noted that the film was intended as near @-@ science fiction , taking place " about five or more years in the future ... Tenebrae occurs in a world inhabited by fewer people with the result that the remainder are wealthier and less crowded . Something has happened to make it that way but no one remembers , or wants to remember ... It isn 't exactly my Blade Runner , of course , but nevertheless a step into the world of tomorrow . If you watch the film with this perspective in mind , it will become very apparent . " Argento later insisted that the film was set in an imaginary city , fifteen years in the future , and that the disaster the city 's inhabitants were striving to forget was an atomic bomb blast . Despite Argento 's claim , Maitland McDonagh observed that this vaguely science @-@ fictional concept " isn 't apparent at all " and that no critics at the time noted the underlying futuristic theme in their reviews of the theatrical release of the film . The film critic and author Kim Newman countered that in avoiding a more recognisable Rome in favour of suburbia , Argento had succeeded in giving some parts of the film an almost futuristic sheen . Argento biographer Alan Jones agreed that Argento 's intention did come across in these scenes , and Newman cites the on @-@ screen use a videophone as an attempt by Argento to place Tenebrae in the near future . 
