 Critics have identified various major themes in Tenebrae . In interviews conducted during the film 's production , the usually somewhat reticent Argento offered his own views as to the thematic content of the film . As biographer Maitland McDonagh noted in Broken Mirrors / Broken Minds : The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento , " ... Argento has never been more articulate and / or analytical than he was on the subject of Tenebrae . " Film scholar William Hope identifies that the film is devoid of classical narrative progression , and writes that the characters " lack a narrative function or purpose , existing only to be killed in a spectacular fashion , their death hardly moving the narrative on at all . Traditional cause and effect are seemingly forgotten or actively ignored " . According to James Gracey , author of a book about Argento 's work , with Tenebrae " explores some of his most reoccurring themes and preoccupations , such as Freudian psychology , sexual deviancy , repressed trauma , voyeurism , audience spectatorship and the fetishisation of violence and death . " Water is linked constantly with Neal ; in almost every scene his appearance is followed or accompanied by a shot of water in some way . Later , this device is used over and over as a clue to the ultimate killer 's identity – Neal himself . 
