Very stripped down. Set pieces are mellow in a way they have never been on Argento before. Very much centered in what it means to be a victim in a serial killer film. A metagiallo about the actual collateral damage of all the killing in every previous Argento film. So, the energy is intentional not that high (more gore than thrills), it is not Opera, it is not about putting a scene, but about going into the emotional links those scenes left behind. There's barely a narrative exactly, just those hyperlinks between characters caught under the killer’s gaze with the terrific score doing a lot of the heavy lifting as far as sustaining momentum. The final 15 minutes are quite…

Absolutely fucking nonsensical but the soundtrack goes

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Even I, surely his greatest disciple, was cautiously optimistic about this movie, but I’m beyond pleased to say that it is a beautiful return to form for our lord and savior, Dario Argento!

A blind prostitute and an orphaned Asian boy team up against a black gloved killer which is certainly an original approach to a traditional giallo storyline, although even that isn’t as traditional as it sounds. The first half definitely reminds me of his old school giallo before it switches gears in the second half and becomes an incredibly tense game of cat and mouse between the killer and the unlikely duo.

Speaking of that duo, they are adorable together and Diana (the prostitute) is one of Dario’s…

🪬 Giallo—2022 | 💎 Hidden Gem #120 🇮🇹

"Doesn't it bother you that I'm blind?" "Actually, it excites me to know that you can't see me. I've always considered myself ugly—a monster." "No, the monster's the one who did this to me."

It's time, at least for me personally, to reconsider later Argento, because along with La Terza Madre I am liking everything I'm seeing so far.

This is a much more mature piece psychologically and in character development than anything I have seen from him in his "prime". His giallos are great fun, but they barely get into the psychology of the characters beyond the basics. They are very focused on clever and tangled plots, and it is slightly…

Heavily indebted to Poe, Argento's filmography consistently inhabits spaces of unreason, disorder, and perverseness. This is certainly true of Dark Glasses, which sees capacity for randomness and destruction both within and outside the human (see the solar eclipse, the pit writhing with vicious snakes, the cruel murders). More surprising is that this film offers such a hopeful and empathetic tribute to social outsiders, the sorts of people that Argento rightfully recognizes at the core of horror (a genre whose best works are almost always for, by, and/or about "misfits"). Centering on a friendship between a blind sex worker and an orphaned immigrant boy, Dark Glasses is a crystalline demonstration of Argento's formal intelligence, fine-tuned over half a century of cinematic…

Dario Argento is back with a script he wrote in the nineties (according to his autobiography) Dark Glasses hearkens back to his earlier style with many of the familiar elements - set piece murders, grisly gore, a pumping synth score, animal attacks, weird logic and more - but then at the same time this is not typical Argento. There's a much stronger focus on the characters and their plight. The plot hinges on a car crash caused by a serial killer; leaving a prostitute without her sight and a young boy without his parents. The middle section deals with the pair adjusting to their situation and forming an unlikely bond. It's delicately portrayed and gives weight to the more familiar…

D. Argento #20 --- Going into Occhiali neri I was optimistic. I figured it would be at least better than his last two movies because it didn't have the troubled production of those. Thankfully I got exactly what I hoped for: a totally absurd story with nasty gore and a lot of fun to be had. I had the pleasure to watch it on its world premiere with the Maestro himself introducing it. Some cast members (including Asia and the lead actress Ilenia Pastorelli) and the cinematographer were also present. Dario didn't say much besides Ciao and Grazie but he seemed happy. I also met up with fellow letterboxd user Robert whose review of the film you find here.

Occhiali…

You have to adjust expectations: DARK GLASSES is akin to watching an 81-old man run a marathon at a decent clip.

He used to be a master at it in his prime, but for the last twenty years, he'd faceplant a few steps in, shit his pants explosively, or run in the opposite direction while screaming obscenities. We all assumed he didn't have it in anymore - and that's fine. Time comes for us all.

Yet somehow, Argento not only gets a solid speed going this late in the game, but he does it with style (He still has some!) and gets a new perspective on it (A blind woman teams up with a young Chinese Boy to catch a…

Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana

What I feel about the score encapsulates how I feel about this most recent Argento film as a whole. When it hits, it really hits. When the electronic score moves closer to John Carpenter's minimalist yet effective and catchy domain, it does a fantastic job of establishing the mood—the sensation of dread that our characters are likely feeling at the moment. The bloodshed and little makeup work, as well as the car crash scene/CGI, were great. Pastorelli's performances are mostly competent—nothing remarkable or memorable—but she gets the job done, and I appreciated her chemistry and relationship with Zhang. There is also some decent cinematography.

Unfortunately, the story didn't do much for me, and even though it's…