Opera (1987)
Have you ever wondered what a Dario Argento opera might look like? Of course you have. Violence, anarchy, tragedy and death are shared leitmotifs, and given that the merit of Argento’s early work lays as much in his artistic vision and delivery as it does in the nuts and bolts of plot or narrative, the more pointed question is why hasn’t he ever taken the plunge and done something at La Scala? Read more
Sweeney Todd (2007)
In all probability this will be the first and last musical that I will review on the Black Lagoon. At the very least, I don’t expect to write about another one in such glowing terms, given that I can’t think of another film that so completely fulfills its duties as both a full-blooded horror movie and a musical simultaneously. I also can’t think of another film that has been burdened with such a condescending publicity campaign: that the movie is indeed a musical might come as a surprise to those who have only seen the trailer, which did an excellent job of completely disguising the content of a film whose only spoken dialogue occurs in the brief pauses between songs. Read more
Scanners (1981)
It recently struck me that one of the more clever devices used by the sitcom Friends was the naming of its episodes. Prefixing each title with the words “The One Where…” is quite a sly but telling reference to how the mass audience receives film and television fiction: no matter how much you put into your product or how much merit it contains, its legacy in the popular mind will always rest on one single hook. Clearly, if David Cronenberg’s Scanners was a Friends episode it would be “The One Where The Guy’s Head Explodes”. Read more
Tenebrae (1982)
After the candy-coloured supernatural nightmares of Suspiria and Inferno, Tenebrae marked director Dario Argento’s return to the graphic murder mysteries with which he made his name as a director. It tells the story of American crime novelist Peter Neal, who comes to Rome to promote his latest book; soon after his arrival, however, he discovers that a murderer is on the rampage using his novels as inspiration and leaving pages from them at the crime scene. Along with his PA Anne, Neal is drawn into the investigation as the bodies start to pile up… Read more
Phenomena (aka Creepers) (1985)
Phenomena remains one of Dario Argento’s most controversial films. Arriving in 1985, it sits on the cusp of the period when most viewers feel his directorial career went into terminal decline, and yet it arrived only three years after the masterful Tenebrae, his elegant and stylish return to the giallo - the genre he helped to define more than any other director. Mainly remembered for featuring a very young Jennifer Connelly in the lead role, Phenomena remains something of a mixed bag, but generally scores more hits than misses. Read more