Looking Back: An Argento Classic

Wow, it's been a hell of a long time since I've posted. Life gets in the way sometimes, you know?

Anyway, I'm back with a quick note that I've just revisited Blue Underground's 2007 release of Dario Argento's Opera. You remember Dario Argento, don't you? The Italian Hitchcock? The maestro of horror? He was the guy that revolutionized foreign horror in the 70's and 80's with movies like Suspiria and Tenebrae. Then he fell into complete obscurity in the 90's.

Somewhere along the way, Argento lost his flair for the dramatic. His color palette became muted; his narratives, dull and lifeless.

But! We still have epic gialli fair like Opera, and thank all that is holy in this world for that. Argento's camera falls, swoops and tracks; classic Italian music swells on the soundtrack; and the blood runs as red as a setting sun. Of course, things get a bit too vertiginous, particularly in a circular stairwell scene that Argento repeats ad nauseum (literally). And the dubbed dialogue is, as usual, laughable.

But Opera contains at least two of Argento's great set-pieces, one involving a poor costume seamstress and the relatively gag-inducing method with which the killer extracts an expensive necklace she swallows; the other, let's just say, finds new meaning in the term "being on pins and needles." And the scene at the end between our killer and a group of rather pissed-off ravens is worth the price of admission alone.

So, check this one out if you haven't seen it; although, if you're a tried-and-true horror buff, you already should have. (Shame on you!)