Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)

This is the last of the “animal series” of giallos from Dario Argento, the others being The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and The Cat O' Nine Tails (1971). This time a drummer (Michael Brandon) ends up killing a man after an unfortunate encounter. Then someone who witnessed and photographed the killing starts blackmailing him and soon bodies start piling up as he tries to cover his tracks. Well the “accidental” killing at the start was extremely far fetched and the rest of the plot isn't exactly great either. But as so many times it's the mood Argento sets up which is the driving force of his movies and this was no exception. The score by Ennio Morricone wasn't bad, but really it wasn't used as well as it could have been. The visual side however was well in hand, the compositions were quite great and the camerawork by Franco Di Giacomo was pretty much perfect. Some of the scenes are extremely memorable, whether that's a good thing or not is for the viewer to decide, I sure loved them. The biggest problem of this movie is the long and unneeded explanation of the motives at the end and in this Shameless release of the extended cut it's even longer than in the American cut. It's a shame as the ending is otherwise great it just drags on way too long on the explaining part. Apart from that and the misuse of Morricone's talents, this is a great giallo.

80%

An early bird catches the style

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

This is Dario Argento's first take on the giallo genre which he himself helped to create and later became known as the master of the genre. This is also Argento's first feature he directed and as such it's quite a brilliant effort. The influence of Alfred Hitchcock can be seen very clearly as he frames some scenes just like Hitchcock did, but he still gives them his own unique style. Sure it wasn't as refined yet as it would become during the years, but you can still easily see his touch on this one. The story is quite simple as usual for giallos, a man witnesses a murder attempt and soon gets a serial killer stalker on his tail. Being a writer, he starts to investigate the case as the police seem to not be able to solve it. So basically it's your typical "whodunnit" but spiced up with the stylish storytelling of Argento. The stylish camerawork by Vittorio Storaro and the music by Ennio Morricone surely had their own impact on the mood of the movie which is absolutely brilliant. The cast is fairly ok, certainly nothing to complain about. Some of the scenes are just mind blowing in all their beauty and attention to detail. Even though it's not perfect as it loses track a few times, it's still a great movie and a must see for every giallo fan.
85%

I like Hitchcock

Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005)

A movie made by one of the best horror directors ever with a homage to the undeniable master of suspense and I'm worried to see it. The thing is that the best horror director, Dario Argento, used to be best, nowadays he's among the worst. So when he takes on a story that is crafted from all the Hitchcock classics, my first thought was this is going to be a buttrape of the Hitchcock style. Well I'm surprised to say but it wasn't. The story is actually quite fun and truly a Hitchcockian tribute. There's themes from most of his greatest movies and a lot of nods towards other classics as well. So this is a movie geek's dream story. And actually the story is about a movie geek whose neighbour is murdered and he thinks the two women he suspects of doing it took their plan from Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951). There's a lot more to it than just that, but the less you know the better it will work. So the story part was great and also some of the scenes as they were pretty much direct copies from the Hitchcock's movies are quite great also, but the movie is not really great. When ever it's not trying to imitate Hitchcock the style falls apart, becomes the documentarian Argento as most of his newer movies. Also the acting was simply horrible. I watched a dubbed version of the movie and at first couldn't believe how bad it was. I'm sure the horrendous dubbing didn't help, but from the looks of it the original Italian isn't much better either. This same story done by a good film maker and a good cast would be an absolutely brilliant movie, now it's barely average and that's a shame.
50%

Yellow on yellow done by the master of yellow

Giallo (2009)

Giallo is Italian for yellow, but it's also a genre of horror film which characteristics are stylish camerawork with unusual music and extremely long murder sequences with sometimes slow motion footage. Dario Argento is, or at least was, the master of giallo's, his earlier works are true definite genre classics. So when he gets to direct a script that sounds like a homage to all of the giallo classics with a fairly large budget and a very solid actor, Adrien Brody, starring it, every giallo fan should be jumping with joy. Well unfortunately the main emotion among the fans was probably fear of what the outcome will be. At least it was for me as for the last 20 years Argento has made a mixed range of movies mostly from bad ones to the absolute garbage. Seemed like the master had lost his touch, or maybe it was just that he wanted to try to do some conventional horror with quite bad results. Surely he can still return to his level of brilliance where he was with the genre he helped to define. Unfortunately not. First of all what was good in this movie. Adrien Brody does a solid job with the dual part he has and is the carrying force of the movie when everything else fails. The rest of the cast isn't anything special, but do a fairly ok job none the less. The script is a bit too corny at parts, but still in the company of it's kind, it's not bad at all. Sure the idea of a man with a liver disease that turns his skin yellow running around in a taxi killing young women in a movie like a giallo is a bit over the top in "yellow". But then again it has all the right ingredients in there so it didn't bother much. What really did bother was that Argento is completely lost in the world he himself helped to create. Apart from the name of the movie, and of course the color of the killer, there's not much giallo in this one. The visual style is very straight forward, being even quite documentary like at parts and that's definitely not what giallo's are all about. The music is like a stock horror movie music, another thing that's definitely not from the world of giallo's. The murder sequences are somewhat typical, but without the visual and audio style they lose all their effect and just become numbing. At the beginning there were a few shots that made me believe there is hope for the movie, but it crashes and burns soon after. As a conventional horror movie this is decent, a bit below average but not a horrible effort as Adrien Brody and some good parts of the script manage to hold it together when things go wrong. But as a giallo, it's unfortunately the worst giallo ever made and thus one point. I really beg that Dario Argento would just retire from film making and let his legacy live it's own life. I mean I absolutely love the older Argento movies and really adore his style in them, but his new movies are just pissing on the old ones and while doing that also on me as a fan of them.
19%

The art of dying - two giallos from the master

Suspiria (1977)

One of my all time favourite horror movies and a true genre classic. The mood in this one is just unbeatable. It's beautiful and horrifying at the same time with a constant suspense of something bad lurking around. The story is quite basic and actually it seems borrowed straight from another movie by Argento, Deep Red (1975), only the setting has changed. But that doesn't matter as in Argento's movies the camera tells much more than the script. The visual storytelling is this movie's strongest part and makes it a masterpiece in it's class. The music from Goblin only boosts the surreal vision. Simply perfect.
100%



Opera (1987)

Many people say that Argento's career started to go downhill from Suspiria (1977). I don't fully agree with that as even though he of course couldn't top Suspiria (1977) but he still made a couple of great movies. Sure they had a bit of a recycled feel to them but I personally think this is the movie which marked the end of the master and after this started the downhill to the crappy nonsense he's doing nowadays. Anyway this time as usual the story is not the strongest point of the film. An opera singer is stalked by a killer who kills everyone in contact with the young woman. But again the camera tells the real story and some of the scenes are just simply mesmerizing. I actually felt quite sad after seeing this again as the movies the maestro has done after this are from bad to absolute garbage. Last of it's kind from Argento and a brilliant movie in it's own right. Definitely a must see for anyone even a bit into the world of giallos.
90%

Masters of Horror season 1

I know this is a TV series and I don't put TV series here, but as each episode is a short movie by itself I'll review them here. Idea of this series is that Anchor Bay has gathered some of the greatest horror movie makers together to make one hour long short movies. The selection varies from poor to very good. Finally had the time to watch them, so here's season one.


Incident on and Off a Mountain Road (2005)

Movie starts off as a quite basic slasher, but towards the end gets some twists to mix it up. Didn't like the flashbacks at start, they were just plain stupid, but as they tell a story of their own which influences the outcome, they were kinda needed. The first half with a survival battle in the woods was quite bad though there were some unintentionally funny moments which kept it entertaining. Towards the end it took a better turn and the twist wasn't that bad either. All in all quite ok movie.
60%


Dreams in the Witch-House (2005)

I like the Lovecraft story but this movie wasn't doing it much justice. There were some ok scenes, but not enough to carry the whole movie. Acting was quite bad and some scenes were just stupid. The man-rat was stupidly goofy and the witch wasn't exactly scary either. In the end not very good film with very little to offer.
20%


Dance of the Dead (2005)

This post apocalyptic vision by Tobe Hooper was surprisingly good, especially knowing what kind of crap the guy has made since the late 80's. Liked many of the ideas in this and it was nicely done. Too bad that towards the end all the momentum it had made falls into the corny plot. Worth the watch and one of the better ones he has made in the last 20 years.
70%


Jenifer (2005)

Dario Argento was at one point one of the best horror movie makers in the world, but has since faded in the vast nothingness. So my hopes were definitely not high for this one. And unfortunately it was pretty much what I feared. The story was ok, though the way the motives were brought up very poor. Rest was below average, even bad at points.
29%


Chocolate (2005)

Kind of an ok movie but with a lot of plot holes. I got the feeling that this story would have worked way better as a book and not a short movie as it rushes things a bit too much.
52%


Homecoming (2005)

Quite a nice film with a very different take on zombies. I can imagine this movie had even a stronger impact when Bush was the president. Still somewhat fresh movie worth watching.
80%


Deer Woman (2005)

The idea is just stupid, but it's more of a horror comedy anyways so it works quite well. This was surprisingly badly made, there were tons of little errors and those weird moments where the editing and dialog didn't really match. Also those crossfaded images were just plain crappy, could have worked in the 70's but not today. But still didn't get bored and it had it's moments. The lady was quite nice.
43%


Cigarette Burns (2005)

John Carpenter's best movie in over 20 years. Though that's not really anything special as he has put out some crappy films lately. Anyways this was a nice surprise and good to see that he can still do it when the story is right. Sure there were some bad scenes and the acting was sub par, but in the end it was entertaining and at points even quite chilling.
78%


The Fair Haired Child (2006)

This was surprisingly good. The demon kid was actually quite well made and looked freaky enough to be scary. The story was nothing special, but it kept me interested well enough. Worth the watch.
66%


Sick Girl (2006)

The leading lady in this one couldn't act at all, really a horrible performance. The story was kinda ok at parts, but the creatures were a bit too goofy to be scary. Nice ending though.
46%


Pick Me Up (2006)

This was total garbage. Bad acting, bad story, bad film. Though at some points it almost was bad enough to be good, but not quite.
2%


Haeckel's Tale (2006)

Clive Barker's story and the director of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) sounds good on paper. Well the movie wasn't bad either. Kind of predictable at parts, but the undead love was kind of a nice what the fuck moment.
58%


Imprint (2006)

Takashi Miike is a guarantee for something absurdly disturbing, so this wasn't a big surprise even though there were scenes that were really strong. One of the better from the series and totally in a different world than the rest. Well worth watching.
79%


All in all a very mixed series. Some of the movies were idiotic crap and some actually very good. As a whole it still kind of left a bad taste in the mouth. Is this really the best these "masters" of horror could do?