For tonight’s review I’m returning to the world of Italian Giallo horror. This time to perhaps it’s greatest master Dario Argento and what is sometimes called his “Final masterpiece”. It was his most expensive film to date and perhaps his most ambitious. Ronnie Taylor provides the Cinematography and Brian Eno the soundtrack. The movie stars Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson and Urbano Barberini. If you’ve seen my previous Giallo reviews you’ll know the deal with Italian dubbing. Basically there is no fighting it, no matter how much you prefer subtitles. Even the Italian language versions are dubbed. Indeed Charleson would have been speaking in English on set (So on the English dub his lips actually do sync).
While not technically an adaptation of Phantom Of The Opera, the movie, this movie is heavily influenced by it. This is the story of Betty, a young Opera singer thrust into the limelight after an accident injures the lead in a production of Verdi’s Macbeth. She is stalked and abused by an deranged fan determined to kill anyone close to her so he can have her for himself. More than that though, he will force her to watch him committing these murders. But there is more to this stalker that just a fan, he has been in Betty’s nightmares ever since she was a child.
The Raven Himself Is Hoarse
Some movies are difficult to fit a synopsis into one paragraph. Not the case here. The premise is very simple on the surface and yet the film itself makes it feel much more complicated. This is because frankly this film is a bit of a mess. The individual parts are actually very good, but they are put together in ways that don’t always compliment each other. The most obvious example here is the soundtrack. Obviously the movie features a lot of Opera, but it also has soundtrack composed by experimental musician Brian Eno. These two would be fine, but then almost as a theme tune for the psychopath the movie throws in a number of heavy metal songs by the band “Gow”. Metal and horror can work together for sure, but mixed with the rest it’s just a little strange.
The story has a similar situation. The main plot is straight forward, but there are bits and pieces on the peripheral that just seem thrown in. When Betty is rescued by a young girl from her apartment block crawling through the old air conditioning vents it feels incredibly random. It feels like a character that should have been more involved earlier, but wasn’t. Similarly with Betty’s agent, she is called in as someone Betty obviously trusts and thinks can help her with her incredible situation and yet we don’t really get any kind of feeling of that relationship. Betty’s childhood dreams have a big reveal involving her mother and her relationship with the killer. This turns out to be very much a Lady Macbeth reference (The character Bety is playing in the Opera). That’s a neat idea, but it barely seems to be actually explored in the movie.
Of Direst Cruelty Make Thick My Blood
This is Dario Argento, so the truth is we aren’t tuning in for the plot. We’re tuning in because he is a master of visual horror. So the question is, does the film live up to those standards? Absolutely. It’s actually possibly his most impressive film visually (Though it’s been a while since I’ve watched the “Three Mothers Trilogy”). The use of the ravens are pretty unique, especially when we get the ravens-eye-view shots and their use in the plot is pretty cool. The Opera house setting works well too. The most memorable visuals though are the murders. The idea of forcing his victim to watch with the razor blades on her eyes is terrifying, though it’s only done twice in the film. The bullet through the spy hole in the door is a great scene too. It was predictable, but done so well that didn’t matter.
Even though I criticized the disjointed nature of the story, the actual elements are not bad in themselves. What I think was the issue is Argento had too many ideas and tried to squeeze them in. This took him years to get the script to a filmable place. Apparently earlier drafts were far too long and some of the scenes were so graphic that they would only be able to release the film in Japan. That was according to Argento himself. It’s not that he had bad ideas, he just had too many of them and ones that he just couldn’t get away with. I particularly like the poetic irony of Betty’s mother being a Lady Macbeth like character. Though a twisted, psychotic one (Rather than encouraging killing out of ambition).
Out, Damned Spot
Overall, this is a good horror that just feels a little weird in places. Dario Argento fans won’t care though. It delivers on all the things you expect from the writer/director. Those less accustomed to the director and giallo in general may find the movie a little too weird or possible even a little too bloody. Modern audiences likely won’t find the latter, but will find it weird especially if they aren’t used to the Italian dubbing style. However, if you’ve seen other Argento movies, I feel confident you’ll enjoy this. I give it a very strong 6.5/10 and a recommendation.
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