The fact that Dario Argento started out his professional career as a critic is kind of funny since a lot of people these days still tend to state that critics are those that can’t do the job they’re criticizing and as a result they have a serious bias going into their work. That might be true in select cases but it’s usually not as true overall as people might want to think. Thankfully though Dario did later on prove that he CAN do the kind of job he used to criticize as he became a screenwriter and then a director eventually. While a lot of people might not know his movies all that well there are a few of them that might strike a chord with some people. It’s almost guaranteed that he won’t be everyone’s cup of tea so to speak, but the movies he has made are disturbing and enticing in a way that is hard to deny or look away from.
Here are his best five movies.
5. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
In his directorial debut Dario creates a story that’s pretty simple when it comes to figuring out what’s going on. But the killer is still hard to figure for a while since it was misinterpreted by the main character just what was going on in the initial scene where the killer first escaped. When the truth finally comes out however it seems more tragic than anything since it seems to indicate that madness is something that isn’t as debilitating as people might think so often. The movie was something that might be placed on the same level as a Hitchcock classic, but was still its own bit of disturbing.
4. Opera
Paul Synott of Cinephilia & Beyond puts it fairly simply that we all want to have our own definition of the plot in this movie but there does seem to be a certain warped sense of direction that the movie takes in order to reach its end. In a big way it almost seems as though Betty’s ordeal is something that might be better solved had she or anyone she was connected to done anything other than what the killer expected. But in a movie like this the worst case scenario is usually what’s stuck with since it delivers the most shocks and thrills that the audience wants and the director can get away with.
3. Tenebrae
Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine had it right so many years ago when he stated that the best part of this movie is that it makes the viewer work out just who the killer is. By the time that happens though the craziness that Dario seems to find so necessary in his movies has already taken hold and Neal is off on a killing spree that lasts up until the very last part when he’s inadvertently killed in one of the strangest ways that ends the movie on a note that’s kind of anticlimactic in a way that might be seen as kind of a dodge from really ending it in a continuing tragedy that might have made it a little more interesting.
2. Deep Red
Kyle Anderson of Nerdist sounds as though he approves of this movie and I can’t blame him since it is undeniably dark and gritty, something that Dario seems to excel at since his movies tend to go in one direction. That being the case though this movie is kind of like a few others in that the killer is waiting to be unmasked, and once they are there’s another surprise waiting around the corner that many didn’t expect until it’s finally sprung. The image of the deep red that gives the movie its name is pretty haunting when you really think about it, especially with the events that led up to it. Dario also seems to enjoy using every bit of what a person is wearing, the environment they’re in, and the most unlikely of occurrences to set up some of the grisliest kills in the movie industry, and it works to great effect as a lot of us can admit.
1. Suspiria
This movie was actually given a remake recently and it seems to be just as disturbing as Dario’s version since the whole idea of a coven of witches masquerading as a dance studio is kind of disturbing and the happenings at the school are even more so. But the notion that the power of a single witch can keep the whole thing running is kind of interesting since it seems as though it might have given rise to stories such as American Horror Story: Coven, at least in some way. Dario certainly knows how to terrify the audience in more than one way.
Take the time to watch one or two of these movies, even if horror isn’t your thing.
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