Shudder Saturday: Opera (1987)

It's been a while since I've seen Opera. It's been a while since I have watched, or rewatched (more often than not), ANY Dario Argento movie. I was moved to revisit this particular feature after mentioning it to someone who was just starting to explore Argento's filmography. I have always had a soft spot for it, although I was initially confused when I once thought I was revisiting it before pressing play on Dario Argento's The Phantom Of The Opera (a film made a decade later, and one that isn't half as good as this).

This IS a riff on the classic Gaston Leroux tale, considering it's all about a mysterious figure who takes an unhealthy interest in a stage starlet (Betty, played by Cristina Marsillach). Not content with watching her from the wings though, this "phantom" likes to catch Betty, use some needles and tape to ensure she cannot close her eyes, and make her watch as he kills various people in front of her. You get deadly set-pieces, a killer who stays hidden for most of the runtime, and an absolute overdose of style. Peak Argento giallo, in other words.

As well as directing, Argento is also credited here for co-writing the screenplay with Franco Ferrini. It may not be the best screenplay, but it's also far from the worst, especially in comparison to other giallo and slasher films of this era. It's just a shame that Argento tries to give characters emotionally-loaded dialogue to match his swooping and gliding camerawork when the ideal approach would be a near-silent tale told through the gorgeous visuals.

Marsillach is fine in the role of Betty, and this is a cast that also has room for Daria Nicolodi (a friend named Mira), Coralina Cataldi Tassoni (a costumier named Giulia), Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, and Antonella Vitale, all potential victims or a potential killer, as well as a fun cameo from Michele Soavi (uncredited), but the real pleasure comes from Argento setting up one audacious sequence after another in a way that blends the traditional with the modern more effectively than some of his other work.

Even compared to other Argento delights, and I'm sure some will argue with me on this point, Opera feels dizzying and dazzling in a way that underlines his mastery of fluid camera movement, inventive and gory deaths, and the seriously macabre juxtaposed alongside entertaining absurdity. While not his very best film, I would nominate Opera as his best technical work. And I know it has some stiff competition.

If you haven't seen this one by now then do make it a priority. Okay, start elsewhere if you're completely new to Argento (Deep Red is always a winner, even if it's arguably the high point of his career), but you don't need to be an expert in his filmography to recognise his tricks and flourishes packed into every main scene here. 

9/10

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Shudder Saturday: Dario Argento: Panico (2023)

Although I like to watch them, I am never eager to review documentaries. It's rare to have much to say about them, especially when they often use very similar ways to convey information to viewers. Summarising a documentary is often just summarising the subject itself, but sometimes that subject is worth making others aware of. I'm not sure that can be said of Dario Argento.

Don't get me wrong. Argento remains a big name in the horror genre, a man responsible for some past glories that stand up as outright classics, but even some of his more generous fans would have to admit that it's been at least two decades since he showed anything like the kind of directorial talent and flair that made his reputation. Some argue that Dark Glasses showed some promise, a minor return to form, but I strongly disagree.

That's what puzzles me about this documentary. Who will get the most out of it, and why now? Argento isn't on some major upswing, which takes the documentary itself to an inevitably downbeat and depressing final act, and the fact that he keeps trying (the tenacity is admirable, to be fair) means that there's no definitive end point that can be used to bookend his film career. He may yet make another movie, or he may not, but nothing is known at this time, which gives the documentary a hugely anti-climactic feeling.

Director Simone Scafidi obviously thinks that this story is worth telling, and there's plenty of time dedicated to the complex relationship that Argento has with women (both offscreen and on), including some of the frank and raw speech you would expect from his daughter, Asia, but it doesn't get close enough to the bottom of a very murky pool. And then, after touching on topics that you know are interesting enough to require some more exploration, Scafidi and co. pull back, returning to the relative safety of Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Guillermo del Toro offering up their praise to someone they revere.

Although it may not seem like it from my words here, I am a huge fan of Argento, up to a certain point. He deserves a LOT of love and respect for the contributions he has made to giallo, and to the horror genre overall. At least two of his films are gold-plated classics. Which is why I was all the more frustrated by this documentary. I don't think it worked as intended, with the unimaginative construction and soundbites coalescing into something that rarely reminds you of the greatness of Argento's talent. You could make one feature alone by simply juxtaposing moments from Suspiria with many films and scenes it has influenced, but even that atmospheric classic feels as if it is given relatively short shrift here.

There is potential for a great documentary to be made about the life and works of Argento. This doesn't come close. Those present keep serving as a reminder of the many people not included, the film clips are assembled with very little thought or care (in my eyes anyway), and the end result is a huge wasted opportunity.

3/10

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Prime Time: The Legend Of The Christmas Witch (2018)

When I discovered The Legend Of The Christmas Witch online I had to confirm two things. One, this doesn’t seem to be connected in any way to the recent storybook written by Aubrey Plaza. Two, and arguably more important to me, this is directed by Michele Soavi. Yes, the Michele Soavi best known to horror movie fans for films such as Stage Fright, The Church, The Sect, and, best of all, Dellamorte Dellamore.

The Christmas witch is a Santa/Krampus character who visits children on the night of January 6th. Good children get a treat, bad children get something less enjoyable. For the rest of the year, allowing her to live a relatively normal life, the witch looks much more pleasant and is actually a teacher, named Miss Paola (Paola Cortellesi). That leads to a number of Miss Paola’s pupils trying to rescue her when she is in Christmas witch mode. Her kidnapper is a man named Johnny (Stefano Fresi), someone who has held a grudge since he was accidentally overlooked by the witch many years ago.

A reminder of the weird and wonderful family movies that can be found if you look outwith the standard English language movies (with other titles of note being a French reworking of The Canterville Ghost and the absolutely delightful Zip and Zap movies), The Legend Of The Christmas Witch is a fun and lively holiday treat that manages to extend the slim premise to feature length without feeling overstretched.

The direction from Soavi has the light touch required for the material, working from the script by Nicola Guaglianone. The mix of child characters supply some extra drama in the first half (with one main character being bullied by some of the others), but we are never too far away from a bit of magic being shown. And it helps that the witch looks amusingly horrible, a proper stereotypical witch you wouldn’t imagine baking cookies and having treats for nice kids.

Cortellesi is a good lead, very pleasant and sweet in normal human form and, well, equally nice in witch form, which is juxtaposed with her witchy appearance. Fresi is an over the top villain, one of those characters who has more ego and resources than actual intelligence or power. The rest of the cast are okay, although few really stand out. That is a shame, there was a chance to make the individual youngsters more memorable, but that doesn’t happen. Francesco Mura is the victim of the bully, so he at least has a better story arc, and Fausto Maria Sciarappa is enjoyable as the seemingly blissfully ignorant boyfriend of Miss Paolo.

There’s a nice lore around the main character, based on the Italian legend, and an effective mix of twinkly Christmas lights and slightly darker atmosphere, making this an entertaining and unusual viewing option for the season. It isn’t great, remaining just a bit too slight and inconsequential once you get to the end, but it is good family fun (for those happy to read the subtitles, although a dubbed version is also available).

7/10

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Dead By Dawn 2018: Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)

From my Flickfeast.co.uk review. Which may already be familiar to some.

AKA Cemetary Man.

Dellamorte Dellamore is a zombie movie, but it’s one unlike any other I can think of. It is, in fact, a perfect zombie movie to show someone who thinks that all zombie movies are basically the same shambling gorefest, from one film to the next.

Based on the novel by Tiziano Sclavi, director Michele Soavi crafts a masterpiece of existentialist horror, helped by writer Gianni Romoli and a pitch-perfect lead performance from Rupert Everett. The fact that the lovely Anna Falchi is also here, bewitching the male gaze with her consumate loveliness, is also a big plus.

Everett plays Francesco Dellamorte, aka the cemetery man. He looks after the dead. More importantly, he takes care of the dead when they rise up again, on the seventh night after their death. His existence is a lonely one, with most of his time spent in the cemetery in the company of his assistant, Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro). Gnaghi can’t really speak more than one word, and his placid, childlike nature makes him an ideal person to help Francesco and share in the secret duty carried out in the cemetery. Things start to become complicated when Francesco falls in love with a beautiful woman (Falchi), leading to events that will have him questioning his life and his role as a dealer of death.

Sarcastic, exhausted, unhinged, and desperate are the words that I would use to describe Francesco, and all of these traits are expressed perfectly in the performance from Everett (one I would be tempted to call a career-best). Hadji-Lazaro does well in his supporting role, especially in the moments that hint at his character not being half as dumb as he appears to be, and Falchi is so gorgeous that it doesn’t matter when she’s given the most bizarre character developments.

As good as they all are, however, the cast are really just pawns moved in place by Romoli and Soavi. The director provides a succession of gorgeous imagery, with the main cemetery design an absolute triumph, and the design of every shot is atypically artistic for this sort of fare. The dialogue isn’t always as smooth as it could be, but that’s not a problem when you start to get your head around the ideas being toyed with. Francesco can’t decide what is worse, the dead coming to life or the living who are just dying over time anyway, and he starts to create a moral quagmire for himself when he stops seeing much difference between the two. But don’t worry, all of this thoughtful existentialism comes without any loss to the actual zombie action and bloodshed.

I hope this review is enough of a push for anyone who has yet to see the movie, and I didn’t even mention the relationship that involves one main character and a decapitated head, the zombie biker sequence that echoes Psychomania, or the ending that is as brilliant as it is bizarre.

9/10 

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The Church (1989)

Directed by Michele Soavi, The Church is, allegedly, an official sequel to the Demons movies. I'm not sure who decided that, considering that it bears very little resemblance to those other films, beyond the superficial similarities (e.g. some people in a building, and some demons causing problems).

The plot is much more reminiscent of Prince Of Darkness, dealing with a group of people in a church who are unfortunate enough to witness something truly evil arising. Perhaps. There's a priest (Hugh Quarshie) who might be able to help good triumph over any demonic attack, a couple of scholarly, but not old and dull, folks (Tomas Arana and Barbara Cupisti) who might also be able to help, if they're not too busy making eyes at one another and putting themselves in potential danger, and there's a young girl (Asia Argento) who knows a secret way in and out of the church that might just prove useful at some point.

The strangest thing about The Church is that it feels so dull, despite the fact that so much wonderful imagery is thrown around in the second half of the movie. There's a decent amount of gore, some real nastiness, and an air of sleaziness that fans of Italian horror should enjoy. This is the sort of movie in which you can feel the clammy presence oozing from every dark crevice of the featured building while also feeling the hot, uncomfortable looks that certain characters give to others as they come under the influence of evil.

Quarshie is pretty solid in his role, while Arana and Cupisti both make for decent potential leads until they're somewhat sidelined in the third act. Argento doesn't have to stretch herself, and is just fine, while genre fave Giovanni Lombardo Radice also joins in with the fun, accompanied by Feodor Chaliapin Jr, Antonella Vitale and Robert Caruso, among others.

Soavi's direction is as fluid and stylish as usual, and the screenplay (by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, and Soavi, as well as a few other helpers) tries to set everything up seriously, but makes the whole thing just that little bit absurd. The opening sequence alone feels like an outtake from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, and that's before you get to the scenes that show people talking about the history of the church and what discoveries might be made there AKA the laughably clumsy exposition moments.

But there's gore, death, lust, a score that uses Goblin, Philip Glass, Keith Emerson and Fabio Pignatelli, and some memorable imagery. Which is often all you need from these movies.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Church-Hugh-Quarshie/dp/B000TZJCMS/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411850939&sr=1-1&keywords=the+church