Two Evil Eyes (1990)

Directors: George A. Romero, Dario Argento

Notable Cast: Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, Bingo O’Malley, Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Potter, John Amos, Sally Kirkland, Kim Hunter, Tom Atkins

As a horror fan, there a few things I’m a sucker for. Well, it’s a lot of things. For the sake of this review, it’s necessary to know four of them: Edgar Allen Poe, George Romero, Dario Argento, and anthologies. Combining these four pieces into one film should be a recipe for success. Going into Two Evil Eyes, that’s the mindset I adopted. Particularly when Blue Underground gives the film some incredibly lavish treatment in this latest 3-Disc Blu Ray set. It’s something of a shame that it’s a film that I haven’t seen until this point, if anything for the four reasons above, but lukewarm reactions from a lot of my cinephile friends created hesitation in me to leap into the film. Maybe the idea of it is better than the actual product.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird, and the Wild: Dario Argento

*The Good, the Bad, the Weird, and the Wild is a series of articles that will focus on one particular person, for example, directors, actors, producers, etc., that have had a strong career in genre, cult, and arthouse cinema. In these articles, our writers are asked to choose four films from their filmography. They will choose one of their favorites (the good,) one of their least favorites (the bad,) their choice for the oddest film (the weird,) and a fourth film which will be their ‘wild card’ pick. These articles are meant to be a way of discussing the work of these directors in perhaps a new and fun way for our readers - and our writers. Please keep an open mind, discuss, share, and send in your own suggestions for directors for us to cover. 

To say that Dario Argento is the godfather to much of modern horror cinema is an understatement. Not only does it make an obvious reach for an Italian film joke (see what I did there) but it also limits his influence, as Argento's lush color palette, experimental scores, and surreal scripts laid the groundwork for James Wan's surrealistic grit and Mandy's (Panos Cosmatos) neon-pastel colorscape, along with numerous other modern classics that we don't have time to discuss here. Would this have been better if I had written it at the time of the new Suspiria release? Absolutely. Did I do that? Not at all. You see, I have an embarrassing confession for you, the reader: I only had a cursory understanding of Argento prior to starting this exercise. I considered myself a horror critic but hadn't yet paid homage to the giallo infused blood god that is Argento. When Matt (our EIC) assigned this to me, I had no idea what I was about to get into. 

With that said; here are my picks for the directorial review of Dario Argento, master of neon and surrealism. 

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Director: Dario Argento

Notable Cast: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Renato Romano, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Pino Patti, Gildo Di Marco, Rosita Torosh

At this point it has been over 40 years since Dario Argento’s debut film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was released. The film is iconic. It establishes a lot of the themes and style that Argento would utilize throughout the first portion of his career, it kickstarted Italy’s obsession with the niche elements of the giallo film in the 70s, and it continues to showcase just how effectively it was made to this day through the massive fanbase it has accrued. For the most part, everything has been said that needs to be said about the film in the cult cinema community and there are plenty of folks out there that have spent a brilliant amount of time embracing and celebrating this film. Like the folks over at Arrow Video. Not only is this film still iconic, but it has never looked better or received a more heroic package than the latest Blu Ray and DVD combo pack released by Arrow Video. If you want to save some time reading the rest of this review, then I will just say this: buy The Bird with the Crystal Plumage now and buy this version of it. If you are curious to why I say that then please, read on.

Deep Red (1975)

Director: Dario Argento

Notable Cast: David Hemmings, Daria Nocolodi, Maha Meril, Clara Calamai, Gabriele Lavia, Eros Pagni, Giuliana Calandra, Piero Mazzinghi, Glauco Mauri

A couple months ago, it was brought to our attention that despite our continued efforts to cover cult cinema – and my own personal quest to dig into more giallo this year,  that we have not given Dario Argento nearly enough love on this site. Low and behold, this sentiment is true and looking at the various coverage we have developed we have not given Mr. Argento nearly enough coverage. For cult cinephiles, this is probably not an issue because his work is widely known and his innovations as a director in the 70s and 80s have made him one of the cornerstones of genre film making. However, upon request, let’s take a look back at some of his films. For starters, I decided it was high time to go back and revisit one of my favorite Argento films, Deep Red. While Argento would be known for a lot of various things throughout his career, Deep Red is perhaps one of his strongest and most cohesive pictures. At its foundations, Deep Red works as a murder mystery, but it’s the director’s style and often nightmarish moments that define the film and give it a narrative life worthy of much of the praise it has received decades down the road. Deep Red is a tight and effective film that balances a lot of smaller pieces into a much bigger film whose whole is greater than its parts.