An English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal hatchet murder of his neighbor, a psychic. With the help of a tenacious young reporter he tries to discover the killer using very unconventional methods -- and the two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia, savagery and violence. Read more
| Starring | David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Meril |
|---|---|
| Director | Dario Argento |
| Genres | Horror |
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An English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal hatchet murder of his neighbor, a psychic. With the help of a tenacious young reporter he tries to discover the killer using very unconventional methods -- and the two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia, savagery and violence.
| Starring | David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Meril, Eros Pagni, Giuliana Calandra, Piero Mazzinghi, Glauco Mauri, Clara Calamai, Aldo Bonamano |
|---|---|
| Director | Dario Argento |
| Studio | PLATINUM MEDIA DISTRIBUTION |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 3 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Horror |
| Language | English |
| Dubbed | English |
| Subtitles | English |
| Released | DVD: 14 Jun 2002 Production year: 1975 |
| Format | DVD |
This film plodded along at a snail's pace, even *after* I resorted to watching vast chunks of it in ffwd. It's only 100 minutes long, (not 123 as declared on the label,) but there's about enough story to fill 30 of them. The rest is just padding. Distinctively shot in Argento's inimitable (interminable) style, the movie has the air of a 1970s Soviet-Bloc TV drama. So, if you like that sort of thing, go right ahead. I, however, have better things to do.
This highly rated classic horror/thiller was a disappointment to me.
It certainly lacked the classic feel of any Hitchcock or The Omen, and its brutality has gone from being extreme in the 70's to run of the mill these days.
The sound syching was quite bad - I don't think that the Englishman's lips matched the audio (though I imagine he was acting in Italian) and he sounded too much like Mr Ben to take him seriously.
Release of a DVD in this form is criminal - why not have subtitles (if only for deaf people) and both Italian and English soundtracks, this isn't VHS!
Back to the content - the plot twists aren't particularly surprising and I was irritated by the way the English pianist (Marcus Daly) goes around like some sort of Sam Spade - breaking into places, entering sealed crimescenes, finding bodies (and not reporting them), and even tearing pages from library books.
If this is one of Argeno's best I'll probably skip the others.