I was the guest victim of an online chat recently and the question of my favorite horror director came up. The fast pace of a chatroom is dizzying to me, and I replied that David Cronenberg was my favorite. He’s a good choice, no doubt, but upon further reflection I’d have to go with another filmmaker. Dario Argento.
I first became aware of Argento back in the 80’s when I read about him in Fangoria. I believe that Tim Lucas’s invaluable resource, Video Watchdog, had an article about the various VHS releases of Argento movies. The descriptions of the films were so intriguing to me and I was desperate to see them. The first I rented was a butchered edition of Deep Red (Profondo Rosso). Even though the many cuts rendered the movie to near incomprehension, I still loved it. I got all the versions I could find. Creepers (Phenomena), Unsane (Tenebre), etc.
At the time, it seemed like every horror lover was a Dario Argento fan and I wondered how many REALLY dug his movies. They really aren’t for all viewers. Nowadays, I hear more and more people saying that they don’t really dig Dario and that’s cool. I admit that many of his movies defy logic or even comprehension. Argento has been accused of sacrificing plot for visuals and that’s a charge with a lot of justification. Still, I think the movies of Dario Argento, especially when he’s at his best as with Susperia, Profondo Rosso, Tenebre or The Stendhal Syndrome, is on a par with any other director in the world. As far as I’m concerned, Mario Bava invented giallo films, but Dario Argento perfected the art.
I know, some of Dario’s more recent movies leave a lot to be desired. The only truly awful one, to me, is his version of Phantom of the Opera. This wretched production looks more like a Charles Band film than one by the Italian master of shocking thrills. Trauma isn’t as good as most of Dario’s films, but he made it with crews he was unfamiliar with and he did so here in America instead of Italy. His most recent is the average The Card Player. I’ve heard that the once great Italian horror movie industry is dead and I think he is using TV crews and rushed schedules. I think this is a fucking crime. Dario Argento has shown genius in many of his movies and he deserves to work with the best crews in the world.
Thankfully, we have a wealth of great DVDs that showcase Argento’s movies in the way they were meant to be seen. Anchor Bay has done numerous beautiful transfers of his films and if you haven’t seen Blue Underground’s striking edition of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, you simply haven’t seen the film. Not really. Sadly, Troma, the ghetto of film distribution, handled my personal favorite Argento, The Stendhal Syndrome. Not surprisingly, it is a murky, cropped, disrespectful DVD.
I’ve heard him called a hack, a cinematic sadist and a madman, but those of us that love the films of Dario Argento call him The Maestro and we’ll watch anything that has his name in it.
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