I used to be planning on taking a woman I had been flirting with in my Senior Class to see the film Suspiria when it opened in 1977.
All I knew about it was it was a horror movie with Joan Bennett from TV’s Darkish Shadows however this lady had been a DS fan, too, so she agreed to go. One thing occurred and we ended up not going, although, and after Commencement, I by no means noticed her once more.
I by no means noticed Suspiria, both.
Properly, not till about 35 years later, anyway. It was my first Dario Argento film—my first giallo film—and have become an instantaneous favourite.
Since then, I’ve seen quite a lot of the Italian filmmaker’s motion pictures. They’re recognized for being subtle, artsy, gory, generally with uncommon titles, and at all times with stylish musical scores. The Chicken with the Crystal Plumage, 4 Flies on Gray Velvet, Tenebrae, and now, for his first new film in a decade, we get…Darkish Glasses.
Okay, so it doesn’t sound notably scary.
The title refers to the truth that the movie’s protagonist, a name lady, is blinded early on within the film and thus wears darkish glasses…which she truly already did anyway, although, for causes I by no means fairly understood. She has a phenomenal seeing-eye canine and, for a lot of the image, a seeing-eye Chinese language boy, too.
Each sidekicks turn out to be useful when she finds herself stalked by a killer, somebody she had inadvertently set on her personal path for causes that solely make sense so as to additional the plot. When it comes out late within the movie, it’s virtually laughable. The over-the-top violence that in a short time follows the revelation truly IS laughable, and all of it results in a slightly unlikely, anticlimactic, and oddly forlorn ending.
What works is the ambiance Darkish Glasses units up, with a real giallo really feel. There’s some hanging cinematography and a rating that’s each fashionable and but remembers acquainted Italian horror scores of the ‘70s. There’s some token nudity (one other staple of this kind of image) and a bucket or two of notably purple blood.
Better of all is the efficiency of Ilenia Pastorelli as maybe essentially the most resourceful film blind woman since Audrey Hepburn in 1967’s much more atmospheric Wait Till Darkish. The actress demonstrates extra depth than the position even requires as she struggles each to simply accept and excel in her new circumstances. Of necessity, she catches on to the whole lot too shortly, however the depth of her performing had simply the proper stage for me.
Sadly, that’s not sufficient to advocate the movie. There truly appears the germ of a very good plot in there someplace however, sadly, the growing older grasp has given viewers a meandering opening, then simply bits and items of acquainted style tropes, all main as much as a irritating “pleased” ending.
If Darkish Glasses proves to be Dario Argento’s closing movie, at age 82, it isn’t going to harm his legacy any. However in case you haven’t but seen the person at his finest, could I like to recommend 1977’s Suspiria?
Darkish Glasses is at present streaming on Shudder.
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Produced by Conchita Airoldi, Laurentina Guidotti,
Brahim Chioua, Noémie Devide, Vincent Maraval
Written by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Carlo Lucarelli
Directed by Dario Argento
Starring Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Andrea Gherpelli, Mario Pirrello,
Maria Rosaria Russo, Gennaro Iaccarino, Xinyu Zhang
