While not his best giallo-- it's several marks under his better ones, like Deep Red, Tenebre, Phenomena, Four Flies On Grey Velvet-- this movie entertained me and gave me a few chills and cringes. The murder scenes are not particularly original, but they are definitely cringe-worthy. A face gets smashed over and over again against a wall. A woman gets repeatedly stabbed in the mouth with an English Horn. Etc.
Max Von Sydow, as the retired and senile homicide detective, is a bit of a quirky character but I didn't find him wrongly cast here, as one reviewer stated on Amazon. I enjoyed his odd one-sided conversations with his pet bird, Marcello.
While I was 90% certain of who the murderer was early on, there was still enough ambiguity in the characters to throw some doubt there. His camera work was, as is typical for Argento, inventive and phantasmagoric. The camera swirls in and out, revolves around scenes, moves in and out. The lighting is also strategically dim in all the right places.
The ending was a bit goofy, and the murderer's tell-all confession before his death reminded me of a bad impression of Matt Damon for some reason. Bad dubbing and sometimes silly dialogue, almost a trademark of Argento films, didnt distract me enough from the interesting mystery story involving a murderous dwarf obsessed with a nursery rhyme and plenty of believable red herrings.
And a nod for Goblin's score as well. Personally I rank this score in the top 3 scores for Argento films, after Deep Red and Suspiria.
Max Von Sydow, as the retired and senile homicide detective, is a bit of a quirky character but I didn't find him wrongly cast here, as one reviewer stated on Amazon. I enjoyed his odd one-sided conversations with his pet bird, Marcello.
While I was 90% certain of who the murderer was early on, there was still enough ambiguity in the characters to throw some doubt there. His camera work was, as is typical for Argento, inventive and phantasmagoric. The camera swirls in and out, revolves around scenes, moves in and out. The lighting is also strategically dim in all the right places.
The ending was a bit goofy, and the murderer's tell-all confession before his death reminded me of a bad impression of Matt Damon for some reason. Bad dubbing and sometimes silly dialogue, almost a trademark of Argento films, didnt distract me enough from the interesting mystery story involving a murderous dwarf obsessed with a nursery rhyme and plenty of believable red herrings.
And a nod for Goblin's score as well. Personally I rank this score in the top 3 scores for Argento films, after Deep Red and Suspiria.
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