MC
Marco Castellini
•An American writer witnesses the assault of a woman in an art gallery and turns into a detective to discover the culprit, convinced that it is the same maniac who recently killed several young women… Directorial debut of the great Dario Argento who, already with this first film, shows us all his immeasurable talent and "inaugurates" a new genre, the horror giallo, which will be very popular in the seventies. A classic and perfect giallo-style plot enriched by excellent murder sequences that, contrary to the practice of gialli seen until then, are filmed with an abundance of details and built with the intention of scaring. But the element of greatest novelty that Argento introduces in this first film is the brilliant "reinvention" of the subjective, for the first time the viewer witnesses the murders through the eyes of the killer and not as a "third" foreign person, thus increasing the involvement: the scene is not watched, it is "participated" in. As in the splendid "Sei donne per l'Assassino" by Bava, the killer becomes the true protagonist of the film, a dark and threatening presence, undefined and capable of striking anyone at any moment, a sort of "Boogeyman" that Argento portrays as a dark silhouette, with a large hat pushed down on his head, whose appearance means Death. In perfect harmony with the direction of the Master, the music composed by the great Ennio Morricone. Released quietly, initially only in the cinemas of the capital, the film became a box office hit throughout Italy thanks, above all, to word of mouth. An absolute must-see cult film.
