Up until this point my only exposure to the work of Dario Argento was from his film Deep Red. Considered an early peak in his career, I recall finding it a bit tedious and predictable, although I will confess that it contained (if memory serves me correctly) one of the greatest opening sequences to ever grace a horror film. Considering that Agento also wrote Once Upon a Time in the West which contains one of the greatest opening scenes ever to exist in a western, should I have expected any less?

Obviously with a figure as revered as Argento I had to include him in my extended investigation into the horror genre this month, so I picked two of the more ubiquitous titles in his catalogue: Opera and Suspiria as a fitting, if brief, retrospective of his work. I began with Opera partly because it arrived first, but also because it ostensibly appeared the more promising of the two. As usual, my initial expectations proved unreliable.

Opera (1987)

Opera opens with some of the most impressively grand shots of any horror film, sweeping elegantly across the expansive opera hall and ominously framing the ravens that litter it. I drew in closer, relishing every shot and greatly anticipating what was to follow. I wish I could say Argento sustained that majestic tone, but after the awe of the opening half fades away, we settle into a predictable and problematic slasher film. Not that Argento pursues his ultimate goal sans enthusiasm, but he treads such familiar ground that the film stood little chance at transcending its shortcomings – especially when it appears the director himself conspired against his own film by inserting some mind boggling breaks in style that don’t simply upset the pacing of the film, but threaten to bring the entire project to a screeching halt every time they manifest.

The cardinal flaw in the film involves his gratuitous use of heavy metal music during the drawn out murder sequences. Some sorry sap finds a knife jammed through his throat and suddenly Ratt blares in the background. I racked my brain for hours attempting to construct a reasonable explanation for this decision, but beyond concluding that Argento purposefully deigned to create a campy tone, I could think of no plausible validation. Of course, it could have just been another chance for him to insert music by the Goblins into his film – at least that would have been bearable – but this music belongs to the most degrading style of 80s rock (namely of the hair band variety), instantly dating the movie and severely tarnishes any prestige it might have possessed.

In addition, had I shut the film off ten minutes before it actually concluded, it would have been at no loss to the intelligibility of the story since Argento tacks on one of the most unnecessary and disastrous codas imaginable, destroying any attempt at legitimizing what preceded it. Not that any of this matters anyway, since ten years earlier Argento had already perfected his style with Suspiria, but when one considers the potential hidden away in the recesses of this clumsy film, it can be truly frustrating.

Suspiria (1977)

I can’t lavish enough praise upon this gem of a horror film. This is what you get when you cross something like Friday the 13th with West Side Story, or, more accurately, Tokyo Drifter since Argento uses the same giddy color scheme as Suzuki, splashing the entire frame with hallucinatory tints. Even if the plot feels a bit thin, what it lacks in plausibility it more than makes up for in sheer beauty. To be sure, the film is still quite violent (though nowhere near the same level as Opera) but never has blood and gore appeared so gorgeous.

However, colors alone don’t make the film – at best it would only result in ambitious eye-candy – thankfully Argento wields his camera with such fluid perfection and an eye for composition that he bestows upon his film that legendary status it entirely deserves. In effect, it doesn’t differ all that much in its approach to what makes a horror film as Once Upon a Time in the West did to the western. Both films operate against their respective conventions. Whereas Once Upon a Time utilized extreme close-ups rather than spacious landscape shots, Suspiria, for the most part, discards the close-up in favor of medium shots that open up the whole environment.

Entire scenes become stories within themselves as the viewer’s eye darts across the image in a futile attempt to absorb the limitless beauty of the mise en scène. After watching a film this spellbinding, I’m considering a second look at Deep Red in hopes that my appreciation for the material has finally caught up. Ultimately, there’s a good chance that there will soon be more Argento films on the way for me.