I was surprised on how really good this film is. I'm a big Dario fan, so I was looking forward to seeing this. I thought it would be good, but it turned out to be the best in his "animal" trilogy, and you can see the direction he was going to take with his next horror film, Deep Red, one of Argento's masterpieces.
I agree, this was better than I expected it to be, but I think it is miles BETTER than "Profondo Rosso".
I've still to see "The Cat O' Nine Tails" as the version I bought on DVD is of such poor visual and audio that it is unwatchable. This Region 0 NTSC release is superb visually, though the audio is sometimes distorted at times.
The end scenes are very beautifully done, considering the age of the film, and it's so saddening to compare this with his most recent "Mother of Tears" schlock-a-thon.
There's Hitchcock worthy scenes in this film - that jokey bit in the odd "modern" funeral director's fair is a direct homage to Hitch.
A super film, only let down a bit by the poor score on Ennio Morricone's part - not his best hour by any means.
I haven't watched this one yet, but I have very thoroughly watched Profondo Rosso and Il Gatto a Nove Code. I would say Profondo Rosso is his best work if I had not seen Phenomena. Suspiria was going really lovely but the ending is unforgivable. For a moment there I thought I was watching Evil Dead. I could never imagine that to be anyone's best work.
But Il Gatto a Nove Code is very mediocre. There is almost nothing there which sticks out and makes you remember it through the days to come.
But that is just my opinion.
Totally disagree with just about everything you said here jockadoodle. I consider Profundo Rosso to be Argento's masterpiece, and I LOVE the score to this movie! Morricone seldom misses the mark! Different strokes...
shareI agree, I like this the best out of the "animal" trilogy. Suspiria and Opera are his to best films to me, though. But I love Deep Red as well. I actually got to see it on the big screen over the weekend.
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