Identifiably Argento - “Inferno” (1980)
Italian giallo is the most operatic of horror cinema sub-genres. At its best, the genre is comprised of works that are unsettling at a deep level, characterized by hyperstylization, and often, characters who read less as people than somnambulists caught in waking nightmares, aware of unavoidable fates. The names Mario Bava and Dario Argento loom largest over the landscape with the latter still active at 82. Of the two, I prefer Bava’s work overall. He was more disciplined and assured in his storytelling. While many of the elements mentioned above are present in his work, he did seem to care more about his characters than most, and I should hasten to note that Bava also worked in other genres, from sword and sandal epics to spy fiction a la James Bond (“Danger Diabolik” is so many kinds of awesome). Argento, by contrast, is almost pure opera. “Suspiria” and “Bird with the Crystal Plumage” are usually regarded as his masterpieces, but I would add a couple of others to the...