Deep Red (Profondo Rosso)

[zomgmouse]

that's one of my most memorable scenes from the film too. helps that the house itself is a gorgeous bit of decay

[greenman]

Those kinds of scenes really do suit UHD very well too I would say, someone exploring an old decaying house with lots of detail with a torch, the film within a film bits of Demons 1 & 2 look very nice as well as does Fulci's House by the Cemetery.

It definately helps a lot that Goblin come up with not one or two but three really good themes, the main one, the up tempo killer theme and the mysterious exploring one.

[greenman]

-

[Crenners]

Those kinds of scenes really do suit UHD very well too I would say, someone exploring an old decaying house with lots of detail with a torch, the film within a film bits of Demons 1 & 2 look very nice as well as does Fulci's House by the Cemetery.

It definately helps a lot that Goblin come up with not one or two but three really good themes, the main one, the up tempo killer theme and the mysterious exploring one.

Yeah, totally agree on the UHD suiting this film (and Argento) very well. Just rewatched the Synapse 4K of Suspiria again and fuck me, that's incredible. Will start a separate thread.

Also totally agree with the range of excellent themes. I don't know which is my favourite but whenever any music kicked in during my second watch of Deep Red, I was grinning and nodding. Again, thinking about Suspiria, it's amazing how that soundtrack is way further out there, more experimental and... I'll save it for the thread!

[zomgmouse]

Watched Argento's American film today, Trauma. It's not amazing but there's some really good moments and the camerawork is impressive. Argento's daughter Asia is the lead in this and she's pretty good - though the standout is Piper Laurie who steals the little screen time she gets (also a nice Brad Dourif cameo). And it does manage to maintain a rather sinister and creepy atmosphere throughout, there's grisly garottings, spooky séances, meandering mental patients. Overall a pleasant surprise, was expecting trash (though the moment I started typing this the film started going downhill - last third or so).

[petercussing]

Yeah, Trauma is pretty good, one of his less essential films, though i love the murder device in it. Defo worth watching, esp. to just see what him doing a U.S. film is like and is still in his purple patch.

I've only seen it like 3 times and 2 were aaaages ago. I think i'll give it and Stendahl a watch this weekend.

I was thinking that Crenmaster gets to have the fantastic disappointment of watching Mother of Tears if he takes this to the full Argento watching extreme.

I seem to remember The Card Player being ooookay-ish, can anyone back me up on this? I've only seen it once. Defo had the stnk of "this guy is getting old enough to not get modern stuff" on it with the webcam stuff. Must watch that again.

Has anyone been brave enough to watch his Draclia 3d film? I couldn't bring myself to watch Giallo either after M.O.T., has anyone watched that?

[Egyptian Feast]

I seem to remember The Card Player being ooookay-ish, can anyone back me up on this?

Sure. It looks ugly as fuck like all his films of the 2000s, but it is pretty ooookay-ish. The very definition of a 5/10 film.

Has anyone been brave enough to watch his Draclia 3d film? I couldn't bring myself to watch Giallo either after M.O.T., has anyone watched that?

It's terrible, but quite funny, so much better than Giallo, which has literally nothing to offer. I wish I'd seen it in 3-D. I bet that bit with the giant preying mantis looks exquisite.

[Egyptian Feast]

I was thinking that Crenmaster gets to have the fantastic disappointment of watching Mother of Tears if he takes this to the full Argento watching extreme.

I rewatched that again a few months back and wrote this about it in the non-new films thread:

Mother of Tears (2007) Oh dear...where to start with this delirious piece of shit? Dario Argento's belated follow-up to Inferno crashed like a ballet student through a stained glass window on original release and was regarded by most as further proof, if it were needed, that this master of horror and suspense had truly lost it. It's predecessor was reappraised years after its muted release, is this too a misunderstood classic? Haha, no. Good lord, no.

When a coffin with a mysterious box strapped to it is dug up outside a monastery, a Monsignor comes over all faint on seeing the contents and sends them to a museum for urgent inspection by Asia Argento and an extremely unfortunate woman. When Asia steps out of the room for a dictionary, the extremely unfortunate woman is set upon by a bunch of bastards in black robes, led by an evil monkey, who ram the medieval torture instrument known as the pear of anguish into her gob, then throttle her with her own guts (please read in Ted Maul voice). It turns out the opening of the box has awakened the last of the Three Mothers - Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears - which is very bad news for humanity. A wave of murders, suicides and paggas sweeps Rome. The useless male lead is grinned at madly by a Siobhan Fahey impersonator. Goth hen parties start flooding into the city, acting lairy in railway stations and making massive tits of themselves. It's obvious the fall of man is at hand and the second age of witches upon us. The total breakdown of society is mainly conveyed by men fighting in car parks, first in little apocalyptic mayhem montages, then in the background of later scenes, which would make for a good drinking game.

Criticising a Dario Argento film for its over the top violence feels like bitching about endless psychedelic dance routines in Buzby Berkeley musicals, but the murder sequences are so ludicrously extreme they go from horrifying to Monty Python in an instant. The first murder is truly brutal and nasty even by Argento's standards, perhaps in an attempt to outdo the opening of Suspiria, but quickly goes way too far and just becomes silly. Most of the violent scenes are actually very funny due to the amateurishness and edgelordiness, but one nastily homophobic sequence in which a lesbian couple are punished for helping Asia (and enjoying a 5-second sex scene two minutes earlier) is just unpleasant and not in a good way. 

Although it is awful and embarrassing, it's by far the most entertaining Argento film of the past twenty years. It's never boring, unlike much of his post-Opera work, and there are so many poor artistic decisions and severe lapses in taste it provided constant entertainment and the two biggest laughs* of any movie I've watched recently, so I'm not going to hold its complete lack of quality against it. What I will hold against it is Argento's decision to completely drop the vibrant colours, Bavaesque lighting and splendid art deco set design of the previous two installments in favour of the 'horrible looking piece of TV movie shit' aesthetic that made his other films of the 2000s so forgettable. This film could have been as big a piece of shit as it is now, but if it had looked and sounded anything like the earlier films, it would have been hailed as a return to form instead of regarded by many as his worst movie. Wrongly, I might add, having seen his previous few and next two movies.

I am looking forward to his new film Black Glasses, mainly because I thought he'd never make another after a crowdfunder I contributed to years back for the Iggy Pop starring The Sandman led nowhere, but being realistic it's probably going to be absolute shit. Hopefully at least better than Giallo (his actual worst).

*

Spoiler alert

The first was when this fantastically obnoxious Hot Topic witch who has been stalking Asia around a railway station corners her in a train toilet and has her head bashed in repeatedly by the sliding door. The customary popping eyeball and the sub-Troma smushed head effect were utterly delightful and elicited cheers. The second was when the pathetic CGI ghost of Daria Nicolodi (her final role, lol) grappled with a spellbound corpse and dragged him into a portal to...I dunno, Hell maybe? I was laughing too much to make any sense of it, but the amusement carried me through to the (laughably rubbish) ending.

[close]

[petercussing]

It's terrible, but quite funny, so much better than Giallo, which has literally nothing to offer. I wish I'd seen it in 3-D. I bet that bit with the giant preying mantis looks exquisite.

Cheers for that. I thought you might be one with the answers for that being a horror lord.

Oooh, might give it a watch if it's that hilariously stupid and pretend it's not him, but not bother with Giallo. 

Fingers crossed, but with expectations of rubbish, for Black Glasses.

Lolz, Mother of Tears is kind of an apt title for how sad it made me. The cg ghost mum was totes star wars and it was kinda harry potter with her learning of witching too. Hella sexy witches up in that piece, too, like it was halloween near a collage campus.

I've tried to like it very hard to make myself like it but i just can't. I'll give it another go sometime soon i'm sure as i'm a gluteon for punishers.

[zomgmouse]

Oh yeah The Mother of Tears is by far the biggest flop of his I've seen. Definitely still looking forward his new one though. Also he features as an actor in Gaspar Noé's latest film Vortex which seems like it is invoking Haneke's Amour a little bit.

[Crenners]

For the love of god, how many times, man, watch Phenomena next

Just popping in to say hiya mate this is an amazing film, thank you.

Real nightmare logic vibe, floaty and weird and unsettling and gross and then a mad crescendo of holy fuck. Love that ambient friggin flute jam drifting through the Swiss green hills while Argento's kid gets legged by a nutter. Love the incongruous and untimely use of hard Rock, loads of bonkers stuff like that throughout, ludicrous decisions but great results. Call me an apologist, I'll take it, I almost never apologised for anything in my entire life! 😂

Pleasance is great, kind of a clever clogs but a soothing presence. Accent has a life of its own. Connelly is perfect, petulant but also single-minded and more ethereal than vulnerable, maybe because she's loaded, got that kind of rich kid expectation that everything will work out for her - and it does! If you count gargling litres of maggies and corpse blubber. She's also got a mad dress sense, white tie over white massive blouse, white long skirt and patent nan brogues. Very dream logic clobber.

This look is also mad and exemplifies how cool the clothes are in Argento, even for a kid.



My favourite insane moment of the whole film was Daria's sheet of metal. Schlunk! :D

Thanks for the recommendation, that was great fun. Amazing film and one I imagine will only get better over time now I know what it is. I watched it a second time on the Arrow UHD and it looks bloody good, gorgeous upgrade.

Also watched Crystal Plumage and I really liked it. Another lovely looking Arrow UHD and a great soundtrack, pretty, a different vibe to Goblin and different to anything else I've heard from Morricone. Film seemed a little bit 'straight' even though I did find it atmospheric and enjoyed the pure mystery more than in any of the others I've seen. Normally, the identity of baddie/murderer/witch isn't especially important, it's everything that happens en route and how exactly you get there. This one I was pulled along more by curiosity for the original puzzle.

Got Cat O' next, just turned up in the post, another Arrow job. Heard Tenebrae is next on their list for UHD if hints are to be believed!

Hope everyone is well. Catch you round.

[Noodle Lizard]

I haven't seen Profondo Rosso in a while, but I watched Opera again pretty recently and enjoyed it more than ever.

[ImmaculateClump]

Hope everyone is well. Catch you round.

Play Z-Warp!

[Crenners]

Play Z-Warp!

I did actually give it a go but I find that style hard to read, I've played a few things with a similar chunky look and I struggle with it. I'm sure plenty of people find my faves unreadable. Just a visual processing thing. Looks really polished, though, and I like the bomb mechanics.

I was only popping in to follow up with the Phenomena rec but hope all's well. I'm sure I'll be back at some point.

[ImmaculateClump]

Looks really polished, though

Well, there's a huge problem with boss milking currently, but hopefully it'll get patched.

I love it chunkified. The chunkier, the better, I say.
Barrage Fantasia, Ten and Till, your lass.

That's a shame you can't read it :( I can see why though, it's not just chunky, it's like everything is written in a bold font and the letters are overlapping each other, there's lots of flashing too.