OPERA (1987)

Another mind-blowing film that proves why Argento is called the unavoidable Master of Italian Horror cinema. He left no stones unturned to make is one of the most engrossing thrilling experience for his audience and used all his signature giallo elements in abundance and I must say this is one of the fast paced, taut and gripping horror that he has ever made. The film opens with ravens watching, disturbing the lead singer singing the opera of Verdi’s Macbeth. As soon as she left the stage, she met with an accident and died. The Macbeth opera becomes cursed affair even with replacing a new young girl and we witness the murders and slicing of throats in signature Argento psycopath.

It has some of the most innovative horror and torture traits- eyes kept open with needles to make the girl feel the horror, the affair with gold bracelet, a bullet through keyhole, a nightmare, poetic justice of ravens, POV shots and surrealistic images too. The idea of pins-under-the eyes torture device came from a joke of Argento himself. He said it would annoy him when people look away during the scary scenes in his films. He would jokingly suggest taping pins under people’s eyes so they couldn’t look away from his films. 

Besides this is one of the most gore and gross Argento where some of the frames are too heavy for common audience. The soul stirring opera is turned and ripped apart upside down to your ears and eyes to give you chilling and eerie horror. There are two things which are irritating in the film- the use of heavy metal background juxtaposed with western classical opera soundtrack and the absurd ending.

Must say one of his best works I’ve seen so far…highly recommended to horror/thriller or rather simply any Argento fans.

Ratings-7.5/10