Hello ladies, gentlemen, and creatures lurking in the shadows! This month, October, is a favorite among horror fans, such as myself. My goal for the next 31 days is to share with you the scariest and best of the genre. The films will range from old school classics to modern day gorefests (they won't be in any particular order). So scout these movies out, grab a bag of popcorn (or a blood bag) and enjoy!
Opera (1987) Dir. Dario Argento
Dario Argento is the guy who many horror fans call the "father of italian horror" (making the true original of italian horror, Mario Bava, the appointed "grandfather"). He helped create the subgenre of "Giallo" horror films (the english translation of 'giallo' means "yellow," due to old italian mystery novels having distinguished yellow covers), which were basically Italian slasher movies from the 70's-80's that often dealt with gruesome, intricate death sequences and hot Italian women being strangled - in Argento's work typically by the hands of an unseen killer. His films are nearly always thin on plot but rich in atmosphere. His most famous work would probably be 1977's Suspiria, but my personal favorite is Opera, which is what many consider to be his last "good" film.
Argento throughout his career never created movies with snappy dialogue or "deep" characters or even a plot that felt coherent - but somehow his films find a way to grab you and keep you absorbed. Opera has a basic story: a young opera singer replaces the lead in Macbeth after she has a fatal accident. Soon after, various people in the opera's cast and crew also start dying (more specifically being murdered) by a man with black leather gloves that we only see from point-of-view shots (although it's not much of a mystery who the killer is if you've seen the film). That plot may seem basic - but it's how the killer commits his atrocities that's both terrifying and nauseating. The killer's "hook" in Opera is that he ties the main girl up and places needles directly under her top eyelids - meaning that every time she blinks she gets poked by the needles and in effect forces her to watch the murders of her fellow cast members. That's some pretty sick stuff!
Argento's films, love them or hate them, feature some great examples of cinematography and Opera is no exception. From the beginning of the movie, we see the opera stage from the point of view of crows (birds being another reoccurring motif in his movies), and it's as if our point of view is as limitless as the bird's motion. It's well-shot throughout and in essence the combination of the camerawork, the simplistic yet original scenes of violence, and a soundtrack featuring sweeping classic opera tunes mixed with the music of Claudio Simonetti (of the great Italian rock group Goblin!) make it a title worthy of a midnight screening. While it definitely isn't the best film during this "Month of Terror" and it probably won't ever be considered a "classic," as someone who doesn't like things in or around my eyes this movie struck a chord with me. Plus crows make anything scary - just ask Hitchcock.
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