Well, I was so excited about this movie! Last year, meeting Argento at the premier of Mother of Tears was amazing; the film was fantastic; loud, quirky, stylish, random, violent, erotic, dreamlike, - perfect. That was Mother of Tears. Giallo ....was.......just as brilliant, just as devil-may-care, just as funny, frightening, fantastic and two fingers in the air fabulous as Mother of Tears! I really enjoyed this, and yes, I count myself as a huge fan of the earlier movies - Suspiria of course, Sleepless, Phenomena (possibly my favourite), and I loved La Cinque Giornate, also Masters of Horror. As much as I worship films such as Suspiria, I don't think Argento should be trying to mimic such films, in 2009, - Suspiria for instance, is very much a 70s movie; it couldn't be remade today, at least not in the same way (I hope the remake doesn't try, but is along the vibe of Mother of Tears or Giallo). The fact is, like the films of Jess Franco, you either 'get' Argento - or you don't. To 'expect' another Deep Red or Suspiria is to deny the auteur his creative freedom. I don't want a retread or a rehash. To do that would kill the man and his movies. The fact that he is reinventing the genre and having fun (yes - very probably at the expense of his many fans!) is a fabulous kick in the teeth to convention, and the predictability of some horror films, especially once great directors trying to recapture their past glories by cloning their talents. Giallo made me jump twice. It made me cringe a few times. It made the two girls sitting next to me walk out when the lip-cutting scene came in (a masterstroke - so gruesome, yet you don't see a thing. Another kick in the teeth from Argento. Fabulous!). I thought, the make-up of our friend Yellow, was over the top, but I think, deliberately so. Argento isn't a fool - he knows the look he wants. For me, it's a nightmarish, trashy, unreal look, in the same way the entire movie (and Movie of Tears) has an unreal feel, as if inner demons in the mind of the director have become real, have risen up past barriers to creative freedom, and stuck that one finger up high in the air - a perfect "f*ck you" to the critics. Because, for a movie that references the genre that puts the killer to the fore, to relegate the villain to a level of quite perfect ridiculousness, is a wonderful and confrontational idea. To mix up scenes of extreme brutality, with a villain who comes across as just, well - weird! Is fun and frightening at the same time. Enough with the black leather clad knife wielding maniacs in the shadows (as much as I love 'em...) this villain is no more believable than Jigsaw, but exists at the same level - a random villain, a caricature, a nightmarish man made blood red cartoon, a dreamlike protagonist; the killer doesn't matter; the killer is a nightmarish, sick-minded, visualisation of unreality, and sick bloody fear, from Inspector Enzo's past. Yellow could be anyone. Anyone to Enzo. Anyone to Argento. Yes, there's a hint of film caricatures in this movie, from great American movies; in both Yellow and Enzo; it's like a dream of American cinema mixed up in one big bloody pulp. The fact Enzo talks, acts and doesn't take the world so seriously; in fact, acts like the world has nothing left to shock or surprise him, to me sums up the thoughts of a man traumatised by his past, seeing even killers as some kind of bizarre childlike nightmare, that he is trying to suppress - with humour, with sometimes unbelievable comments - "he understood" but in context, just the perfect response. Yellow is Enzo's past and his nightmares made real; but not in the reality you might expect; a kind of horrible visceral vision, bloodily childlike, this is a man who doesn't want to live in convention, wants to stick two fingers up to the world, wants to skulk in the basement shadows like a captured beast with beauty never too close, for fear she shall get her wings burnt (Yellow can do that, Yellow, although hidden, is not so hidden away as Enzo) ... you know, Enzo isn't so far removed from Argento himself. Or as he may like us to view him. Who knows? It's that stubbornness, that off-handedness, that meanness, that makes Argento such a masterful director and such a master of horror. Thank you Dario. There are fans out here that still "get" you. What a fabulous horror movie Giallo is. And thank you FrightFest for showing it.
damatotomato, London
damatotomato, London