Review of Giallo (2010) by Dan G — 18 Nov 2009

Oh, dear! Poor Dario Argento just keeps having flop after flop recently. Even though Mother of Tears was a giddy and gory romp, it failed to impress many people who came in expecting to see the old auteur back in form. Since 1987's Opera, Argento has had less hits than misses and I'm pretty sure why. The scripts are terrible. Not that Argento's earlier scripts were really much better, but it seems like he's just getting lazy these days. Take Argento's most recent film, Giallo, for instance. The story reeks of "been there, done that" syndrome and has very little to offer genre fans that they haven't already seen before. Instead of inject the film with the baroque style he's known for, Argento feels content to stick to his made of TV visuals that have been haunting his films since the 90's.

In place of stylistic murders, we have gory, unpleasant torture scenes a la Saw or Hostel which feel awfully out of place for a gialli film. The actors, who are normally excellent, feel stilted here except for Adrien Brody who really seems to be trying hard here. His backstory is especially interesting and probably the best part of the film.

The pace certainly never lags much, but there's just not much of a reason to watch it. Hardcore Italian horror fans or Argento lovers might find a few things to enjoy, but it's mostly another silly, tame, Americanized "thriller" for the masses and even they wouldn't enjoy it much.