Review of Sleepless (2001) by Camden N — 21 Jun 2008

The good news is that this is better than Phantom of the Opera. It's not as well-written or acted as The Card Player, nor is the photography as interesting but as a whole it's far more interesting and disturbing. The score by Goblin is also very good, except for a very awful piece of music when a bunch of dwarfs are being interrogate at a police station.

The worst part, for english-speaking viewers, is the dubbing. The only person who doesn't suffer in the dubbed version is Max Von Sydow (who did his own voice), whereas everyone else sounds like a cartoon character.

The gore effects also look pretty terrible at times, but it's hard to call that a flaw when they still manage to disturb me. The carpet-crawl sequence ends with a particularly disgusting (if fake-looking) surprise.

Overall a lesser Argento movie, which is mainly redeemed by two bravura sequences and a good performance by Max Von Sydow.

Sadly though, the film seems a lot better having watched Argento's recent La Terza Madre, which had a totally inept script and terrible acting.

I'd recommend this film, but you should probably watch Argento's earlier films first if you haven't already, because only an Argento fan would probably like this.