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Though its antecedents stretch back to the early ’60s output of Mario Bava, Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is almost universally acknowledged as ground zero for both the Italian “Giallo” thriller (so named for the yellow coloring used on the wonderfully lurid covers of the Italian crime novels that inspired them) and [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: As Cole, the reluctant time traveller played by Bruce Willis in TWELVE MONKEYS notes, time changes our perception of movies. When you re-view a film, it seems different, but it is the viewer, not the film, that has actually changed. This observation prompts our posting of this review. Dario Argento’s directorial debut, The [...]

The Blood-Spattered Scribe points us to the first trailer for GIALLO, the new horror-thriller from director Dario Argento. Judging from the preview, the film pulls off the neat trick of looking like classic Argento while also seeming completely contemporary. Argento’s golden period was all the way back in the ’70s through the early ‘80. Since then, [...]

I am two months late on this, but I wanted to make a comment regarding this post. Appropos of GIALLO, the latest production from Dario Argento (MOTHER OF TEARS), the Blood-Spattered Scribe remarks:
In a way, Dario Argento is like an absentee father for horror fans. No matter how many times he forgets our birthday, bounces a [...]

Although often compared unfavorably to Goblin’s music for SUSPIRIA, keyboardist Keith Emerson’s score for the sequel, INFERNO, is every bit as in tune with the film, perfectly matching the mood and action. Unlike Goblin’s heavy rhythms, shrieking vocals, and shrill synthesizers of the previous film, Emerson employs a much more subtle approach, weaving a score out [...]

One of the most memorable elements contributing to the success of SUSPIRIA (1977) was the soundtrack. Combining elements of music (a synthesizer-heavy rock combo) and sound effects (heavy breathing, murmuring voices), Goblin provided something that went far beyond traditional background scoring, to become an integral part of the film. In a fashion somewhat similar to Ennio [...]

This film is a fascinating and frustrating phantasmagoria of the mysterious and the unexplained, a strange journey into realms beyond human understanding, where events happen without rhyme or reason, and little or no explanation is given. Although framed as a conventional horror film (with a protagonists searching for the secret of an evil power lurking in [...]

SUSPIRIA was one of those films I missed the first time around. When it hit U.S. screens in 1977, I found the advertising campaign decidedly uninteresting; for some reason, it suggested a schlocky gore movie to me. Not that I was opposed to explicit horror: I had been sneaking into R-rated movies like THE EXORCIST [...]

 …Our Ladies of Sorrow. I know them thoroughly, and have walked in all their kingdoms. Three sisters they are, of one mysterious household; and their paths are wide apart; but of their dominion there is no end.
- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundis

Although it will never achieve the status of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or Bram [...]

Mater Lachrymarum, Our Mother of Tears. She it is that night and day raves and moans, calling for vanished faces. She stood in Rama, when a voice was heard of lamentation – Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted. She it was that stood in Bethlehem on the night when Herod’s sword [...]

Moran Atias as Mater Lachrymarum
It took Dario Argento – Italy’s horror icon – thirty years to complete the “Three Mothers” trilogy he began with 1977’s SUSPIRIA, his biggest international hit. A mere three years later, he gave us the first sequel, INFERNO, but since then fans have had to wait while he pursued other interests: [...]

On the occasion of the upcoming DVD release of MOTHER OF TEARS in England, DVD Times offers an interview with the film’s director, Dario Argento, who explains the long time lapse between this film and its predecessors, SUSPRIA (1977) and INFERNO (1980):
“It’s 25 years since you made Inferno, what made you want to complete the [...]

Thanks to Esplatter for providing a list of theatres that will be screening Dario Argento’s MOTHER OF TEARS in June:

Sunshine Theater, New York, Landmark : Begins June 6
Nuart Theater, Los Angeles, Landmark : Begins June 6
University Theater, Irvine, Regal : Begins June 6
Ritz Theater, Philadelphia, Landmark : Begins June 6
Kendall Square Theater, Cambridge, MA, Landmark [...]