Director: Dario Argento
Year: 1980
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Hearing of a friend's distress in New York, a woman joins the brother in his attempts to help solve his sister's disappearance from her apartment building and together they realize a far more powerful force than they ever imagined is responsible and must try to get her out alive.
Review:
This is a massively underrated and overlooked Argento effort. What really seems to work here is the film's high level of supernatural-tinged action on display that really gives this a dark, foreboding atmosphere. With much of the action taking place in the apartment house, there's a rather overt and dynamic showcase building that provides the framework for these great scenes at providing some chilling moments. The Gothic overture of the location, the magnificent stone columns of the facade and the generally dark, ominous layout itself is wonderfully utilized to make this all the more impressive at setting supernaturally-themed fun within, as those manage to come across as utterly fun and enjoyable even without the setting here. The opening here is outstanding and one of the better examples of this as what starts as a search for the dropped locket underwater soon turns into a thrilling scenario with the floating corpse mindlessly coming after her as she attempts to get back to the surface, and that the lead-in here shows a singular take of following the water trail into the opening as well as showing the exit from the room being entirely lit in red and blue makes this a wholly spectacular sequence.
Almost as much fun is a stalking in the apartment after a blown fuse with the intermittent lights flashing off-and-on and the skipping music setting off the thrills incredibly well, and as an added bonus the bodies being discovered there for the murders is outstanding, while another chase through the confines of the house that showcases the gloomy architecture and designs of the house before the terrified victim gets a marvelous death-scene is another amazing sequence. While the latter half does switch these supernatural events in favor of more realistic scenarios, the finale brings it all back with the spectacular supernatural action with this one featuring the big confrontation in the grand lobby as he finally comes face-to-face with the powerful figure among the flaming ruins of the house coming off nicely with one of the more impressive shock cuts punctuating everything into a fantastic scene that ends this one on a high-note.
There's not a whole lot really wrong here as the biggest issue here is the rather curious decision here to move away from the supernatural during the middle section, going instead with a series of lame cat attacks that go on forever regardless of how many extreme close-ups to the fans and claws there is, focus on the investigation of the middles doesn't spark anything and what really happens here doesn't have all that much creepy or terrifying setups which holds this one down. The gore and deaths may look obviously cheap and fake, but otherwise, those are the film's flaws.
Overview: ****/5
While this is clearly nowhere near the power and impact of what came before it, this is still absolutely an enjoyable and worthwhile entry that suffers only in connection to the previous film. If you're able to separate them and see them individually, give this one a shot or if you're a fan of the style of film, while those that don't should heed mild caution.
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