Dario Argento Archives

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Rating: ★★★½

Jun 15, 2014Giallo Psycho-Thriller

Italy's Dario Argento laid out the essence of the style – the arty murder set-pieces; flamboyant camerawork; the stylish music scores; and the psycho-thriller plots – in his first giallo film here

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Mario Adorf, Umberto Raho

Category: Horror

15 June 20142 September 2026 by Roog

The Cat O’Nine Tails (1971)

Rating: ★★★½

Jan 11, 2002Giallo Psycho-Thriller

Dario Argento's third film as director sees him firmly in giallo thriller territory, delivering a series of extravagantly arty and sadistic set-pieces as James Franciscus tries to find clues to a killer's identity

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: James Franciscus, Karl Malden, Pier Paolo Capponi, Horst Frank, …

Category: Horror

11 January 200225 January 2026 by Roog

Deep Red (1976)

Rating: ★★★

Apr 8, 2000Giallo Psycho-Thriller

A giallo thriller from Dario Argento as David Hemmings is witness to a murder and tries to find the killer. As with Argento's films of this period, this is focused around a series of stylish and sadistic dispatches

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia

Category: Horror

8 April 20002 September 2026 by Roog

Suspiria (1977)

Rating: ★★★

Dec 5, 2000Witchcraft in a Girl's School

The work on which the cult of director Dario Argento was built. The film consists of a series of extravagantly arty deaths at a girls boarding school, although comes without any real connecting plot

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Jessica Harper, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett, Udo Kier

Category: Horror

5 December 20002 September 2026 by Roog

Inferno (1980)

Rating: ★★★★

Feb 17, 2000Witchcraft Murders

Dario Argento's sequel to Suspiria, the second film in his Third Mothers trilogy. This is an even better work where Argento delights in sadistic and beautifully artistic imagery almost entirely free of any plot

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Daria Nicolodi, Sacha Pitoeff, …

Category: Horror

17 February 200017 April 2026 by Roog

Tenebrae (1982)

Rating: ★★★

Feb 18, 2000Giallo Psycho-Thriller

Another of Dario Argento's giallo psycho-thrillers with all the stylistically wild and over-the-top deaths one expects as a horror writer finds people being murdered with pages from his books in their mouths

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Daria Nicolodi, John Saxon, Mimsy Farmer, …

Category: Horror

18 February 200013 January 2026 by Roog

Demons (1985)

Rating: ★★★

Aug 29, 2001Possessed Undead Take Over a Cinema

Italian horror directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by Dario Argento, an Evil Dead-inspired work about the possessed dead taking over a cinema, all conducted with a ferocious enthusiasm

Director: Lamberto Bava

Actors: Natasha Hovey, Urbano Barberini, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, …

Category: Horror

29 August 200129 December 2025 by Roog

Phenomena (1985)

Rating: ★★★½

Sep 3, 1999Giallo Thriller/Insect Telepathy

Another of Dario Argento's giallo thrillers filled with all his trademark artily extravagant deaths. At the centre of the film is a teenage Jennifer Connelly who can psychically communicate with insects

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasence, Daria Nicolodi, Dalila Di Lazzaro, …

Category: Horror

3 September 199925 February 2026 by Roog

Opera (1987)

Rating: ★★★★

May 9, 2000Giallo Psycho-Thriller

This may well be the finest of Dario Argento's giallo thrillers. Set around the production of an opera, this offers a series of murder set-pieces staged with an artistry that is as extraordinary as their sadism

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi, …

Category: Horror

9 May 20005 January 2026 by Roog

The Church (1989)

Rating: ★★

Sep 20, 2013Possessed Dead Overtake a Church

Originally intended as a Demons sequel, director Michele Soavi decided to head in more arty directions. Imagine a Demons sequel mounted with the artistic ambitions of producer Dario Argento's Three Mothers films

Director: Michele Soavi

Actors: Tomas Arana, Barbara Cupisti, Hugh Quarshie, Feodor Chaliapin, …

Category: Horror

20 September 20135 January 2026 by Roog

Two Evil Eyes (1990)

Rating: ★★

Feb 15, 2001Edgar Allan Poe Anthology

George Romero and Dario Argento collaborate on an anthology, each adapting an Edgar Allan Poe tale. Either director leaves you with high expectations but the results are very mixed

Director: Dario Argento, George A. Romero

Actors: Harvey Keitel, Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall, Tom Atkins, …

Category: Horror

15 February 20012 September 2026 by Roog

The Sect (1991)

Rating: ★★

Jul 29, 2020Occult Happenings/Devil Worship Cult

A film written/produced by Dario Argento, an occult giallo in the vein of his Three Mothers films in which a teacher is surrounded by a series of occult happenings and deaths

Director: Michele Soavi

Actors: Herbert Lom, Kelly Curtis, Maria Angela Giordano, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, …

Category: Horror

29 July 20202 September 2026 by Roog

Trauma (1993)

Rating: ★★★

Feb 18, 2001Giallo Psycho-Thriller

Another giallo thriller from Dario Argento, filled with all the wild bursts of imagination, bizarre plot twists and set-pieces we have come to expect from him

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Asia Argento, Piper Laurie, Frederic Forrest, Brad Dourif, …

Category: Horror

18 February 200131 August 2026 by Roog

The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)

Rating: ★★½

Sep 18, 2000Giallo Psycho-Thriller

One of the less effective films by Dario Argento. Another giallo thriller, this has the same flourishes of style in sporadic moments but the plot is even more confusing than usual

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Asia Argento, Thomas Kretschmann, Marco Leonardi

Category: Horror

18 September 20002 September 2026 by Roog

The Phantom of the Opera (1998)

Rating: ★★★

Nov 11, 2000Madman Beneath the Opera House

Dario Argento rescues The Phantom from musical romance and returns it to being a horror film. Despite a beautifully mounted production, Julian Sands' Phantom is too weak and wimpy

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Julian Sands, Asia Argento, Andrea Di Stefano, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni

Category: Horror

11 November 20002 September 2026 by Roog

Sleepless (2001)

Rating: ★★

Nov 8, 2004Giallo Psycho-Thriller

One of the more routine of Dario Argento's giallo psycho-thrillers. The artily stylistic set-pieces are disappointingly average and even the plot relatively straightforward

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Max Von Sydow, Rosella Falk, Gabriele Lavia

Category: Horror

8 November 200423 August 2023 by Roog

The Card Player (2004)

Rating: ★★

Jan 27, 2006Giallo Psycho-Thriller

A disappointingly tame giallo thriller from Dario Argento about a poker-playing serial killer. Disappointingly, Argento has cut back on all his arty and sadistic murder set-pieces

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Stefania Rocca, Liam Cunningham, Antonio Cantafora, Claudio Santamaria, …

Category: Horror

27 January 20062 September 2026 by Roog

Mother of Tears: The Third Mother (2007)

Rating: ★★

Oct 19, 2008Italian Occult Horror

After 27 years, Dario Argento finally rounds out his Three Mothers trilogy begun with Suspiria. However, the underwhelming results give all evidence of his having lost his mojo

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Asia Argento, Udo Kier, Daria Nicolodi

Category: Horror

19 October 20082 September 2026 by Roog

Giallo (2009)

Rating: ★★

Feb 13, 2010Italian Psycho-Thriller

Dario Argento makes a disappointing return to the giallo thriller where he made his name. With Argento's characteristic murder set-pieces having been toned down, the results are nothing special

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Adrien Brody, Emmanuelle Seigner, Elsa Pataky

Category: Horror

13 February 201026 October 2025 by Roog

Dracula (2012)

Rating: ★

Apr 8, 2013Dracula Adaptation

Hard to describe what an utter disappointment Dario Argento's take on Bram Stoker is. Argento seems to have entirely lost the mojo. Thomas Kretschmann makes for the screen's mellowest Dracula

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Thomas Kretschmann, Asia Argento, Rutger Hauer

Category: Horror

8 April 20132 September 2026 by Roog

Suspiria (2018)

Rating: ★★★

Feb 16, 2019Witchcraft in a Girl’s School

Dario Argento's original Suspiria was an almost entirely narrative-free work set around a series of extravagantly arty deaths; this remake could not be a more different film. Not to say it is uninteresting in what it does

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Actors: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, …

Category: Horror

16 February 20194 June 2025 by Roog

Black Glasses (2022)

Rating: ★★

Jun 10, 2022Giallo Thriller

Dario Argento makes a highly anticipated return to the director’s chair after a decade’s silence, once again revisiting the giallo film, but the results are a major letdown

Director: Dario Argento

Actors: Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Xinyu Zhang, Andrea Gherpelli, …

Category: Horror

10 June 20222 September 2026 by Roog