Occhi di cristallo

Everything has been said and written about the giallo sub-genre, initiated by Mario Bava at the end of the 60s, polished to near perfection by Dario Argento in the 70s while generating countless attempts at this specific kind of thriller, most of them Italian. It is generally admitted that the last great giallo was Argento's 1987 Opera, with purists discarding it in favour of 1982 Tenebre, as it is bitterly regretted that the Italian master's production since then was a sad slide into the morass of self copycatting, resulting in movies varying from disappointing (Nonhasonno, Il Sindrome di Stendhal) to terrible (Trauma, Giallo), deprived of any of the visual brilliance his earlier work displayed.

Various attempts have been made at revamping the giallo form for contemporary film-goers, most of them ludicrous (German Masks, French Amer, to name but two). To this day, none can even remotely pass for a good giallo, the formula having been preempted by serial killers in the 90s and enshrined in amber ever since. It is therefore a very pleasant surprise to discover Eros Puglieli's movie, who achieves a lot by virtue of a rather good screenplay, solid actors, an interesting choice of music and a visual parti-pris which mostly works in spite of a few weaknesses.

Inspector Amaldi (Luigi Lo Cascio, a little know but intense actor) is a conflicted man and a talented police officer with a background in criminal psychology. He was victim of a gruesome experience in his youth and finds himself confronted to a twisted killer with a keen interest in taxidermy, a niche discipline that he pushes a bit too far for the well-being of a sizable portion of the cast. Meeting a good looking student complaining about a stalker, he has to dig deep into his abilities and emotions to find the killer before he finds her.

All the codes of giallo are respected in an otherwise contemporary feature: a vicious killer with a traumatic past killing his victims with sharp weapons and collecting trophies; coded enigmas announcing the next murder; obvious red herrings; a scary antique doll loaded with sexual implications; an oppressive soundtrack; "improbable when you eliminate the impossible" killer identity. Even the mandatory killer-falling-to his- death is delivered, in a rather satisfying scene. It could be said in fact that the only non-giallo component is a tight screenplay, as the genre is known to be prone to plot holes the size of a wound by ax.

Don't pay too much attention to the shaky initial chase: the rest of the movie is much better filmed, with some inspired moments like a conversation between two characters cleverly filmed through a variety of visual obstacles. Evidently, the murder set pieces are what draws one to a giallo in the first place; without being overly gory they nevertheless reach a decent level of nastiness. Yellow is definitely an Italian colour. Lol

When a young couple and a peeper are killed in the field with sadism, Inspector Amaldi (Luigi Lo Cascio) and his partner Freese (José Ángel Egido) unsuccessfully follow the leads trying to track the criminal. Meanwhile, the college student Giuditta (Lucía Jimenéz) is being stalked and goes to the precinct, where she is attended by Amaldi, and immediately they feel a great attraction for each other. When another woman is murdered, Amaldi and Freese realize that they are chasing a serial killer. Amaldi visits Professor Civita (Eusebio Poncela), trying to find the meaning of three leaves found in the crime scene. Amaldi, who battles with his violent temper, tries to put the clues together and to avoid the next murder of the unknown psychopath.

The story of the dark thriller "Occhi di Cristallo" recalls "Seven", "The Silence of the Lambs", "Saw" and "Resurrection", among many others rip-offs. But the most impressive in this good movie is its style, very similar to Dario Argento. The director Eros Puglielli uses a beautiful and dark cinematography, an excellent camera work, a great soundtrack and achieves great performances of the cast in a reasonable screenplay. Once there are very few characters, it is not difficult to disclose the killer, but his motives are silly. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Olhos Mortais" ("Deadly Eyes")

If I would rate the movie compared to other Italian movies I have seen, I would rate it higher, but compared with international horror, it is average. However, it is not the same type of average, as the acting is good, the plot a lot more complex than US movies and the feel is a good old fashioned slow tension increase. The production values are not so good though and I couldn't help wonder: if they dubbed the voices over anyway, and done it poorly, why not do it in English? :)

I compared it with Se7en more because it is an icon of movies about personally involved policemen trying to catch a megalomaniac psychopath, other than that it is not too similar. In fact, it is based on a book, which probably explains the depth of the plot. I thought that the darkness in the main character (that's the policeman :) ) was a very nice touch and the movie could have done better without him explaining why he was so driven with his work. Also, having every single character involved with the criminal was a bit of a stretch.

Bottom line: very decent horror movie, a bit slow sometimes, other times predictable, but nice enough. Probably with an English translation I would have liked it better still.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The suspense built up reasonably through the film, keeping you guessing all the time in the best tradition of the Italian "giallo" genre. The characters are acted out quite well, especially that of tormented inspector Amaldi. The photography and special effects are also very good, giving the film an almost glossy and "arty" edge (especially during the flashback scenes and in Ajaccio's hallucinations) and arguably even the murder scenes have an aesthetic edge to them. The killing sequences are very crude and graphic and this element, along with the way the plot is structured, reminded me a lot of Dario Argento's style, the Italian horror master who, I am sure, inspired Puglielli in this production.

slow, profound, unusual. a "policier" in a different manner, full of nuances, shadows of past and with a central character far from policeman definition.the vulnerability of inspector Amaldi, the delicate love story, the images - bricks of victims, the precise - delicate performance of Luigi Lo Cascio, each are good ingredient for a poetic movie , mixture of roots of past," film noir" and taxidermy. a horror in crime skin. with a good result. sure, it may be a version of Se7ven but in a specific mode. it may be version of a kind of horror , refined, scene for sophisticate mysteries. but it is only a n Italian part of an ambiguous genre , case in which director hopes to create a different product with usual rules. nothing else.