Le sang des innocents

Sleepless might be Dario Argento's last truly good movie. It's far from perfect and never quite reaches the stylistic heights of his 70's and 80's work, but it's a somewhat smart re-imagining of the giallo film with enough gory set pieces to keep the gorehounds satisfied and just enough twists and turns to keep the mystery fans on their toes.

Max Von Sydow plays an aging detective brought back into a murder case 20 years later when it appears that the murderer has returned to continue their killing spree. He's joined by the son of one of the victims and, together, they team up to figure out who's behind all this mayhem.

Sleepless has its high points - the opening train sequence might be one of Argento's best and all the murder set pieces are inventive and filled with shockingly good effects that are sure to make you cringe. Also, Goblin has reunited to give us one of their most effective scores that helps the film tremendously.

There are pacing issues in the middle section of the film and the two young leads aren't as well written or interesting as one would like which makes many of their scenes drag and feel like work to get through. It's no slight to the actors, because I don't think it's their fault at all. The murder mystery is at least interesting and the killer's reveal is at least a genuine surprise.

Sleepless won't be classified by anyone as top tier Argento, but it's one of his best post-80's works.

The 1990's wasn't a good decade for Italy's premier horror director. His trip to the USA resulted in a decidedly average film with 'Trauma', then he made 'The Stendhal Syndrome', which was also a disappointment, and, of course, his universally lambasted remake of The Phantom of the Opera. However, he has proved with this movie that he most certainly is not down and out; as Sleepless is by far his best film in fourteen years, and one the best films that Argento has ever made. Sleepless stars Max Von Sydow as former police detective Moretti, the detective on the case of the notorious 'Dwarf' murders, 17 years earlier. After the murder of his mother, Von Sydow promised a young boy that he would catch her killer. That boy is now an adult, and the murders have started again; leaving only Von Sydow and the young man to solve the case. The murders aren't done without clues however, as left at the scene of each one is a cut-out of an animal, all of which link to a mysterious nursery rhyme.

This film is giallo at it's best. Dario Argento creates one of the best atmospheres in any of his movies for this film. Some of the set pieces are absolutely fantastic, and the film breathes an air of malice for it's duration. Sleepless is full of surprises, and through this, Argento is able to make us believe the literally anything can happen; and it often does. This is an excellent thing for a thriller to do; nobody wants to know what's going to happen next, and Sleepless is most certainly a film that has the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat, begging for more of the plot to be revealed. As ever, Argento manages to submerge the viewer into the film, and this is one of the movie's most pleasing aspects. Another thing about this movie that will please fans of Italian horror is the absolutely sublime score by the brilliant 'Goblin'. Argento and his house band have had some memorable collaborations, and this one most certainly stands tall as one of them. I would even call it the best once since Suspiria; it is that good.

Dario Argento has also become famous for the great way that he uses the camera, and this film is a fine example of that also. Dario Argento directs our attention through numerous things, and his camera work throughout the movie is as inventive as ever. Through his direction, the film manages to build up massive levels of tension. The great sequence on the train towards the start of the movie is an excellent example of this. Argento is admirable not only for his directing, but for the fact that he writes his own movies also. The script of the movie is decent enough, but the real genius in the writing department for this movie is the nursery rhyme that is the backbone of the film. The rhyme was written by Argento's beautiful daughter, Asia. It's deliciously bleak and twisted (especially considering it's supposed to be a children's rhyme!), and it creates a great mood for the film. The part in which Von Sydow reads out the final verse over the closing credits is incredible; Von Sydow's voice and the rhyme itself combine to lend the movie a dark horror vibe like no other. Argento fans will also be thankful for the fact that this film contains more than it's fair share of bloodshed. Some of the scenes even made me - a man that loves blood and gore - cringe. A head is bashed against a wall; teeth first, a young lady is viciously decapitated, fingers are lopped off, heads explode and, my personal favourite, a scene that sees someone brutally beaten with an English horn. It has to be seen to be believed, it really does.

Like many Italian horror films, Sleepless isn't the best film ever made in terms of acting, and at times the plot isn't always well paced. The dubbing is also as terrible as ever; but who cares? You don't go into a giallo expecting to see great acting and plotting, and therefore it can very easily be forgiven. Especially when the film has a great Goblin soundtrack, a solid plot and gratuitous scenes of gore. Any Argento fan will be happy movie with this movie, I can almost guarantee it; and providing that he doesn't fall down with 2004's The Card Player, Argento could be back to his uncompromising and atmospheric best.

I must admit that have seen all Dario Argento's films and the last 3 ones were very disappointing. Being his fan I could not miss his last effort specially when I noticed that the myths since the time of "Profondo Rosso": The Goblin, were performing the soundtrack.

Dario Argento is back to the old typical thriller structure: a serial killer with a nonsense-rhyme for kids is the leitmotiv of all the homicides in a very wet and scary Turin.

The characters are well performed specially by the "bergmanian" Max Von Sidow. Chiara Caselli and Stefano Dionisi are fine and the first 20 minutes of film are an example of very high level cinema -the scenes shot in the train are icing- The soundtrack is less electronic than in the past with some elements of heavy metal.

Rating: 5/10

Dario Argento is one of my personal favorite directors, and many of my fellow Horror buffs will agree that the man is one of the all-time Horror greats. Films like "Suspiria" (1977), "Profondo Rosso" (1975) and Phenomena (1985) range among my all-time favorites, and Argento's repertoire includes several other masterpieces of Italian Horror/Giallo, such as "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage" (1970), "Opera"(1987) or "Tenebre"(1982). After several inferior films that he made in the 1990s, such as the decent "Trauma" of 1993 and "Two Evil Eyes" (which he made with fellow Horror-deity George A. Romero in 1990) and the disappointing "Phantom of the Opera", the master returned to his old style - and old greatness - with this "Non Ho Sonno" aka "Sleepless", a tantalizing and ultra-violent Giallo, in 2001. The good-old Giallo premise is still working greatly, and the fact that Argento borrows many elements from his older films does in no way downsize the greatness of "Sleepless". On the contrary, this is the absolute proof for us Italian Horror buffs that great Gialli can still be made in the 21st century.

In 1983, young Giacomo has to witness the brutal murder of his mother, who is one of the many victims of a Turin murder series. 17 years later, Turin is struck by a murder-series again, and the horrid crimes seem to resemble those from 1983. Even though he has spent the last 17 years trying to forget, Giacomo (Stefano Dionisi), who has since moved to Rome, decides to come back to Turin. Since the police make little progress, Giacomo and the retired homicide detective Ulisse Moretti (Max Von Sydow), who was working on the cases in 1983, begin to investigate themselves...

"Sleepless" brings the old-fashioned Giallo-greatness that we're used to from Argento. A creepy atmosphere, stunning suspense, ultra-bloody murders, an excellent cinematography and especially another ingenious score by Progressive Rock band Goblin - this film delivers all the great elements that we love Argento for. Argento has once stated that this is the most brutal of all his films which is not exactly true. The violence and gore are extreme, no doubt, but films like "Tenebre", "Phenomena" or "Opera" are at least equally violent, if not more. Dario Argento is not exactly known for his tameness when it comes to violence, and this is yet another (immensely stylishly) ultra-brutal Argento experience. As I stated above, Argento uses some elements he has used in his older films - but he does so in an great manner. Elements like a creepy nursery-rhyme are downright ingenious and give this the tantalizing and superb atmosphere that is typical for Argento. An absolute must-see for Horror fans, especially my fellow Argento-enthusiasts can not allow themselves to miss this! Great!

In 1983 a serial killer nicknamed the Dwarf embarks of a murderous spree. The detective in charge Moretti (played by legendary Max von Sydow) manages to connects the dots to a mystery novelist Vincenzo de Fabritiis, only for the suspect to die before capture. Almost twenty years later a prostitute by freak accident stumbles upon memorabilia of past murders, whilst leaving a clients house. Before she can pass on the mementos to anyone else she is brutally murdered. Soon after murders surprisingly similar to the 1983 case occur and detective Moretti is called back in to assist...

After over a decade of lingering in the disembowelled remains of his legend Dario Argento returns by resurrecting his giallo cookbook. And make no mistake - Argento does not attempt in the slightest to modernise the genre, instead he follows his own former path of glory making sure the recipe is repeated. This also signals a welcome return of The Goblins and their always hauntingly suitable score. The requisite ingredient of long marauding shots, which follow the blood, murder and atmosphere, is obviously also present. One especially well-done fist-clenching sequence has the camera follow a red (what? you expected any other colour from Dario?) carpet with the unmistakable relentless accompaniment of The Goblins straight to a morbid beheading.

That said Argento seems to have dropped his obsession with coloured lenses and does not seem to attach the same fervorous attention to set-pieces. Unfortunately this does seem to take away some of the Argento magic and can not help but feel the superiority of the 70s giallo. Even more so, that the formulaic repetitiveness of Argento causes "Sleepless" to become all to similar to what the master has already offered us in the past. The script has the feel of being a collage of several other Argento giallo flicks. Nonetheless the movie features surprisingly crisp acting for an Argento movie, even though some of the characters seem unnecessarily overcooked.

There are several other smaller flaws to "Sleepless", as the movie drags on even more than we are used to from the Italian, the dialogue can be ridiculous at times (Moretti dumbfoundedly asks "Who is that? Is this a joke?" after hearing someone break his window), whilst some of the plotting is absurdly unlikely to say the least (i.e. a witness decides to return a gold pen to the serial killer in exchange for money, instead of handing in the evidence to the police).

This movie also has a touch of Argento's self-commentary to it in the shape of Moretti, a detective used to the old ways of solving crime. Now the methods have changed, but Moretti has struggled to adapt, still preferring the traditional art of deduction. One can't help but feel that this is Argento's personal explanation as to his persistent drop in status during the 90s.

Nonetheless a nice movie that shows that Dario Argento still has some spark left in him. Whether or not he will be able to tap into this source to make a spectacular comeback to the limelight remains however to be seen.