Occhi di cristallo

If you thought good giallos were made only in 70s & 80s, watch this. Very stylish & well made movie.

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.

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")

Most effective, and if this Italian thriller is a little more C.S.I. than Argento, maybe that is no bad thing these days! Storming and very scary start with the momentum not really letting up till about halfway through. For me there is just a little too much soul searching from the otherwise most effective lead, Luigi lo Cascio. This is further complicated by his developing relationship with the also most effective, Bulgarian actress, with the catchy name of, Desislava Tenekedjieva. It is only a slight carp but I felt that at a crucial stage this pause for thought and sex didn't actually help the film. Anyway it is soon back to the very warped and hard edged action and I guess we then begin to wish maybe we had stayed in the bedroom. A very dark and violent film with, if not gushing gore, plenty of gruesome and bloody sights as seemingly random folk get cut about and carried away.

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.