A blind call girl and a seven-year-old Chinese boy try to escape the clutches of a killer.
A new Dario Argento film is always cause for excitement, horror fans hoping for a return to form for the once-great giallo genius. Black Glasses is not it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it might be his worst film, and given that the director also has Dracula 3D in his filmography, that's saying something.
Ilenia Pastorelli plays Diana, the hooker left blind when the killer causes her to crash her car into another vehicle, that of a Chinese family; Andrea Zhang is Chin, the boy left in an orphanage as a result of the accident; Asia Argento is Rita, the social worker who gives Diana seeing-eye dog Nerea, who saves the day.
Argento's storytelling has frequently been a little flaky, so we'll forgive the stupidity of the mutt mauling the maniac to death in the final act (let's not forget the razor-wielding chimp in the highly entertaining Phenomena), but the director seems to have completely lost his ability to craft a visually impressive set-piece, Black Glasses largely consisting of dull scenes of Diana and Chin wandering aimlessly in the dark. Any attempts at recapturing the exuberance of his earlier work prove embarrassingly laughable, the low point being when the protagonists flail about and scream after stumbling into a nest of water snakes - the director in his prime might have been able to make this craziness work, but now in his 80s, he fails spectacularly.
As for the ending, when the killer is revealed to be one of Diana's customers whose nose was put out of joint because she told him he smelt, I have no words.
2/10 (the very bloody murder at the beginning - FX courtesy of Sergio Stivaletti - saves this from getting the lowest possible rating).
A new Dario Argento film is always cause for excitement, horror fans hoping for a return to form for the once-great giallo genius. Black Glasses is not it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it might be his worst film, and given that the director also has Dracula 3D in his filmography, that's saying something.
Ilenia Pastorelli plays Diana, the hooker left blind when the killer causes her to crash her car into another vehicle, that of a Chinese family; Andrea Zhang is Chin, the boy left in an orphanage as a result of the accident; Asia Argento is Rita, the social worker who gives Diana seeing-eye dog Nerea, who saves the day.
Argento's storytelling has frequently been a little flaky, so we'll forgive the stupidity of the mutt mauling the maniac to death in the final act (let's not forget the razor-wielding chimp in the highly entertaining Phenomena), but the director seems to have completely lost his ability to craft a visually impressive set-piece, Black Glasses largely consisting of dull scenes of Diana and Chin wandering aimlessly in the dark. Any attempts at recapturing the exuberance of his earlier work prove embarrassingly laughable, the low point being when the protagonists flail about and scream after stumbling into a nest of water snakes - the director in his prime might have been able to make this craziness work, but now in his 80s, he fails spectacularly.
As for the ending, when the killer is revealed to be one of Diana's customers whose nose was put out of joint because she told him he smelt, I have no words.
2/10 (the very bloody murder at the beginning - FX courtesy of Sergio Stivaletti - saves this from getting the lowest possible rating).