Occhi di cristallo (2004) User Reviews

Dark Thriller With the Style of Dario Argento

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 9 December 2006]

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")

The best non-Argento Giallo in over two decades!

[The_Void · 7/10 · 13 April 2006]

Eyes of Crystal is certainly a very welcome film. Good Giallo's are few and far between these days, and this is easily the best that I've seen since 2001's Sleepless, which in turn is the best since Argento made the fantastic 'Opera' back in 1987. The film isn't a lot like the Giallo's of the seventies (the golden period of the style), as the picture is largely glossy and clear and overall, the film is more character orientated than the murder fuelled classic Giallo structure; in fact, I'd say that this film is more like the hit thriller Seven than any film by Dario Argento or Sergio Martino. The plot has two main areas; firstly, it's a film about a police investigation into a series of murders, and secondly it's the story of the investigating officer wrestling with his conscience as he tries to solve the crimes. The plot starts off properly as a brutal triple murder is committed, and from there we follow the investigation into the murder, and see how the police pick up small clues to try and track the killer.

Director Eros Puglielli injects his film with a slick sense of style as he directs the action through a number of different angles. The film features many scenes that really are beautiful; the favourite of mine being the sequence that sees the police enter a murder scene in the dark with torches. The music is less frantic than that seen in previous Giallo films, and tends to be of a more searing nature, which helps to elevate the film over and above the story of murder and policemen that it is. I have to say that the music does go over the top at times, but generally it fits the scene. The main problem with this film, however, stems from the plot. The murders are grisly and gruesome, but it becomes too obvious where it's all going too quickly, and the reason behind the killings is hardly original, and since it's also rather silly; it almost undoes all the hard work that has gone into the film up until the final twist is revealed. Giallo's have never been known for completely making sense and staying away from silly story lines - but Eyes of Crystal tries to go over and above the common tradition, and doesn't completely succeed. Even so, this is a quality thriller with good acting and fine direction which, when combined with the fact that this is the best Giallo in ages, means that Eyes of Crystal is well worth seeing.

Good modern Giallo

[dipdatta · 7/10 · 15 March 2018]

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

Hello Dolly

[modernmonstersdotnet · 6/10 · 23 September 2016]

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

Pretty decent Se7en like Italian movie

[siderite · 7/10 · 25 July 2009]

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.

a really well done Italian thriller!!!!

[horrorules · 7/10 · 23 February 2023]

Being Italian, I'm always happy when good products like this "Crystal Eyes" are baked.

The director Eros Puglielli takes his cue from classic Italian thriller films from the 70s such as Argento, Bava and Fulci and manages to orchestrate a dark, very violent and very fascinating film, with atmospheres that immerse you in a truly exhausting spiral of terror, in which involved from the beginning until the shocking final twist that reveals the identity of the killer.

Honorable mention for the excellent cast, starting with the very good Luigi Lo Casio up to the beautiful and talented Lucia Jimenez.

A thriller to be seen and enjoyed without a doubt.

Beyond the Alley of the Dolls

[radiobirdma · 4/10 · 28 August 2016]

Exquisite settings, technical virtuosity, remarkable images, beautiful cinematography and a sterling cast with Luigi Lo Cascio (star of the noteworthy I cento passi and the phenomenal La meglio gioventù) in the lead: Eros Puglielli's Eyes of Crystal has it all and ends as a wasted opportunity. The story about a serial killer collecting body parts in order to create his Barbie of the Month oscillates somewhere between other genre danses macabres like Fincher's Se7en, Mulcahy's Resurrection, J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage, and Narcisco Ibánez Serrador's The House That Screamed, and that's exactly its problem. You've seen it all before, all that stylish craftsmanship reeks inevitably of rehash, and it doesn't help all-too-much that 70s giallo regular Simón Andreu („Death Walks on High Heels") - finally a real ghost from the past - turns in the probably best performance of his career. Director Puglielli's first lesson? Never collaborate on a script with the creator of Argento's Opera. The second one he grasped only after the premiere: His flick itself was the ghastly doll, beneath the dashing costume just a fly-ridden corpse. When it comes to horror movies, postmodernism is a curse.

Storming and very scary start

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 19 November 2006]

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.

nice

[Vincentiu · 29 September 2012]

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.

Great!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 20 June 2020]

Franco Ferrini, who wrote Opera, Phenomena, Nothing Underneath, Dial: Help, The Church and Sleepless (as well as many more films) joined up with Gabriella Blasi and director Eros Puglielli to turn the Luca Di Fulvio novel The Empailleur into a modern giallo.

While hunting a cultured, intelligent and vicious psychopath - yes, I realize that sounds like The Silence of the Lambs - Inspector Amaldi must face the moral decline of humanity and his own dark past.

A young couple and the pervert watching them have both been killed, leading Amaldi and his partner Freese down all manner of paths with no success. At the same time, a college student is being stalked and turns to the young inspector for help.

Amaldi struggles with his temper and the need to punish the guilty while slowly realizing that he is hunting a serial killer who is taking the parts of a doll and replacing the parts of his victims that he has taken away.

Unlike so many modern giallo that attempt to simply emulate the past and not move into the future, Eyes of Crystal pushes past comparisons to Se7en to become a movie worthy of its own study. The human doll is a sinister concept, as is what happened to a doll in the past. Unlike other giallo, the cops aren't fumbling in the dark or buffoons. They're also dealing with perhaps just as many demons as the killers they face every day.

Bonus genre points for casting Simon Andreu (Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, Death Walks on High Heels) as a dying cop also haunted by his past, which he remembers as an inferno that destroyed the orphanage where he grew up, a place that has just been robbed of some very peculiar surgical instruments.

If only this movie had reignited a trend that would lead us to more Italian thrillers quite this good!

Gloomy thriller.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 4 December 2014]

Very troubled Inspector Giacomo Amaldi tries to find an elusive killer who enjoys chopping parts of his victims and replacing their limbs with a similar part from a Victorian doll.He investigates triple homicide with his partner.It seems that the killer may be taxidermist.Someone is stalking an attractive anthropology student Lucia Jimenez.It's up to Giacomo to protect her too.Very stylish,gloomy and bloody thriller made by Eros Puglielli.The script by Dario Argento regular Franco Ferrini is obviously influenced by David Fincher's "Se7en",but "Eyes of the Crystal" has a stylish look of giallo.The film is fast-paced and incredibly tense.The cinematography is splendid and there are some gruesome murder scenes.The climax is slightly disappointing,though.8 body parts out of 10.

Promising

[nick121235 · 7/10 · 27 April 2018]

This one had a lot of potential. The beginning was great, and I was really enjoying the film until things started to slow down around the middle. Unfortunately, they didn't pick back up, but instead deteriorated even further to a very unsatisfying ending. The camera work was that typical of 00's films as was the boring colour palette. Despite all of this, it did manage to rise above the typical police thriller. And it's still better than Argento's "neo-giallo" efforts.

Crystallized Eyes.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 10/10 · 25 March 2015]

Despite having heard about the film a few years ago,I have somehow never got round to see the major 2004 Giallo that was not directed by Dario Argento (Dario's 2004 The Card Player also reviewed). With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best titles of 2004,I decided that it was time to look into the eyes of crystals.

View on the film:

Backed by a chilling score from Francesc Gener,co-writer/(along with Gabriella Blasi and Franco Ferrini) director Eros Puglielli & cinematographer Luca Coassin unleash a blunt Giallo with a jet-black Neo-Noir heart,which creates an extremely grim atmosphere,as Puglielli displays the murder scenes in a stark manner,and drains the movie of almost any bright colours,with Amaldi's world sinking into burnt-out blacks & roaring flames.

Along with the strong Neo- Noir atmosphere,Puglielli also gives the title a tantalizingly stylised appearance,as Puglielli expertly uses swift camera moves to show the killer waiting in the shadows for the next victim,which really push the nerve-wrecking tension to the edge,as Puglielli subtly shows Amaldi's desperation in catching the killer,with a change in editing speed.

Whilst their adaptation of Luca Di Fulvio's novel L'impagliatore does feature one or two noticeable flaws, (why would a hospital not have any CCTV?)the writers make them ones easy to overlook,thanks to building an intense Giallo,with each murder scene being made central to the case.

Initially starting with 3 separate threads,the writers show an amazing sharpness in coiling them around each other,as Amaldi begins to fear that the identity of the killer may be linked to Ajaccio's fragile memory,as the killer makes things very personal,by setting his sights on reawakening Amaldi's tragic past.

Desperate to track down the killer, Luigi Lo Cascio gives a fantastic performance as Ispettore Amaldi,thanks to Cascio showing the murders to cut straight to Amaldi's bones,with each dead body found allowing the demons of the past to grind Cascio down.

Wrapped in nightmarish special effects, Simón Andreu gives a tense performance as Agente Ajaccio,with Andreu giving Ajaccio a real sense of desperation,as Ajaccio frantically tries to grip his fading memory,before he looks into the deadly eyes of crystal.

Gripping

[cipo1973 · 9/10 · 30 March 2006]

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.

Gritty police procedural about a serial killer

[dopefishie · 8/10 · 15 April 2024]

Gritty police procedural about a serial killer.

Eros Puglielli does some strong work here using slick camera work. Great shot compositions and color palette. Gritty stuff here.

Lucía Jiménez was great, but she's not given much to do other than be scared. Luigi Lo Cascio steals the show here as the cop haunted by past trauma and trying to solve the case. The camera absolutely loves him. Incredible performance!

The mystery itself is something we've seen many times before. Although, the style of the murders is fairly unique. Great special effects! There is a good amount of blood here so it's not for the faint of heart.

Overall, this was a great little serial killer flick.