Dario Argento's World of Horror

Dario Argento's World of Horror 

Genre: Documentary

Original title: Il mondo dell'orrore di Dario Argento

Director: Michele Soavi

Year: 1985

Documentary on horror/mystery film maker Dario Argento. Features an in-depth interview with Argento and covers his work from 1969 to 1985.

Having acted on a number of Argento related pictures and worked as second assistant director on Tenebre Michele Soavi was called upon to direct this mid 80s straight to VHS documentary about the great Dario Argento. Back then in the days the vast amounts of information we now take for granted on the internet this must of been a very welcome release for fans of Dario Argento. Even to this day there are barely any feature length documentaries that cover aspects of Italian cult cinema so for that reason, I'm glad it exists.

It looks at his entire career up to that point, largely focusing on Phenomena, Tenebre & Demons.  Unfortunately though, this is a very poor documentary. Running at 71 minutes I'd confidently estimate that over 50% of its running time is used up with clips from Dario's movies, including films which he worked on but didn't direct such as Dawn Of The Dead & Demons. Dario is a director that boasts so many unforgettable scenes from each of his films, though if I wanted to see them I'd of watched the actual films instead.

There are a few short interviews with Dario where he talks about why he makes movies "I want to be loved" & the sexuality of murder, but there simply isn't enough depth on show to wet anybody's appetite for knowledge. However, the documentary does have a look into the filming of a number of pictures which is pretty interesting in places. Seeing how much effort they put in to pull off many of the bug effects on Phenomena is pretty impressive today when it'd be created so easily with CGI. There's also a look into the practical effects & animatronics of Demons though the docs highlight, a look at how they shot the wonderful tracking shot ( the one that goes from one side of the building to the other & through the window) in Tenebre, remains fascinating.  

The biggest disappointment without a doubt is the lack of depth concerning what makes Argento the man & the film-maker that he is. There are mentions of the themes he uses but they are only just scratching the surface. The film feels a waste of a good opportunity to get get to know a bit more about the man that has given us so many unique pieces of cinema. 

Nowadays this documentary has been thrown in as a DVD extra on the Anchor Bay release of Suspiria, a bonus feature I guess you can have no complaints. but judging this as a stand alone documentary that was released on VHS for full price I can't imagine many being too pleased with what they got.

Rating: ★★