Opera is by many regarded as the last good Argento film, and even though there are some exceptions to that rule, they are largely right. The filming in Opera is something quite unlike what Argento has done before. More fluid, with long point-of-view shots, and an excellent use of light and shadows. Combine the gorgeous visuals with an engaging story, a wide range of music to both soothe and build tension, and you got Opera.

The story in Opera is both engaging and weird at the same time. In a way it’s just a well written murder mystery, but on the other it’s a dive into total psychological terror. It ends up with a strange pacing because of this, but as in many Argento movies, you can cut the tension with a knife all through the film, and even though Argento is a bit uneven when it comes to his endings, Opera has a decent one.

When it comes to the acting, there’s not much to say. It’s adequate, with a few notable exceptions of the positive variety. I especially like Cristina Marsillach as our heroine. She has the looks and the screen presence to really stand out.

The music is a mix of opera, heavy metal, and everything in between… and just as in Phenomena, mixing in the heavier music works. I have no idea how, but it does. I first found it a bit jarring, but as I have seen this film quite a few times by now, I guess it grew on me.

Opera doesn’t quite reach the top of my ranking, but the visuals are absolutely stunning, and the tension in Opera is really something else. Absolutely worth a watch if you are a fan of Argento… or just good craftsmanship in general.

Opera was my first Dario Argento movie and I am really happy that this was the case. Probably wouldn't have been that interested in Argento if it was another movie of his, because I don't like all of his work; this one however, is in my opinion up to now the best movie I know by him.

Just consider the film making taking the first scene: It starts with a raven eye, and we see the entire scenery as the reflection inside the raven eye: an opera stage and the audience sitting in front of it. This is a special metaphor: Eyes and observing things, be it as a voluntary observer, or as a forced observer. But it's also about seeing things and not seeing other things - with a lot of POV shots. This movie is also about unhealthy relationships, psychopaths and music. A large portion is also critizising the opera due to the fact that Dario Argento wanted to create an Opera but was riddiculed. All this is put into a relatively easy but yet really captivating and thrilling story - we have a masked serial killer that stalks an opera singer and forces her to witness his or her kills.

The movie offers a lot of original ideas that one hasent seen as such before - one for example being the needels being sellotaped to the eyelids, to make shure they cannot be closed. Another interesting thing are the elaborate dolly shots that where hard to film because everything had to be done by hand. This makes this movie great even for todays standards and there is no wondering, why this is considered to be one of the most outstanding movies of the italian horror movies.

It's really worth seeing!