continued...

... by a man who seemingly appears out of nowhere. After this attack Anna resumes her duties, as a police officer in an attempt to catch the serial rapist whom she is convinced is the same man who attacked her. It is once Anna begins to investigate the crimes and the effects that the violent attacks have on other's lives does she begin to discover a change in herself as well.

We are set up at the beginning of the film to believe that we will see a girl in the grips of a mental disturbance and the effects of this particular disorder over the course of the film, hence the title. But we are led astray, and to spectacular results. It is the placement of these deceiving bits of information that are placed throughout Argento's work that really gets the audience involved and rooting for whoever may be in peril at that particular moment. Much like Hitchcock, Argento's focus shifts from character to character at times and you don't know exactly who to pull for at any given moment, and that is part of the brilliance.

The only place it truly lacks is in the dialogue, all of the police and especially the psychiatrist character are uninteresting, and this is clearly caused by the banal dialogue given to them. Some of Anna's dialogue is trite but somehow Asia manages to underplay the role creating subtle textures in her personality that endear us to her as we share all of her experiences.


Ennio Morricone's score is a very important ingredient that cannot go unmentioned. It is reminiscent of Christopher Komeda's score for Rosemary's Baby where Mia Farrow provided the lullaby theme's vocals to chilling effect. Music has always been very important in Dario's films and this proves to be no exception. The score is wildly haunting and soothing at the same time. It jars you at the right moment and turns and stops to let you breath the next. The music uses an interesting device not commonly employed in music in that the main theme from which most of the score derives is a palindrome that shifts in pitch.

Given Mr. Argento's knack for filmmaking as a visceral and raw experience, I look forward greatly to many more films to come in the years ahead.

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