Being a big Argento fan I was already looking forward to this film beforehand. I had really enjoyed Tenabrae, Suspiria, Terror At The Opera and Deep Red; which all feature the auteurist qualities expected from the renowned Italian filmmaker.
Like so many of Dario’s stories, they take place in suburbia but follow the lives of people who do some extraordinary things. In this case we follow the story of Roberto; who is being stalked by a mysterious man.
He finally confronts the man one night after practising with his band; but he accidentally stabs him and is caught on film by a mysterious figure wearing a puppet mask.
From here on in, he is threatened with phonecalls and letters from the mysterious person. He is even threatened in his own home, where the person declares ‘I could kill you now, but I won’t.’
Now people around Roberto are turning up dead, as he tries to piece together who the person could be.
It’s typical Argento in the fact that it is essentially a muder-mystery tale; filmed with all his usual hallmarks including an intense score and the use of split second flashbacks.
Roberto also hires a private investigator (a very camp one, which makes for minor amusement) to track down his new admirer.
With these sort of films, we are given the idiots guide in the tense finale as he waits for the killer in his home in an attempt to finally unmask them.
Films like the slashers of the 80s as well as even more modern horrors like Scream certainly took pointers from movies such as ‘Four Flies…’, and are definitely better for it.
Conclusively it’s no Tenabrae or Terror At The Opera, but it’s certainly one of Argento’s more solid efforts from his golden period.
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