 Thanks for checking out this no spoiler movie review This is for Dario Argento's opera, which is a 1987 film and I didn't watch it on the streaming service I actually got it out through Netflix DVD. Yes, if you haven't seen some of my other reviews where I've used DVDs through that service I'm still doing it. It is well worth it for me because there are a lot of titles that You just can't get anywhere Streaming services keep in mind are very very limited. So things like Netflix DVD service are very much worth it if you're looking for older stuff, especially older horror stuff I couldn't find opera on any streaming stuff. So this was helpful. Although to be honest the the DVD quality of that Version of opera was did not look very good to be honest. It was kind of rough But you know, whatever you watch it for the content of the film not necessarily how that particular version of the film looks Although, you know, whatever. Okay, so So I find it interesting one of the first things that occurred to me is this film has a lot to do with Opera in this instance. It's an operatic version of Macbeth that's going on In the main storyline and it kind of starts with the behind the scenes at the stage as they're doing, you know Practices and stuff like that and it was interesting because I was like man, this Seems a lot like the film stage fright, which is another giallo film opera is a giallo And so I was just like, when did stage fright come out? I think it may have been the same year checked it up checked up on it internet movie database calm yeah 1987 opera and stage fright and They have a very similar feel because of the setting because stage fright's done kind of like behind the scenes at a play and Opera's done behind the scenes at an opera. So it's really I was thought it was really weird And then I was like this is even weirder though because the guy who did stage fright is Michel Suave Who has worked on film with Dario Argento who did opera? And so for the fact that they've worked together before and then they had two They each had a movie that came out the same year that were pretty similar I wonder if they've been had been talking and got like one of them got an idea for from the other one for a film and they just I don't know. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but it seems like not coincidence You know what I'm saying? But the other interesting thing is that Michel Suave has been in a bunch of the films as an actor with Argento he was in like Tenebrae I think Phenomena and most most famously his role in Demons as the guy with like the the metallic half mask on You know, he doesn't have big roles. Oh and the other thing is I saw an internet movie database that Apparently he's uncredited but actually has a role in opera. So Just very weird and interesting to me that there's that tie-in. I like I find those things very interesting So I really like these types of films when I say these I'm talking about opera and stage fright again Where it is this kind of like behind-the-scenes of an opera or a stage play or anything like that because It's something that a lot of people are not privy to and to kind of see it depicted whether it's Fully faithful to what actually goes on or not. It's just interesting to see all the inner workings Well the behind-the-scenes workings and one of the things that really hits you with the way it's portrayed in this film is That it's so busy and and that's one of the things it becomes like a little distracting in the beginning of the film is Like there are two characters talking and there's people just constantly like walking between them and behind them and everyone's just like Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. People are all over the place and you're just kind of like man This is distracting But it's kind of genius because that kind of gets the point through of how busy it is how distracting the environment is Behind the scenes of these well-produced well put together plays and operas So I just thought it was really cool that it kind of like gives you a realistic feel I Did theater in high school, so I kind of have an idea, you know, it's not nearly the same. I'm sure but kind of Okay, so there was a very heavy focus in this film on these ravens And they kept kept coming back to these ravens particularly focusing on like the eyes of the ravens Which in general there there's a very large focus on eyes But let me talk about the raven stuff first first and then I'll go into the eyes a little bit But with the ravens they focused on them a lot there are a lot of like tight shots or like close-ups of the faces of the ravens a lot of scenes of the ravens making like squawking noises and Really annoying gets really really annoying because they keep coming back to it and when they're doing it They're doing it for too long in my opinion They're really long drawn-out shots the noise of the ravens repeatedly squawking gets extremely annoying Extremely fast just seeing them just flying around or walking around or just making noise becomes very tiresome Very annoying and it's one of the worst things about this film Although there are other things I if you can't tell I didn't really dig this film to be honest This is the first Argento That I'm watching that. I'm just kind of like I don't I don't think it's a bad film but for me there are a lot of things that really annoyed me about it and I Just feel like in comparison to say you know something like deep red deep red was so much better inferno Inferno was so much better So I don't know. I just feel like it's a very Relatively weak offering. I like the idea behind the story I like the settings and there are a lot of other things to like about this But there are a lot of things that aren't so great I think the cinematography looked very different as opposed to what Argento cinematography normally looks like he didn't use colors as much as he usually does in a lot of films and There just weren't that many interesting shots. It just seemed a little boring as far as cinematography went Yeah, and the other thing is I believe he did not have goblin For the set for the score so a lot of the music was just not all that great or engaging or what you kind of would expect from Argento The other thing is there's this there's this weird dichotomy between having actual opera music which they had a lot in the film and then having like Heavy metal version of opera music, which is like this kind of Ronnie James Dio-esque music that's pumping and At first I was just like it's so weird because they clash so much and they're so different They're like opposite ends of the musical spectrum in a way But then I thought about it I'm like now it's actually kind of cool in a sense because you have opera which is very operatic Obviously and it's on the classical side and it's seen as very like high-class and oh It's so stylish and classy and then you have heavy metal on the other side on the other hand But the Dio-esque style of heavy metal is operatic the singing is is very much the same And so it's kind of it kind of is making a point of like People think that opera is like very nice and high-class and classy and people don't think that about heavy metal Especially heavy metal like this, but they're pretty similar in in actuality. So I really liked that kind of mix It was annoying at first because you're just like the seams weird the scores very weird and wears goblin, you know But it kind of worked. I feel like it worked Do-do-do. Yeah, the Ravens were just the noises were like insufferable is a good way to put it The the movie especially in the beginning well It's weird because in the very beginning of the film it seems very frantic and kind of like Scattered how they kind of like go from like scene to scene and I think part of that has to do with the field They were trying to create with the behind the scenes of this opera But also but then it's weird because then the movie like really ends up slowing down And then it starts feeling like crazy slow and they're taking way too long on scenes that really shouldn't take that long They take a lot of the excitement and a lot of the tension out of it because of the way they draw things out And it's just boring the movies Like an hour and 45 minutes ish And I think it really should have been about an hour and a half Maybe less than that to be honest you could cut a lot out and make it a lot better The pacing was off the pacing was very off with this film And the dubbing the dubbed voices were very wooden Not good. This is one of the instances where I wish the allies Jala films actually had the option for subtitles with Italian It would just make things so much easier and better. Oh, I needed to go back to the eye thing There's a very very big focus in this film on eyes and like I was saying like focusing on Raven's eyes But also characters eyes and and also there's like trauma having to do with eyes as well And I think it's kind of just this this point of Witnessing things and the other thing is you know eyes or windows to the soul type or deal So that comes into play as well So it's just this big focus on eyes and on that note There's a lot of close-ups that happen and Argento likes to do this in films But in this film in particular I feel like he spends too much time on the close-ups and keeps cutting to close-ups kind of unnecessarily and It gets annoying to a point where you're just like Whoa, dude, can we back up like give us a minute and back this up and like let's see a wider shot here I want to see more of the environment of the set of what's going on and on that on the topic of sets I do think the sets look really good And this is one thing that's very consistent throughout Argento's films is he makes sets look really stylish really cool really Interesting usually he's doing a lot of cool things with lighting. It wasn't as much on at Employed during this film. I just feel like this is a film where he kind of Stepped away from a lot of things that he that he usually does that I like it wasn't nearly as Aesthetically pleasing as a lot of the other films. I've seen of his so that's another reason that I was kind of like on this film In the beginning they used actually a lot of lengthy POV shots and there was one in particular that made me Think that I was able to tell something about what would come into play at the end of the film And it actually kind of ended up being a red herring, which is good. I really like that stuff They did have a decent amount of red herrings in this which was very very nice the But once again like there were gratuitous camera POV shots going through like hallways and stuff like that and it was just like When you see it initially when it's done a few times, it's cool And if it's kind of just like scattered a few times here or there It's it's fine and it looks cool from time to time But when you just keep coming back to it and keep doing it and doing it and doing it It's just like okay. Can we do something different? Please this is getting annoying and I feel like there's a lot of that with this film It's like can you stop repetitively doing this and repetitively doing this and repetitively doing this like let's Let's do something different here Yeah, so overly busy the amount of close-ups are annoying. I'm actually like doing some of my notes But without reading them so there's a weird focus on the topic of sex and masturbation before performances in in plays and opera and it's Like fine like I don't care that it's in there to be honest But the way they put it in it feels very like odd and shoehorned into it and it just like It just hit me. I was just like wait what like why why is this a thing? It doesn't have this seem to have anything to do with the story. It's very weird It's very out of nowhere. It just seems like someone was like I think this is kind of funny Let's put this in there. I hear that people before Going on the stage have sex or jerk off. So let's put that in there. It's just like it's weird There's some subtle commentary in this on people who make horror films and really like horror films and them being equated in Society to being like sick and demented basically so it's it's very quick. There's not a whole lot of it. They don't like Make that theme very apparent, but it's it's like a quickly referenced thing Which I think it's kind of cool because that does happen in real life like people think oh you like horror films You're kind of gross. You're kind of sick. So I like that There's okay, so there's this is where the no spoilers part comes in But if you've seen it, you'll know what I'm referring to so there's something that keeps occurring Between the killer and the main character that I think is very effective and actually does a good job at building up tension the only problem though is With the long drawn-out stuff and how it starts feeling very very slow The tension that's created by that thing that keeps happening gets killed by the pacing of the actual movie And it really sucks for that reason. You're just like oh man You could have been so better if you would have edited this much better It would have kept things like moving and been really engaging and but the thing that they have that repeatedly happens I think is actually really cool. It's a really kind of original cool concept And that's one of my favorite things about this film to be honest Already talked about the focus on eyes There's a really Cinematically beautiful kill scene in this film that is in slow motion So once again not giving anything away by saying that but if you've seen it You'll know what I'm talking about It looked great. I remember like well, I remember I just watched it I remember sitting there and just being like oh my gosh that that looked Looked beautiful. It was cinematically amazing. It looks so good. And you know what I'm talking about if you've seen it the main character Seems ridiculous, but then actually I kind of realized that it's also almost all characters in this film when someone dies, they're just kind of like Like no one Legitimately cares about the fact that people are being killed like no one cares really the only thing is they focus mainly on the main Character having to do with the deaths and it becomes very apparent that she only cares about her own safety And she's just like oh my god that person died. Okay Like the people move past death like it's nothing. They just breeze or like passing. They're just like, huh Well, that person died. Okay, you guys you want to do some practice for the for the opera or what? it's ridiculous and and those things kind of bother me because You know the film doesn't have to feel like it's 100% realistic But at least with emotional stuff like that you got to make it seem somewhat realistic and in this instance it's just not and And then yeah, it just seemed like really slow in meandering and that was the last thing I wrote down So overall, I don't know. I don't I'm between two numbers on this one So I do my five-star scale with half stars in play if I could do quarters. I would give it a 2.25 But I'm between two and a half and two Because of the annoyingness of a lot of the stuff that's actually done in this I'm gonna go to I Really was not a big fan of this and I don't think I'd really recommend it But if you heard some things in this review that you really liked and you haven't seen it yet Go ahead and check it out. It's I think it's fine to see once, you know I don't think it's the one you're gonna want to go back to I Certainly don't want to but maybe you do. I don't know everyone's got their own opinion and obviously this review is my opinion But um, you know, whatever Check it out. If you want to check it out and I really appreciate people checking out this review though Go ahead and hit hit that subscribe if you haven't already it can really help me out a lot Plus it encourages me to do more of these and I just want to keep doing them whenever when people are like subscribe So subscribe Say that ten times fast put down some comments. Have you seen this movie? What are what's your take? Do you disagree with me? Do you really like this? I know it's considered to be a pretty good geolofilm I just there are a lot of things that really messed it up for me and messed up the flow and got annoying and I was just like Yeah, this isn't this isn't my thing And then you can give a thumbs up if you want But the big thing is subscribe and tell other people about it If you know some people out there who like no spoiler movie reviews for horror films Let them know. Anyway, thanks everyone for checking this out until next time keep it brutal