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Non ho sonno (2001) More at IMDbPro »

Argento is back!, 28 June 2008

Author: Count_Elvis from the castle of freaks, Tryansalabamia

In general, Dario Argento's films after 1987's "Opera" are held is pretty low regard by most horror fans, especially when compared to his films of the 70's and early 80's like "Deep Red", "Suspiria" and "Tenebre". Despite the lack of attention given to them though I still find several of them to be well worth checking out such as "Sleepless", which marked his return to the giallo genre that made him famous. It's about a veteran police detective and a young man whose mother was killed by the so called "Turin Murderer" teaming up to stop him after he returns to his old ways 17 years after he supposedly stopped.

I enjoyed "Sleepless" quite a bit. The Italian prog-rock band Goblin is on had to delivers a nicely creepy score, the pounding rock music fits Argento's film like a glove once again. There are very few times when a rock soundtrack has worked to a horror film's advantage, but this is one of them. This film also has some satisfyingly sadistic and bloody murders including one face smashing that hearkens back to "Deep Red". And of course there are many other stabbings and lots of other goodies to make horror fans happy. In traditional Argento fashion these are done with much artistic flair and gusto. "Sleepless" is not a flawless movie, it contains the two flaws most associated with Argento's work, mediocre acting and a poorly written script. As in the case of the good Argento films, the music and the visuals are able to overcome this. This film is also too long with a runtime of almost two hours. Still, this is a solid and enjoyable film.

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