Anybody seen this besides me and that guy with the beard who left about halfway through?

Wow, Nate, you've been hitting the movies.

Do you consider yourself an Argento fan? I've only seen Suspiria and Deep Red, but I've been curious about checking out some of his other stuff. I think Suspiria is overrated, but I admired Deep Red. Some of the best cinematography I've seen in a horror film and pretty creepy too.

I don't consider myself a fan, although I really admire his '70s output, when he was working within the "giallo" genre. If you like Deep Red, I recommend The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o' Nine Tails, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (the only one of his films not available on DVD).

He lost me when he moved into more explicit territory, gorging himself on fetishistic violence and cruelty. But before that dip into sadism, he was a first-class director, and his early films are fun to parse on a psychological level. In Deep Red, for example, the protagonist is an eyewitness to a crime, but some of the key details are locked away in his subconscious, so he (and we) must wait until his mind can cough up the answer. Meanwhile, he is being targeted as the next victim. It's a thrilling pattern for a horror movie.

I used to be a big Argento fan, but he hasn't made anything decent since "Opera" (aka "Terror at the Opera") and that was over twenty years ago! I have been pondering whether or not to add "Mother of Tears" to my rental list for old time's sake, but the reviews have been so dreadful. These days it seems only Juno is a fan...

Note to J.R: "Inferno" (the second film in the Three Mothers trilogy) is Argento's masterpiece. The dialogue is terrible, the acting is patchy and the plot is nuts, but there really isn't anything else like it. It's that rare bird: an arthouse horror movie. Expect to be either bored or dazzled.