Terror at the Opera   Starring: Cristina Marsillach, Daria Nicolodi and Ian Charleson Arrow Video RRP: £15.99 FCD427 Certificate: 18 Available 22 March 2010

A prima donna opera singer storms out of a theatre rehearsal, after complaining about the use of ravens in the production, and promptly gets hit by a car. A young and superstitious singer called Betty gets her chance to shine in Verdi's Macbeth as a stand-in. Betty becomes an overnight sensation. However, along with success, she somehow attains a masked psychotic fan, who terrorises her. Time and again she is abducted, bound with rope and has needles taped to her eyelids so that she is forced to watch her friends and colleagues brutally slain one-by-one. Who is the killer, and just what is the connection with Betty...?

To all intents and purposes, and as you would expect, this is Phantom of the Opera but with much more graphically violent content. It is one of a number of Dario Argento films to have been released with a reversible cover, a collector's booklet and a glossy artwork poster.

Although Terror at the Opera is considered to be one of his better horror films, I prefer the early madness of Demons and Tenebre. For Argento this film is a bigger production than most, but incorporates very little logic. There is the early speculation as to the identity of the killer (is it the boyfriend, the theatre director, the keeper of the ravens, or none of these?), but personally I found that I didn't particularly care that much. The conclusion of the film is a nonsense; it comes across almost as a dream, because it bears so little resemblance to the rest of the story. The connection to Betty is tenuous to say the least, and feels artificially tacked-on as an afterthought. Nevertheless, the majority of the movie is professionally directed; it's just not one of his better products.

For admirers of Terror at the Opera, of which I'm certain there are many, this is a two-disc DVD release incorporating as bonuses, a 91 minute US edit of the film with Cannes dub and alternative English dub, a Dario Argento Biography, Photo Gallery, Opera by Demonia Music Video, a DA Trailer Gallery, Top Six Gore Scenes, and other Trailers.

5

Ty Power