Is Dario Argento a good director or a bad director? Elements of his films can be downright baffling. The stories often make zero sense, and plots take tangents That go nowhere. The villain is almost always a late twist that introduces someone we’ve never seen before or a background character that has had zero set up for their motivations.

Even worse, the protagonists act like the the biggest fools this side of a Friday The 13th movie. In Opera, for example, a young operetta (Christina Marsillach) has just escaped our villain, who has tied her up and forced her eyes open with needles. She runs to the police inspector, who tells her to stay at her apartment until a bodyguard can arrive. She has a hard time seeing now because of her torture. Well, while she waits for her apartment, someone arrives claiming he is the bodyguard. She can’t see him or verify any of his credentials. So she does what any normal person does: opens the door, lets him in, then cranks up the music in her bedroom that is already soundproof. She really needs to be starring in that one GEICO ad.

Yet as terrible as that (and many other) moments in the movie are, I still seek out Argento movies. Part of it is the elegant settings and the signature cinematography. Just the title alone lets you know that for long stretches you will be treated to lush visuals of one of Argento’s favorite settings: the opera house. And it’s not just a typical opera. The director (Ian Charleston) is sort of an Argento self-insert. He is a horror director with aspirations towards art. He transforms MacBeth into some sort of madhouse spectacle: bright costuming including extras dressed as WWI doughboys, a set that includes a downed airplane, and what seems like a hundred live ravens. The opera house is also now a crazy funhouse, which drives away the previous diva whom Marsillach replaces.

Things quickly go Phantom of the Opera on Marsillach, though. One of the stage lights falls during her performance. The director urges her to continue, and it pays off. She’s raved in papers as the hot new opera star (while at the same time they’re dissing the director). At the same time, a stagehand is found murdered. Things escalate, and it becomes apparent that this isn’t just bad luck that visits a famously cursed play: this is done a specifically with Marsillach as the target.

You can sometimes see the kills coming from miles away. And yet Argento sells you on the creeping terror. His kills take place is wide, dimly lit cluttered rooms. Fabric hangs on the walls. Raven caw from their cages. It’s impossible to focus on one particular space. And sometimes, he directs you to a spot only to have the terror come from some place completely unexpected. In one lovely scene, you are on your toes because he milks out the payoff for far longer than it should. People are constantly finding excuses to leave a room to be alone. (Argento seems to know this is stupid behavior, but he’s willing to string along the viewer in this game he’s playing.) You never know at exactly what moment either of them will find a black glove around their mouth.

And when it does happen, we get a rock music horror sting. It’s a little campy touch in a movie about an opera. But it’s also fitting, in a way. An almost triumphant cue that we’ve finally gotten to the moment we were watching the movie for in the first place.

There’s another reason I like Argento films: the weird plot twists also tend to create a propulsive energy about them. It’s been said that giallo has its roots in fairy tales, specifically Disney’s Snow White. Opera takes place in a world that is at times familiar, but in most cases operates by its own rules. Hero chimps, clockwork puppets, or in this case the entire opera erect the barrier to the real world. The terror comes from when fantasy and reality intersect, and the sight of a brutal murder jolts you out of a dream reverie.

Rating: 5/5 stars.