Shudder’s Dario Argento Panico is an introductory class to one of the giallo greats

Simone Scafidi’s DARIO ARGENTO PANICO. // Courtesy Shudder

The god-king of exporting giallo to American audiences has always been Dario Argento. The director’s work in neon drenched disco-horror defined it’s own style that—with greater frequency in recent years—has been imitated into oblivion. The original master gets the documentary treatment in a new Shudder feature, Dario Argento Panico, releasing Feb. 2, 2024.

Through the words of the director himself, Panico reconstructs the director’s entire life, from his birth in a family already linked to the show, reviewing the great films of Argento, up to the celebrations around the world in recent years. The narrative consists of the life of Argento told by himself: interviews with his collaborators, people from the family sphere and personal friendships, Italian and international scholars, world-famous guest stars; excerpts from his films; archive materials from his sets, both video and photographic.

In the secluded ambiance of hotel rooms, Dario Argento crafted his greatest cinematic creations, seeking solace from the outside world to delve into his nightmares. Now, he finds himself in a hotel room to return to the very setting that ignited his creative fervor to conclude his latest script and participate in an intimate interview, all while being followed by a film crew documenting his life for a movie about his illustrious career.

Argento himself speaks of himself as if he were divided in two, as if there were two Dario Argentos: the one who creates nightmares and the private, common, ordinary one. Finally, panic: Argento said, at the time of the making of Suspiria, that scaring the public is a vocation, something inherent in him, in his soul, in his dreams. But also, that he does not seek simple terror, which is a beginner’s goal, but pursues panic. That would be delirium. But is panic today still what Argento was once chasing? What is Dario Argento looking for today at 83?

Simone Scafidi’s DARIO ARGENTO PANICO. // Courtesy Shudder

Amid a wave in recent years of immortalizing the careers of various directors, Argento’s work seems a perfect fit for a start to finish revisit. Even the most avid cinema fans probably cannot name some of his best work, based on was and wasn’t available to American audiences until recently. Of the imports in the 70s and 80s, its shocking to understand now the scope and scale of he successes, and the records he set for Italian film sales in America.

His daughter, actress Asia Argento, has some of the most interesting contributions to the doc, as do the perspectives offered by his peers. Del Toro in particular breaks down Argento’s dream logic into its most terrifying parts, while Refn fills in a few gaps on some of the most cocaine-fueled films he obsesses over—while admitting to the degree that he’s borrow from Argento over the years.

Simone Scafidi’s DARIO ARGENTO PANICO. // Courtesy Shudder

The modern footage framing this around the hotel mostly winds up feeling stretched a little thin. It’s a few hours with an 83 year old who seems a bit cranky, disconnected from fully answering questions, even annoyed perhaps to have the attention. It’s an interesting experiment to film the creator returning to a hotel to do writing, but it’s ultimately not very rewarding—not that this is a strike against the film. Rather it’s just small chunks of dead air amid a fascinating revisit of five decades of Argento’s work. A

bsolutely worth the watch, perhaps even for the archival footage of Goblin scoring Suspiria alone.