morrison-dylan-fan Whilst I have seen the 2 episodes of Door Into Darkness that Dario Argento directed a number of times,I for some reason have never got round to taking a look at the 2 non-Argento eps,which led to me deciding that it was time to take a look at the first ep in the series.The plot:Moving to a new apartment in a seaside town with their baby,young couple Luca and Stefanie find all the lights to have blown up.Lighting up a candle,the couple start to search round the apartment,and find water to be spilling from the celling.Going to talk to their new male neighbour,the couple find the door wide open,with no sound of anyone inside.Checking that everything is OK with their new neighbour,the couple enter the apartment and hear a running tap.Finding the tap,the couple are horrified to discover that their new neighbour has left the dead body of a murdered girl in the bath.View on the film:For the first half of the ep writer/director Luigi Cozzi boils up an icy haunted house atmosphere,as the lone candlelight sways with every blown fuse and drop of water dripping down the apartment wall.Sending Luca & Stefanie (played by the very good Aldo Reggiani and Laura Belli) into the neighbour's apartment,Cozzi puts a stop to the haunted house mood,and takes things into a Giallo route.Whilst he does display some stylish touches in his directing, (with "the lighter" scene being filled with tension)the screenplay by Cozzi fails to build up any feeling of mystery or dread,thanks to Cozzi going for a twist ending,which along with making the new parents look very stupid,was one that I correctly guessed a good 30 minutes before the reveal,which leads to this being a slightly disappointing neighbourly visit.

Woodyanders Luca (likable Aldo Reggiani) and Stefanie (fetching Laura Belli) are a young couple with a baby who move into a remote seaside apartment late at night. Unbeknownst to the couple, the neighbor (excellently played by Mimmo Palmara) who lives upstairs has just murdered his wife. Writer/director Luigi Cozzi does a fine job of creating and sustaining a considerable amount of slowly building suspense and milks the creepy and sinister atmosphere for all it's worth. Reggiani and Belli make for solid and sympathetic leads. The casting of Palmara as the killer is especially inspired: He's a bespectacled and gray-haired middle-aged guy whose deceptively bland and nonthreatening outward appearance masks his frightening capacity for brutal violence. The cut-off coastal setting evokes a powerfully unsettling sense of isolation and vulnerability. Elio Polacchi's cinematography offers lots of suitably spooky shadowy lighting and makes good occasional use of a jumpy and invigorating hand-held camera. Giorgio Gaslini's eerie and ominous score also hits the shivery spot. A sturdy and satisfying show.

Coventry I have very high expectations for all four episodes in Dario Argento's TV-suspense series called "Door into Darkness", and the first installment certainly delivered already! "The Neighbor", directed by Argento's good friend Luigi Cozzi ("Contamination"), is a good old-fashioned and suspenseful chiller that'll keep any fan of story-driven horror on the edge of his/her seats for a full hour. Clearly inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" – as Cozzi also confirms during a brief prologue – "The Neighbor" has a rudimentary script and introduces very few characters. A young couple and their newborn son move into a seaside apartment and spend their first night in a dark living room since without electricity. They notice a rapidly growing water stain on the ceiling and as they try to confront the upper neighbor with this, they eerily discover a dead woman's body in the bathtub. Completely isolated and petrified, Luca and Stefania entrench themselves in their dark apartment, but naturally the murderous neighbor wants to dispose himself of the two unwelcome witnesses. Dario Argento is world-famous and generally worshiped for his excessive use of gory make-up effects and explicit shocks, but the thrills in "The Neighbor" are merely suggestive and bloodless. Partly, of course, because this series was made for television distribution, but the tone of this short film also doesn't fit gross situations. Cozzi successfully puts the emphasis on slow-brooding tension and identifiable characters. Even the villain isn't the typical kind of mad-raving, axe-wielding maniac, but clearly an emotionally tormented and desperate man who got pushed over a certain mental edge. The atmosphere hence becomes much more intense and plausible, and you honestly hope for the innocent young couple and their baby to make it out of there alive. The screenplay isn't entirely without flaw, however, and contains several improbabilities. For example, why would anyone move into a new apartment in the middle of the night and it certainly isn't likely to watch movies on a small and portable TV (working on batteries!) during your first evening in a totally new living environment. Still, if you simply ignore these minor flaws, you'll experience an effectively unsettling and compelling thriller. The acting performances are top-notch as well. Especially Laura Belli ("Almost Human", "The Nun of Monza") leaves a great impression as the lovely young wife. "The Neighbor" is highly recommended to avid Italian cult collectors and even to less fanatic admirers of good suspense-cinema. Personally I can't wait to watch the second episode in this series, which is called "The Tram" and was director by master Argento himself.

The_Void Door into Darkness is Italy's answer to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and is delivered by Italy's answer to Hitchcock; Dario Argento. This first instalment of the series, titled 'The Neighbour' is directed by Dario Argento aficionado Luigi Cozzi and handles the idea of a madman taking his insanity out on innocent people. We follow a young couple and their baby as they move into a new apartment block. Strangely, this is done at night; and the story really picks up when, while watching Frankenstein, the pair discover a leak in the ceiling, apparently coming from the upstairs neighbour's flat. Seeing as this short film is made for TV, it's hardly surprising that it doesn't offer as much as films that Argento has been involved in usually do. There's barely a drop of blood, the story is very concise and the production values aren't exactly high; but this is made up for by excellent directing, some nice acting and a great sense of tension that runs throughout. Director Luigi Cozzi has clearly taken influence from the Italian Master, and this is felt as he directs the action through a number of different angles and draws suspense from the very basic plot line. On the whole, The Neighbour can't be considered as one of the best things to come out of Italy during the seventies; but for what it is (a made for TV short film), this isn't bad at all. Not to mention the fact that the entire Door into Darkness series has huge cult value, and is therefore a must see for any fan of Italian horror!