3 star enjoyable but ultimately disappointing Giallo/buddy comedy.
Dark Glasses (Occhielli Neri) is a 2022 horror/mystery/thriller film from renowned Italian director Dario Argento (Tenebrae, The Cat O’ Nine Tails, Phenomena) who directs and also co-writes with Franco Ferrini (Demons, The Last FAshion Show). Now aged 82, it seems that his keen eye for detail when it comes to story telling may have wandered somewhat off the mark for this one.
It is a Shudder Original film, presented in Italian with English subtitles and is available on the streaming service from 13th October 2022.
“Inspector, I saw a van speeding out of the parking lot, like a bat out of hell. It even slammed into another car.”
Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli – Four to Dinner, Good Gals) is a young woman, working the streets of Rome as a prostitute. She is spirited, feisty and not very careful, right at the start we see her irritate her eyes looking directly at an eclipse.
Her life takes a turn for the worse one day when a serial killer (Andrea Gherpelli – Hidden Away) turns his eye towards her.
While chasing her in his van he causes her to run a red light, hitting another vehicle, killing the driver and putting his wife in a coma, leaving a child alive in the back seat. Diana herself is blinded in the accident and never saw her attacker.
It is hard for her to adjust, but she has help in the form of Rita (Asia Argento – xXx, Land of the Dead), a support worker from Association of the Blind & Visually Impaired. She teaches her to get around and gets her a guide/attack dog, Nerea (in the UK guide dogs tend to be fairly mild mannered – not in Italy apparently).
The young boy from the crash, Chin (Andrea Zhang) decides he wants to stay withe and help her, but this attracts the attention of child services. With a killer on the loose and the police on her tail, how will this blind woman go on?
“Neither the sun nor death can be stared at.”
Dark Glasses is an entertaining watch, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have issues. The biggest of these is the expectations which arise when the name Dario Argento is mentioned. This film is clumsy, not brilliantly written and downright silly in places (the water snakes were a step too far!), not at all what we have come to expect.
It’s quite gloomy and the portrayal of the blind lead as being completely helpless is both a bit depressing and insulting to blind people. It degenerates into a buddy/comedy movie in places with the relationship between Diana and Chin lending a strange dynamic to the whole thing. Throw in some bungling police officers and you are verging on a farce.
There is plenty of gouting, and the violence when it does happen is extremely graphic and not for the faint hearted. I would say it is certainly worth watching as long as you try not to take it too seriously.
“You’re the fourth. Before you there were three victims, all prostitutes.”
Dark Glasses is available to stream now on Shudder
| Director | Dario Argento |
| Genre | Horror, mystery, thriller |
| Starring | Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Mario Pirello, Andrea Gherpelli |