A modern TV movie from the master of Giallo.
The plot:
Giulio is an aspiring journalist, desperate to spot a story to get him the break that he needs. After meeting a mysterious and exotic neighbour at the local video store, he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems in his neighbourhood.
Spying on the world from the expansive window of his apartment, he observes what he believes to be murderous activity and, worse still, he thinks the beautiful neighbour may be involved.
And this is certainly watered down fare.
First off, a confession: Against my better judgement, I watched the dubbed version of this movie. Never a wise move, and it certainly proved folly here as the poor quality of the voice acting made much of this movie feel like a particularly low budget porno.
Setting that aside, here we have the occasional Argento style directorial flourish, though everything is reigned in, presumably for budgetary reasons.
The cast are likeable enough, I suppose, but the plot is so contrived it is difficult to really buy into it.
Also, think about this: Argento takes Hitchcock's Rear Window as his source material, and effectively tries to replicate it, but on a shoestring budget and, frankly, that was simply never going to work.
A pale imitation of his more famous works, this feels like something of an experiment for Argento and, in my humble one, it was a failed one.
Disappointing.
2 out of 5
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