The story begins in Turin, Italy, in March 1983, when a boy named Giacomo Gallo witnesses the murder of his mother, unfortunately without being able to see the murderer's face.
After 17 years, two prostitutes are brutally murdered for mistakenly picking up an envelope from a "client" containing photos and articles of past murders. Ulysses Moretti (Max Von Sydow) is in charge of the case, as he was 17 years earlier, given the similarities with deaths attributed to a serial killer called "the dwarf" and considered responsible for at least three murders.
The deaths resume, with similar bizarre characteristics: the killer leaves cardboard cutouts at the crime scene in the shape of an animal each time different. Upon hearing the news, Giacomo Gallo (Stefano Dionisi) returns to Turin in hopes of figuring out who killed his mother many years earlier. Together with Moretti, he attempts to stop the killer, through the traces left by the mysterious killer. They discover that the murders and animals left at the scene follow the stanzas of an old nursery rhyme. And the dwarf is only a tool of a more refined mind, which will leave Moretti and Gallo bewildered.
Other big names are part of the film's technical staff: the soundtrack is composed by the eternal Goblins; the special effects are handled by Sergio Stivaletti, Italy's Tom Savini; for the screenplay, Argento enlisted the collaboration of writer Carlo Lucarelli, also known for his TV shows on unsolved murder cases. With such an ensamble, he finally returns in a big way to a past that seemed to have waned inexorably. Argento rediscovers the creative vein lost for several years now and for four or five films. Some scenes are memorable, especially that of the prostitute who flees throughout the train, with shots from the camera positioned outside: sublimely dramatic. All the murders are heinous and have good visual impact, with skillful effects by the now experienced Stivaletti. If any flaws are to be found, it is in the dubbing that is not always up to the mark and in some of the actors who are poorly suited to the role.
It is tough to compete with such hallowed icons of Argentine thriller cinema as "Profondo Rosso" or "The Bird From Crystal Feathers," but the path taken seems the right one for a return to the glories of the past.
Review by Maxena
