Dario Argento

CHICAGO – Revered horror director Dario Argento has numerous classics to his name, including “Suspiria” and “Deep Red,” which have cemented him to a designation in which filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Brian De Palma, and James Wan cite him as an influence. As a writer, he has numerous co-writing credits, including story work on “Once Upon a Time in the West” with Bernardo Bertolucci and the film’s director, Sergio Leone.

CHICAGO – Any conversation of the best Westerns in movie history that doesn’t include Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” is incomplete. It’s one of those rare films that has truly gotten better with age. I’m not sure if it’s just that I appreciate it more the older I get, but I’m not alone. The film now ranks high on nearly every important list of the best movies ever made. Yes, it’s that good, and the Blu-ray restoration, which hit stores this week, is a beauty.

CHICAGO – Every once in awhile there’s a relatively smaller studio that just does right by genre fans. It was Anchor Bay for a few years. Now it’s Blue Underground, who have been quietly releasing some horror classics. Two of their best releases hit this week and then again on May 31st in a pair of Dario Argento gems, “Deep Red” and “The Cat O’ Nine Tails.” If you call yourself a horror fan, you should own them both.

CHICAGO – If you think studios are fickle now and that the foreign film market is weird, you should know that it’s been that way for a very long time. Take the case of “Inferno,” Dario Argento’s follow-up to his breakthrough film “Suspiria.” Instead of giving it the wide release and support it deserved, the film was buried, barely released theatrically even in New York.

CHICAGO – Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” pulses with the kind of energy and life that we only see from cinema a few times a year.

CHICAGO – The great cult movie studio Blue Underground continues their pattern of excellent Blu-ray releases for unheralded horror gems with the recent releases of the Lucio Fulci zombie film “City of the Living Dead” and one of the most underrated westerns ever made in “Django”. While they don’t have much in common outside of studio and cult status, both are worth a look.