CAT O’ NINE TAILS

Watching a Dario Argento film that actually involves a through-line narrative is about as jarring as watching one of his elaborate murder sequences. The movie revolves around a journalist, a blind cruciverbalist (see mom, I can use big words!) and his grade school niece, trying to solve a string of murders centering on an institute’s research of “chromosome alteration”.

I liked the main characters and their Jake and Fatman chemistry. I liked the mood and loved the Morricone score. There’s a death sequence involving a train and a slow motion close up of a man’s head hitting it that’s beautifully disgusting. I even was digging the late ‘60s/early ‘70s European furnishings (who knew a room could hold so many conflicting color choices!).