Dario Argento's Next Movie Will Star Isabelle Huppert, Begin Production Early Next Year
Dario Argento has been shocking audiences for five decades now and the 82-year-old director isn't stopping anytime soon. He has a new horror film under his belt right now called "Dark Glasses" and while at the acclaimed Sitges Film Festival the Italian director announced he has his next film lined up already that will start production in spring 2023.
Details are slim, of course, but he did reveal two very interesting tidbits: one, the film will be set in Paris, and two, the great Isabelle Huppert will star. Huppert is an award-winning actress that you'll know from films like "I Heart Huckabees," "Greta," and "Elle," which was her big awards movie in 2016.
Argento took a break from directing throughout most of the 2010s, his last film before "Dark Glasses" was 2012's "Dracula 3D," which wasn't exactly a high water mark for this iconic director. "Dark Glasses" looks to be returning the maestro to his "giallo" roots, which he became the face of with films like "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage," "Deep Red," and "Suspiria," all of which you should check out if you're into horror movies and never had the pleasure.
Giallo or bust
Giallo as a sub-genre of horror is fascinating. The word giallo means "yellow" in Italian and these very specific Italian slasher films were dubbed giallos because of the pulpy feel they conveyed, reminding critics of the time of old paperback genre books, pages yellowed with age.
These kinds of movies are distinguished from North American slashers (like "Black Christmas" and the "Friday the 13th" films) in that they usually lean heavily into a whodunnit realm. They have all the violence of a traditional slasher; as a matter of fact, the Italians tended to push the gory envelope in ways unmatched by Hollywood and the American indie film scene, but they often do so with an otherworldly tone and feel. The color palette of "Suspiria" is shockingly different from most horror movies and the scores are often operatic in nature.
Argento is the King of the giallo, helping define it as a legitimate sub-genre and creating its best films. We don't know if this upcoming film with Isabelle Huppert is going to be a giallo, but the idea of Argento directing an actor of her talents in modern-day giallo is pretty exciting, even if it's been a while since he's made a movie I've loved top to bottom.