A woman runs screaming towards us with high hedges on either side.

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)

Roberto, an American drummer in a band recording in Milan, chases a man who has been following him and accidentally kills him. A masked figure takes photographs and begins to torment Roberto, breaking into his house and leaving behind evidence of the crime. When people begin to die, Roberto becomes increasingly paranoid, and he has to choose who to trust.

I enjoyed this. It’s common in slashers for the killer to wear a mask, but in gialli it’s more about black gloves, so it was fun to see the effectively creepy ventriliquist’s dummy mask here. It’s hard to warm to Roberto, who seems to be a bit of a dick, but Michael Brandon has amazing cheekbones, and the blankness of his character is made up for by the array of eccentrics around him. Argento likes to use gay characters, which is great, but they are often portrayed in stereotypical ways. The private detective Arrosio is the most sympathetic character in the film — funny, likeable and tragic.

Argento continues the playful camerawork of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, zooming, swooping and changing focus so things are never dull. The standout set piece comes when the live-in maid tries to blackmail the killer, but instead is chased through a park, almost trapped between two walls of rock, before being sliced up within earshot of a couple trying to help. A busy children’s play area is suddenly empty, and a late afternoon cuts to night. Argento creates a nightmare his victims can’t escape.

The surreal, unexpected choices Argento makes throughout these first films make them far more interesting than more straightforward thrillers, and some of the jumps forwards and backwards reminded me of John Boorman’s Point Blank. The identity of the killer is a surprise — the way they are caught is completely ridiculous. However, the final slow motion shot of a car being crushed under a lorry is a mark of genius. And his first three films came out within two years. That’s a hot streak.

Part of my DARIO ARGENTO season.