I've always watched Dario Argento's movies because the first horror or X film I ever got into the cinema to watch, was Suspiria - a great Argento movie. I loved the film Suspiria and have watched it so many times. In my view it is his best. Therefore, I keep watching Argento films hoping he will get the right ingredients, as he did in Suspiria.
However, to date, I've yet to come across an Argento movie that even comes close to the atmospheric suspense that Suspiria had for me. When I saw the title in my supermarket; Argento's Dracula, I thought, 'Wow! maybe good old Dario has pulled another one out of the bag. It would be about time too, since 1977.
The front cover boasted good actors: Thomas Kretschmann and Rutger Hauer. Therefore, with ill deserved confidence, I bought the DVD and that evening, with arrogant aplomb, I sat down to watch the Argento version of Dracula.
Oh dear! I waisted a couple of hours of my life. I felt robbed and cheated and begin to wonder when Argento will make another movie that could even compare with Suspiria. I can't help thinking that actors of Kretschmann and Hauer's mold might be a little disappointed by the finished product too.
I'll keep watching Argento movies because of the one good one I have seen - Suspiria. I will keep living in hope, but everything he has done since can't begin to compare. In my humble opinion, Argento's Dracula did not flick any switches for me. It is not important that it drifted from the original story because there are so many good adaptations of Dracula. So a different slant is fine and I expected such. It's just that the presentation of the whole thing was dreadful. The acting and all. It just did not work. It was worse then a bad Hammer House horror.
Keep trying Dario and look at all the grand suspense you created in Suspiria. You got it all right in that. You just never seemed to be able to build upon it it.
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