THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970)

‘Horror is the future. And you can’t be afraid. You must push everything to the absolute limit or else life will be boring. The truth of horror is like a serpent always shedding its skin, always changing.’ – Dario Argento

An American writer in Italy witnessed a homicide on one late night in front of art gallery. He is helpless voyeur trapped between glass doors, what he see is a man with an overcoat and a struggling damsel stabbed with knife. The victim survives and the hero is told by the investigating cop that the attacker was the serial killer. While the police is doing its duty, the writer soon obsessed with the idea to know the truth; something that’s associated with the thing that doesn’t click to his brain.

The bizarre laughing voice on telephone, the mystical painting on the wall, the weird painter that keeps the cats for godforsaken reason…Dario Argento made his presence felt with this directorial debut almost treated in Hitchcockian thrilling tradition of ‘Psycho’. I recollect watching another brilliant admirer of the Master mentor, Brian De Palma who in his early career made some of the gripping thrillers without roping Hollywood stars. His ‘Sisters’, ‘Body Double’, ‘Blow Out’ are really exciting thrillers to watch. The chilling background score is trademark of Argento and though legendary Ennio Morricone done the job here, I missed the unusual and eerie score of his ‘Suspiria’.

Ratings-7/10