Sleepless (2001)
Sleepless (2001)
BDRip 720p | MKV | 1280 x 720 | x264 @ 2560 Kbps | 1h 57mn | 2,47 Gb
Audio: English AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps | Subtitles: English (embedded)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller | Director: Dario Argento
BDRip 720p | MKV | 1280 x 720 | x264 @ 2560 Kbps | 1h 57mn | 2,47 Gb
Audio: English AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps | Subtitles: English (embedded)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller | Director: Dario Argento
Detective Ulisse Moretti (von Sydow) is investigating a series of murders in Turin in 1983 known as The Dwarf Murders. The main suspect, a giallo novelist named Vincenzo de Fabritiis, turns up dead and the case is considered closed.
However, seventeen years later, a similar series of murders begin and draw the since-retired Moretti back into the case. Moretti teams up with Giacomo (Stefano Dionisi), whose mother was murdered in the 1983 spree, to determine if de Fabritiis is still alive or was actually innocent of the crimes for which he was accused. As the killings continue, the investigating duo discover that the murderer is arranging their murder to an old nursery rhyme about the slaughter of animals.
Dario Argento's 2001 feature Sleepless didn't receive a cinematic release in the UK, and it's not hard to see why. The movie often feels like Argento on auto-pilot, rehashing images and ideas and camera angles from his more inspired films like Suspiria or Tenebrae. The dialogue is leaden, the plot is a plodding whodunnit (and most of the time it's hard to care who) and the acting, with the exception of the veteran Max von Sydow, is mostly atrocious and crudely dubbed. But then again, no one ever came to an Argento movie for the plot or the dialogue, and least of all for the acting. The key to his mastery has always been the atmosphere of a nightmare that he conjures up, with all its jagged imagery and complete absence of narrative logic. The less sense it makes, the scarier it gets.
Sleepless never attains anywhere near a level of nightmarish intensity, but it has its moments–especially the least rational ones. Although the plot involves no elements of the supernatural, and everything is finally (if cumbersomely) explained, it's episodes like the first killing (where the murderer traps his victim on a speeding train he couldn't possibly have boarded) that strike most effectively home. The action involves a retired police inspector (von Sydow) lured back to investigate a series of killings in Turin that replicate murders he was assigned to 17 years earlier. As always with Argento, knives figure prominently, as do prowling steadicam tracking shots, old dark houses and females butchered in any number of gory and far-fetched ways. The film looks unfailingly good, courtesy of its rich dark palate of colours, Ronnie Taylor's sinuous camera, and Argento's favourite group Goblin contribute an edgy, insidious score.
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