(Photo by Miramax / courtesy Everett Collection)
All Dario Argento Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Giallo movies – Italian films that mix horror, mystery, thrillers, and slashers – were big in the ’70s and Dario Argento had plenty to do with that. He started his directing career with the well-renowned giallo trilogy of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o’ Nine Tails, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, which are among his highest-rated movies. But Argento didn’t stop there: His 1975 film Deep Red is considered a landmark just not just within giallo, but horror overall.
Argento shifted gears for his masterpiece Suspiria, a fantasia of blood, witches, and prismatic color. Suspiria‘s grand guignol thrills have kept audiences coming back for decades, and the film was remade in 2018. He was just as prolific in the ’80s, releasing hidden classics like Tenebre, Phenomena, and Opera. It’s been a rough go for Argento with the critics since then, with 1996’s The Stendhal Syndrome a lone bright spot. Here we’re taking a complete look on one of horrordom’s legends with all Dario Argento movies ranked! —Alex Vo
#17
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A menacing catacomb dweller (Julian Sands), raised by rats beneath the Paris Opera, falls for an understudy (Asia Argento)....
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#16
Adjusted Score: 20563%
Critics Consensus: Schlocky and gross but far from bad enough to be good, Argento's Dracula 3D bites and sucks in all the wrong ways.
Synopsis: Count Dracula (Thomas Kretschmann) wants to sink his fangs into Mina Harker (Marta Gastini), who resembles the vampire's late wife....
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#15
Adjusted Score: 7933%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When a British tourist is kidnapped, lawman John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) heads to Rome to investigate -- and falls into...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 50195%
Critics Consensus: As excessive and ketchup laden as predecessors Suspiria and Inferno, Dario Argento's Mother of Tears completes the trilogy with the same baroque grandeur and soggy 1970s sensibilities.
Synopsis: Grisly deaths await Italian citizens after an archaeology student (Asia Argento) accidentally releases a demonic witch from her ancient prison....
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#13
Adjusted Score: 25235%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: An insomniac detective (Max von Sydow) comes out of retirement to track a serial killer who copies a string of...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 63791%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Directors Dario Argento and George Romero adapt Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts About Mr. Valdeman" and "The Black Cat."...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 32706%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Two mixed-up young lovers try to hunt down a decapitator called Head Hunter by the media....
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#10
Adjusted Score: 63892%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A young man (Leigh McCloskey) returns from Rome to his sister's (Irene Miracle) satanic New York apartment house....
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#9
Adjusted Score: 52410%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Dario Argento directs the tale of a rock musician who becomes entangled in a gruesome murder case....
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#8
Adjusted Score: 74337%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: An American (Jennifer Connelly) at a Swiss finishing school calls on insects to help a paralyzed scientist (Donald Pleasence) fight...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 83061%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Visiting Rome on a promotional tour for his new novel, writer Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) is pulled into a murder...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 55899%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A police detective falls under hallucinatory spells while trying to capture the sadistic man who raped her....
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#5
Adjusted Score: 82759%
Critics Consensus: The Cat O'Nine Tails is a solidly entertaining Argento outing elevated by a well-chosen cast and the director's distinctive visual style.
Synopsis: A newsman (James Franciscus) works with a blind puzzle-solver (Karl Malden) to catch a killer with mixed-up chromosomes....
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#4
Adjusted Score: 91202%
Critics Consensus: The Opera house location gives plenty to work with for director Dario Argento, who hits his decadently bloody high notes here.
Synopsis: A hooded figure forces a young diva (Cristina Marsillach) to watch as he murders performers in a production of Verdi's...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 90065%
Critics Consensus: Combining a deadly thriller plot with stylized violence, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage marks an impressive horror debut for Dario Argento.
Synopsis: An American writer, Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), is living in Rome with his girlfriend, Julia (Suzy Kendall). While visiting an...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 100645%
Critics Consensus: The blood pours freely in Argento's classic Suspiria, a giallo horror as grandiose and glossy as it is gory.
Synopsis: Suzy (Jessica Harper) travels to Germany to attend ballet school. When she arrives, late on a stormy night, no one...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 95665%
Critics Consensus: The kinetic camerawork and brutal over-the-top gore that made Dario Argento famous is on full display, but the addition of a compelling, complex story makes Deep Red a masterpiece.
Synopsis: A psychic medium (Macha Méril) is brutally murdered, and musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) feels a need to solve the...
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