Italian horror master Dario Argento returned to his giallo roots in 2001 with Sleepless – a solid and violent mystery about a retired police detective (the late, great Max Von Sydow) who launches his own private investigation to catch a serial killer, a hunchbacked midget, who has returned to Turin, Italy after 17 years. Sleepless is another great Dario Argento movie and there’s plenty of his wonderful stylish touches. It has a great, pulse-pounding soundtrack by Goblin, the tension is built up nicely and all the familiar trappings are here: the black-gloved killer, gory murders (including a nasty death caused by a musical instrument) and protagonists unraveling the mystery outside of the official investigation. I absolutely loved this film - but unlike films like Deep Red, Opera and Tenebre, it’s flawed: Sleepless is dragged down by the stiff performances of its younger cast members. Their skills rank in a barely registerable zone and they probably couldn’t even pull off a role as a coma victim. But the older actors are great, especially Max Von Sydow (an undeniable legend!) who serves as the film’s tent pole. He is without any shadow of a doubt one of the greatest actors of all time, and his roles in The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor and Flash Gordon will live on forever. Sleepless is a very entertaining film and it delivers the thrills and the chills I’ve come to expect from Argento, so the bad acting can be forgiven. Just sit back, have some vino and enjoy this good, old-fashioned giallo.

Sleepless (”Non ho sonno”)
Release year: 2001
Country: Italy
Director: Dario Argento
Stars: Max von Sydow, Stefano Dionisi, Chiara Caselli, Gabriele Lavia