Sleepless (2001)

Arguably Dario Argento's best film since the 1980's, here he returns to what he does best, the giallo. The film starts in 1983 before quickly moving on to 2000. This is typical Argento - stylish, fluid camera work, great musical score by Goblin, beautiful women, nice locations and lots of brutal, graphic murders. However it's certainly not faultless - the acting abilities do vary and the killer must be able teleport - but these are minor quibbles. It's no Deep Red but still very much a feast for the senses.

(Credit IMDb) An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer whom has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.I wouldn't call this movie great by any means, but considering that Argento can't make a decent film to save his life this days, this was a perfectly acceptable film. I don't mean to sound disrespectful. I love Dario Argento. I truly do. He is capable of being one of the great horror minds, but he has succumbed to stuff that is below everybody's standards. Argento's stylish direction is fantastic, the lighting is great, and it has some really good stalk sequences as well, especially the train sequence in the beginning of the movie. Gore hounds will be fairly satisfied with this movie. We get a weird flute murder that rules. A nasty pen stabbing in the head, somebody's head gets pounded into a wall, and teeth are knocked out, and more. I was quite satisfied with Argento's brutality. The acting was decent, considering some people were dubbed. Max Von Sydow is pure class, and I thought he was great. His character is written with a lot of substance behind it, and I managed to get behind him. You'll feel for him. The rest of the cast are mostly dubbed, so I can't really comment on them much. I will say this movie has a good twist ending, which makes sense. Final Thoughts: It beats watching Giallo, Card Player, and other average films on Argento's resume these days. It's not perfect, but it does have enough flashes of brilliance to make it worth your while6.3/10

I actually felt the need to make an account just to submit a review on "Sleepless". I honestly do not believe the current reviews do this movie justice, it is an inconsistent, B-grade, incredibly boring, badly made movie.Every single review on here is either from fans of the director, or Italians trying to support their film industry. This movie is not unique, neither is it interesting, and the acting is terrible.Everything i saw in this B-grade slasher i had seen previously in other, better movies.Yes, I have seen worse, but currently this movie is sitting very low on my list. Nothing interesting happens, the "murder" scenes made me laugh out loud, and the story was absolutely ridiculous.Holy Jesus batman! its a killer dwarf! hes gonna knife us!

Not exactly a return to form for Argento, bur certainly a step in the right direction (after several less-than stellar efforts), Sleepless sees the director plundering his 70s and 80s back catalogue to put together what is probably his most satisfying movie since Opera (1987).Max von Sydow plays Moretti, an ex-detective called out of retirement to help assist in a murder case which is somehow connected to a series of vicious killings that took place seventeen years earlier. Has the ghost of Vincenzo, the thriller writing dwarf who was accused of the original murders, returned from the grave to kill again, or is someone else responsible for the grisly deaths?A complicated, and often nonsensical story (just how us giallo fans like 'em) twists and turns like one of Argento's Louma Crane-mounted cameras, delivering many elements that will be very familiar to avid fans of giallo cinema: a black-leather-glove wearing killer; a dwarf; creepy nursery rhymes; prowling camera-work; a Goblin synth/rock score; a spooky mannequin; passages read aloud from books; visual and aural clues; and spectacularly bloody death scenes (courtesy of Sergio Stivaletti).Of course, this is familiar territory for the director, and the man known as 'the Italian Hitchcock' delights in showing his audience that he still has what it takes to dazzle with his visuals, scare with carefully crafted scenes of terror, and repulse with incredibly visceral special effects (multiple stabbings, finger removal, a touch of face-smashing resulting in broken teeth, a severed head, death via musical instrument, and a marvellous bullet through the head). He also throws in some welcome nudity, and even manages to get his daughter yet another movie credit by using some of her 'poetry' in the film (she is responsible for the dreadful children's rhyme The Death Farm).Sleepless isn't unmissable Argento—but it is well worth a look if you get the chance.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.