The Stendhal Syndrome

Year: 1996

Director: Dario Argento

Written by: Dario Argento

Threat: Psychopath

Weapon of Choice: Car Trunk

Based upon: Novel - "La Sindrome di Stendhal" - Graziella Magherini

IMDb page: IMDb link

      The Stendhal Syndrome

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
A fairly recent Argento picture, La Sindrome di Stendhal tells the story of Anna Manni (Asia Argento), a young policewoman (policegirl, actually) on the trail of an elusive serial killer. While tracking him in a Florence museum, she experiences a sort of fugue state, set off by the paintings before her. This condition is known as the Stendhal Syndrome, and the killer uses this to turn the tables on her. The rest of the film follows Anna as she recovers from the incident, as well as the cat and mouse game played with the killer, a really sick bastard, even for Italy.
A lot of this is typical Argento: a bit more of a detective film than Horror, the surprise revelation of the killer, the mediocre dubbing, the stylish murders (mostly a pistol is used for the killings--quite graphically in one instance--but I chose "Car Trunk" as the Weapon of Choice because that's what's used to dispatch the last victim, and it was much more unique), the exotic locale, the brutal violence (in one scene, Asia jams a paperclip under one of her fingernails . . . ouch!), the familiar score by Ennio Morricone (isn't this guy, like, a thousand years old by now?). It featured a great performance from Asia, who's quite pretty in a wounded, unusual sort of way. But it's too bad the public at large was introduced to her through a Vin Diesel movie, 2002's XXX. I really liked her in this film, and her sad, haunted character made a fan out of me. Signore Argento gets to play around with perception as Asia enters the paintings she sees in an unusual, physical way. There's a nice twist at the end, but it's not a feel-good film by any means. It was unpleasant, flawed, and damned harsh. It featured a quite sick rape and murder scene. And sweet little Asia is mistreated--raped, cut, saddened, driven to the brink of madness, then the poor girl is raped . . . again! What is this, a Japanese cartoon?
You know, I really like Dario Argento. He's our most reviewed director. I have a feeling the man is sick in ways only adult Olsen Twins fans can understand, but he has a nice style and a unique way of telling a story that I appreciate for some reason.
The things he puts poor Asia through . . . that I don't get. I don't have any children ("at least, none that I know about," he tepidly boasted, fooling no one), but I could never imagine filming one of my children being raped, beaten, and tortured, no matter how estranged our relationship. But hey, that's just me. I like the Backstreet Boys, so who cares what I think?
I'd Recommend This To: Argento fans (both Senior and Junior), but few else.
Note: I saw the long version from a Japanese laserdisc, but it didn't seem all that long to me.

Total Skulls: 12

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex skullskull
Death associated with sex skull
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat skull
Secluded location skull
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise skull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer skull
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision skullskull
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence skullskull
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters camera/wall/other
Poor death effect
Excessive gore skull
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?