I like most horror fans have been clamoring for Dario Argento to deliver us something as interesting and exciting as some of his early works. I love stuff like OPERA, PHENOMENA (or CREEPERS as I remember renting it as a kid), TENEBRE (aka UNSANE), DEEP RED and of course SUSPERIA. Hell, I even love JENIFER, his episode for the first season of MASTERS OF HORROR, but... aside from that, I really haven't enjoyed Dario's work in quite some time.

With that said, I was able to get my hands on the script that Jim Agnew & Sean Keller wrote for GIALLO shortly after they wrapped shooting last year. I literally read it impatiently in one sitting. I truly believe it to be a terrific script and it gave me hope that Dario could potentially deliver his best film if only he could translate this script to film properly. And with Adian Brody as the lead, an Oscar winner (!) no less, I figured this was a sure bet.

Now, I haven't seen GIALLO yet, but... like most of you out there, I've been hearing the negative response from festival screenings to the finished product. It was one of the films most picked on by last month's FRIGHTFEST UK crowd, and as I skim through the message boards, I can't help but feel bad when people are cursing those "blasted American writers"...

OK. Let's think about this. What was the last feature length Argento movie you really enjoyed? Seriously. Really, really loved? MOTHER OF TEARS? DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? THE CARD PLAYER? SLEEPLESS? PHANTOM OF THE OPERA? STENDAL'S SYNDROME? I can honestly say I don't really like any of the above Dario movies I just mentioned. Sure, there's bits and pieces in all of them that I like, but overall, they're not good movies.

With that said, before you see GIALLO and before you dismiss it, I thought I'd throw out there the script that I read way back when to show you just how good I thought it really was. I'm sad that this script got lost in translation along the way, but regardless, here it is for all you devoted ICONS readers to check out. You deserve to know what could've been. Right click on the following link to save it, or just click it to read:

http://www.iconsoffright.com/GIALLO.pdf