Spooky Season 2022: Dark Glasses Early Review

Italian Horror legend, Dario Argento returns with his first film since 2012 Dracula 3D. Despite being a veteran filmmaker in the genre, Argento’s latest feature, Dark Glasses fails to capture any sense of horror as what is presented here comes off as cheap and fairly lackluster. That being said, its relatively short running time of 85 minutes worked in its favor. While not particularly fast-paced, it also doesn’t wear out its welcome. 

Dark Glasses sets the tone right away with the death of three prostitutes in Rome. From there, the killer sets his sights on Diana (Pastorelli). His pursuit of her results in a tragic car accident that leaves her blind but despite Diana’s blindness, she decides to take in a boy whose family was killed in the accident out of guilt as the killer continued to prey on her. Where the film surprisingly works best, is its more dramatic and heartfelt character moments as Diana attempts to move on and learn to live with her blindness along with Chin (Andrea Zhang).

Pastorelli delivers a layered and compelling performance as a character struggling with blindness. While Diana may not be the most relatable, audiences will still no less care for and root for her. Zhang also delivers a great performance and the chemistry between Pastorelli and Zhang was very sweet.

However, the rest of the characters of Dark Glasses didn’t receive as much attention with the most glaring being the film’s killer whose lack of development lessens any sense of horror and tension. A horror at least on paper, its elements fail to strike any fear or tension. The score does most of the heavy lifting but even then, it doesn’t always work. For the most part, the horror feels like an afterthought. Hoping to shock and surprise, viewers can expect a twist but unfortunately that will likely not happen assuming they haven’t already seen it coming. 

In terms of plot, Dark Glasses is quite thin and uninteresting. It tries too hard to push the mystery behind the murders to remind viewers that the film is a horror but its stronger moments came outside the horror. As a horror, it may be gory to some but overall, it lacks in the gore department despite its attempts to convince viewers otherwise. Its violence and brutality may be scary to some, it doesn’t do the greatest job at showcasing it, not always making it necessarily clear what’s going on from scene to scene. Either a scene has too much blood or it’s too dark and ends far too quickly to fully experience what it has to offer. Meanwhile, the film is questionably-stitched and uses far too many fade to blacks which only adds to its rough and uneven nature. 

At the end of the day, Dark Glasses is a horror film that fails to achieve what it was trying to sell to viewers. As it stands, it offers a short and not-so-scary watch that is ultimately at its best when it doesn’t focus on horror which is kind of counterintuitive in retrospect. 

*still courtesy of Shudder*

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Olly Dyche

Journalist, Writer, Film Critic and Professional Nerd. You will probably find Olly at the cinema chomping down on some popcorn and taking in the glorious visuals of the latest theatrical release.