Exquisite settings, technical virtuosity, remarkable images, beautiful cinematography and a sterling cast with Luigi Lo Cascio (star of the noteworthy I cento passi and the phenomenal La meglio gioventù) in the lead: Eros Puglielli's Eyes of Crystal has it all and ends as a wasted opportunity. The story about a serial killer collecting body parts in order to create his Barbie of the Month oscillates somewhere between other genre danses macabres like Fincher's Se7en, Mulcahy's Resurrection, J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage, and Narcisco Ibánez Serrador's The House That Screamed, and that's exactly its problem. You've seen it all before, all that stylish craftsmanship reeks inevitably of rehash, and it doesn't help all-too-much that 70s giallo regular Simón Andreu (Death Walks on High Heels") - finally a real ghost from the past - turns in the probably best performance of his career. Director Puglielli's first lesson? Never collaborate on a script with the creator of Argento's Opera. The second one he grasped only after the premiere: His flick itself was the ghastly doll, beneath the dashing costume just a fly-ridden corpse. When it comes to horror movies, postmodernism is a curse.
Review of Occhi di cristallo
