Dario Argento's Films - Ranked From Worst To Best

By Lewis Howse / September 9, 2015

Dario Argento, arguably Italy's finest ever horror director (and one of the best horror directors ever for that matter), turned 75-years-old on Monday 7th September, 2015. When I became aware of this milestone, it got me thinking about Argento and his films. Almost immediately after came the news that the much talked about Suspiria remake is going ahead, with Luca Guadagnino in the director's chair. Argento is an auteur, a man who has developed a visual style all of his own, works outside of the studio system (his films were routinely financed by his father Salvatore, before his 1987 death) and who writes everything that he directs. He directed his first featured in 1970 and has released films every decades since then. Invariably, some have been better than others. While Argento might have been the brains behind one or two masterpieces, he's also been responsible for some cinematic atrocities, too. The general feeling with Argento is that he had a magnificent run in the seventies and into the early eighties but something went drastically wrong in the late 80s, leading to a painful and drawn-out decline. But to what extent is that actually true? Are Argento's more recent films really as bad as his critics (and a significant amount of his fans) say they are? Are his seventies thrillers as good as those same people claim? And why now, after all these years, is Suspiria getting the remake treatment? Here are Dario Argento's 19 feature films, ranked from worst to best.

19. Dracula 3D

The less said about Dracula 3D, the better. It is a crushingly disappointing film, although one that should have been expected, given the downward trend that Argento has been on over the past twenty years or so. It is not a direct adaptation of Bram Stoker's famous novel, but does incorporate elements of it. Argento had toyed with the idea of making a Dracula film for some time but did not know how to go about doing it. The proliferation of 3D convinced Argento that he could fully realise his vision, stating that 'with the depth, something changes and the audience feels as though they have been pushed inside the screen'. He shouldn't have bothered. The film was a disaster, with cringeworthy 3D and lots of unintentional humour. It could yet become something of a camp cult classic in years to come, though.