15 Greatest Horror Directors Of All Time
6. Dario Argento
Notable films: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, Suspiria, Tenebrae
Lucio Fulci may have flown the Italian flag for gorefests, but it was Dario Argento who brought a dose of Italian class to horror, his movies often as visually respendent in the set department as they were in the aesthetics of bright red blood gushing from open wounds.
Argento's highly stylised approach to direction often led him to be dubbed "the Martin Scorsese of Italian horror", a comparison which becomes clear when witnessing the elaborate tracking shots which would swoop around the wonderful sets. But he was more than just a great visual stylist, sometimes crafting clever whodunnits around the scares and playing with the conventions of mysteries; whether those of conventional serial killers or supernatural forces.
His films may have declined in quality since his heydays (a problem faced by more than one director on this list), but at his peak he was a true master of the genre who proved to be an inspiration for many modern horror filmmakers to follow.