The Card Player (2004)

After some quiet and possibly too much sleep time, it was time to jump back at it. With that in mind, I looked through Netflix and discovered Dario Argento’s 2004 thriller The Card Player.

Plot/ A Rome policewoman teams up with a British Interpol agent to find a crafty serial killer whom plays a taunting game of cat-and-mouse with the police by abducting and killing young women and showing it over an Internet web cam.

While not his best work, this film is an interesting movie on many levels. Sure, it is not the classic giallo that Argento made famous, but it is a solid flick featuring some of his innate feel for visual styles. Maybe it lacks the visual flair of his classics, but he creates a dark and heavy feel throughout to match the wintery Roman countryside. The story is solid and actually a bit more coherent than usual, the acting sound, and the mood and atmosphere is backed-up by a decent soundtrack. While it may not be for the diehard Argento fan, all-in-all, this is a pretty good mystery/thriller and a film that is rather enjoyable.