Opera
(aka Terror at the Opera)

Dario Argento (1987, Italy)

Cast: Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi

Plot:
A young opera singer (Betty) gets her big chance when the previous star of a production of Macbeth is mysteriously run over by a car. Convinced the opera is bad luck she still accepts, and becomes the target of a psychopath - a man she has been dreaming of since childhood. Only, he doesn't want to murder her, but rather force her to watch him murder people of her surrounding, by taping little needles under her eyes to prevent them from closing.

Appreciation: 8/10
A visual delight, which I'd put on par with Suspiria on most aspects (from Argento as well). The elements in the movie make up a light and colourful yet sordid atmosphere.
One could expect yet another Phantom of the Opera movie, but instead you get a big kick in the eye and a good variant.
The whole premiss is very interesting. Possibly influenced by Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, the idea of taping needles to prevent the heroin from closing her eyes was used terribly well. I've always had this fear of having pointy things near my eyes, so watching those long close-ups was a pain in the eyes and enough to make me feel like my eyes were hurting for real. It's rare enough for me to find a movie that affects me physically that much, so if only for that, this movie deserves to be praised.
The characters are well played (though the characters themselves are pathetically dumb, but that's just the horror usual..), with the possible exception of the killer, which didn’t strike me as being very good. Perhaps he just looked too ordinary for my liking.
The rest of the plot is nothing outstanding, but the ending was as surprising as it was funny and absurd.
One thing that puzzled me was the musical score. The heavy metal theme worked well in some scenes, but overall it spoiled the atmosphere for me more than it helped. Coming from someone who likes Black Metal and some old Metallica, this can be disturbing. Perhaps I just can't get over Suspiria's amazing soundtrack, I can't help but expect the same quality from other Argento's movies. That being said, it seems that some people really liked the score in Opera, so take all this with a grain of salt..

Other suggestions: Any movie by Argento (Bird with the crystal plummage, Phenomena, Kakashi