CultFilms is proud to bring you this gore-soaked terror classic in a stunning new 2K restoration, with colour regrading carried out under instruction from the maestro himself and in reference to his own, preferred, original cinema print.
Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA) returns to CultFilms with this breath-taking new restoration of his visionary horror masterpiece OPERA. Splattered with stylistic bloodshed and soaring cinematography, OPERA shows Italy’s master of horror at the very height of his game.
When young understudy Betty (Cristina Marsillach) takes the lead role in a new operatic production of Verdi’s Macbeth, she soon attracts the attention of a knife-wielding psycho who forces her to watch – with eyes pinned open – as he brutally despatches her friends and colleagues with sadistic delight. Can Betty free herself from this unending nightmare or does a more terrifying fate await? OPERA is a ravishing return to the giallo style Dario Argento made his name with, awash with black-gloved killers, lavish bloodletting and the director’s expressionistic Grand Guignol excess.
Horror Cult Films
Opera looks absolutely stunning in this 2k restoration, taken from a print that Argento, as he mentions in the interview with him, actually stole many years ago when it seemed like everybody wanted to cut the film. What’s always previously seemed to me to be one of Argento’s more muted films in terms of colour is now full of rich and vibrant hues, especially the all important reds that sometimes just creep in, and sometimes jump at you. Image density is fine for a 1987 film and there’s just the right level of grain everywhere. Sound is quite wide ranging yet balanced. The film is presented in both Italian and English, and seeing especially how Cult Films have now provided more accurate subtitles than we’ve had before, both versions are worth watching in their entirety because they have some surprising differences.
Read the full review here.
Live For Films:
CultFilm’s loving 2K restoration gives these astonishing, bravura locations and inventively shot scenes the lustre and beauty they richly deserve, a lovely, crisp, clear print, allowing the viewer to glory in that partly-insane, dream/nightmare trip that is Argento’s mind.
Read the full review here.
Framerated:
This new Blu-ray from Cult Films is not simply presenting an uncut theatrical print, but fantastically restores Dario Argento’s original vision using his personal archive print as a reference. This full ‘director’s cut’ had only been seen before when he’d brought it along to conventions and special screenings.
Read the full review here.
