La porta sul buio: Il vicino di casa (1973)
Season 1, Episode 1
6/10
I liked it
22 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
In 1973, Dario Argento was invited to RAI television and delivered Door Into Darkness, a show that he would host and even guide some of the episodes. Argento says, at the start of one of the episodes (translated into English) "As for Door Into Darkness, which is the title of the series, you will wonder what it means. Well, it means many things: opening a door to the unknown, to what we don't know and which therefore disturbs us, scares us. But for me it also means other things. It can happen, and it has happened once, even just once in a person's life, to close a door behind them and find themselves in a dark room... looking for the light switch and not finding it... trying to open the door and not being able to Do. And having to stay there, in the dark... alone... forever. Well, some of the protagonists of our stories have closed this fatal door behind them."

The first episode, Il vicino de casa (The Neighbor) was the second directing job for Luigi Cozzi, who had debuted with Il tunnel sotto il mondo (The Tunnel Under the World). It's the tale of a young couple by the names of Luca (Aldo Reggiani) and Stefania (Laura Belli). They arrive at their new home late at night with their infant child and barely meet anyone, other than knowing they have a neighbor (Mimmo Palmara) but otherwise, they live in a very isolated neighborhood.

On one of the first evenings they are there, as they watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, they start to see a stain in the corner of the ceiling that starts to leak from upstairs. What is it? And should they tell the neighbor they have never met? When they go up there, no one is home. However, they soon find the dead body of their neighbor's wife just in time for him to come back and tie them up.

This story was also written by Cozzi and it has plenty of tension, such as the couple hiding in the dark and then realizing that the husband has dropped his lighter in the killer's room. It also has a dark non-ending that doesn't give you much hope, as well as an Argento cameo as a hitchhiker.
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