La porta sul buio (TV Series) Il vicino di casa (1973) User Reviews

Excellent opener to Door into Darkness!

[The_Void · 7/10 · 17 April 2006]

Door into Darkness is Italy's answer to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and is delivered by Italy's answer to Hitchcock; Dario Argento. This first instalment of the series, titled 'The Neighbour' is directed by Dario Argento aficionado Luigi Cozzi and handles the idea of a madman taking his insanity out on innocent people. We follow a young couple and their baby as they move into a new apartment block. Strangely, this is done at night; and the story really picks up when, while watching Frankenstein, the pair discover a leak in the ceiling, apparently coming from the upstairs neighbour's flat. Seeing as this short film is made for TV, it's hardly surprising that it doesn't offer as much as films that Argento has been involved in usually do. There's barely a drop of blood, the story is very concise and the production values aren't exactly high; but this is made up for by excellent directing, some nice acting and a great sense of tension that runs throughout. Director Luigi Cozzi has clearly taken influence from the Italian Master, and this is felt as he directs the action through a number of different angles and draws suspense from the very basic plot line. On the whole, The Neighbour can't be considered as one of the best things to come out of Italy during the seventies; but for what it is (a made for TV short film), this isn't bad at all. Not to mention the fact that the entire Door into Darkness series has huge cult value, and is therefore a must see for any fan of Italian horror!

Neighbourly Visit.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 25 September 2015]

Whilst I have seen the 2 episodes of Door Into Darkness that Dario Argento directed a number of times,I for some reason have never got round to taking a look at the 2 non-Argento eps,which led to me deciding that it was time to take a look at the first ep in the series.

The plot:

Moving to a new apartment in a seaside town with their baby,young couple Luca and Stefanie find all the lights to have blown up.Lighting up a candle,the couple start to search round the apartment,and find water to be spilling from the celling.Going to talk to their new male neighbour,the couple find the door wide open,with no sound of anyone inside.Checking that everything is OK with their new neighbour,the couple enter the apartment and hear a running tap.Finding the tap,the couple are horrified to discover that their new neighbour has left the dead body of a murdered girl in the bath.

View on the film:

For the first half of the ep writer/director Luigi Cozzi boils up an icy haunted house atmosphere,as the lone candlelight sways with every blown fuse and drop of water dripping down the apartment wall.Sending Luca & Stefanie (played by the very good Aldo Reggiani and Laura Belli) into the neighbour's apartment,Cozzi puts a stop to the haunted house mood,and takes things into a Giallo route.Whilst he does display some stylish touches in his directing, (with "the lighter" scene being filled with tension)the screenplay by Cozzi fails to build up any feeling of mystery or dread,thanks to Cozzi going for a twist ending,which along with making the new parents look very stupid,was one that I correctly guessed a good 30 minutes before the reveal,which leads to this being a slightly disappointing neighbourly visit.

I liked it

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 22 January 2024]

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.

Good tension but no pay-off

[dopefishie · 4/10 · 10 April 2022]

Good tension but no pay-off.

Reminiscent of Hitchcock with some slow burning tension. Acting was good all around. I stayed interested because of the tension. However, the script and the story don't go anywhere. And it ends abru...

Neighbors Everybody needs good neighbors!!

[Coventry · 8/10 · 21 February 2007]

I have very high expectations for all four episodes in Dario Argento's TV-suspense series called "Door into Darkness", and the first installment certainly delivered already! "The Neighbor", directed by Argento's good friend Luigi Cozzi ("Contamination"), is a good old-fashioned and suspenseful chiller that'll keep any fan of story-driven horror on the edge of his/her seats for a full hour. Clearly inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" – as Cozzi also confirms during a brief prologue – "The Neighbor" has a rudimentary script and introduces very few characters. A young couple and their newborn son move into a seaside apartment and spend their first night in a dark living room since without electricity. They notice a rapidly growing water stain on the ceiling and as they try to confront the upper neighbor with this, they eerily discover a dead woman's body in the bathtub. Completely isolated and petrified, Luca and Stefania entrench themselves in their dark apartment, but naturally the murderous neighbor wants to dispose himself of the two unwelcome witnesses. Dario Argento is world-famous and generally worshiped for his excessive use of gory make-up effects and explicit shocks, but the thrills in "The Neighbor" are merely suggestive and bloodless. Partly, of course, because this series was made for television distribution, but the tone of this short film also doesn't fit gross situations. Cozzi successfully puts the emphasis on slow-brooding tension and identifiable characters. Even the villain isn't the typical kind of mad-raving, axe-wielding maniac, but clearly an emotionally tormented and desperate man who got pushed over a certain mental edge. The atmosphere hence becomes much more intense and plausible, and you honestly hope for the innocent young couple and their baby to make it out of there alive. The screenplay isn't entirely without flaw, however, and contains several improbabilities. For example, why would anyone move into a new apartment in the middle of the night and it certainly isn't likely to watch movies on a small and portable TV (working on batteries!) during your first evening in a totally new living environment. Still, if you simply ignore these minor flaws, you'll experience an effectively unsettling and compelling thriller. The acting performances are top-notch as well. Especially Laura Belli ("Almost Human", "The Nun of Monza") leaves a great impression as the lovely young wife. "The Neighbor" is highly recommended to avid Italian cult collectors and even to less fanatic admirers of good suspense-cinema. Personally I can't wait to watch the second episode in this series, which is called "The Tram" and was director by master Argento himself.

Dullsville

[foosie-2 · 1/10 · 25 April 2021]

After longing for decades to see this series, it finally popped up on Shudder in 2021. Disappointingly, this was neither written nor directed by Argento, and it's so slow and dull, one wonders how Argento let it go out under his auspices. Not only that, but it's clearly not a giallo tale, as Dario promised in his awkward introduction. Why didn't Luca call the cops when he was in the murderer's apartment? Why did the murderer wait until daylight to dig a grave? I anticipated the "surprise" ending. Just a huge letdown.

S10 Reviews: Door into Darkness -The Neighbor (1973)

[suspiria10 · 8/10 · 5 August 2005]

Dario Argento's popularity was sealed in Italy when he was tapped to create a series for Italian television. The four episode series which mimicked "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" had Dario himself introduced each episode. The first episode "Il Vicino di Casa" or simply "The Neighbor" stars Aldo Reggiani (The Cat O' Nine Tails) and Laura Belli (The Nun of Monza) as a couple with a newborn baby moving into their first home. Things don't start out too well for the couple when their vehicle gets stuck and they are unable to free it. Walking the last few meters in the dark the couple lament about their new home but are unaware of the horrors that lay ahead. Finally they reach their place, quiet and secluded not to mention in the dark. Well they make themselves as comfortable as possible and after putting the baby to sleep they sit down to watch a "Frankenstein" film on their battery-powered TV. They later notice a wet spot appearing on their ceiling. The couple decides to go upstairs to find the source of the leak but upon searching their neighbors place they discover a secret that they may not live to tell.

All the usual trappings of the giallo genre are on display here. Interesting camera-work, funky music and a bit of suspense but this segment written and directed by Luigi Cozzi (The Killer Must Kill Again, Starcrash) is average at best. The limitations of the TV format hinder the segment a bit but it does manage to create some atmosphere and even a little suspense. The camera-work was pretty good and the acting was good as well but I think the Giorgio Gaslini (Deep Red, Five Days of Milan) is very weak at times and overall a bit poorly integrated into the film.

"Door into Darkness" is an accentual for Argento fans and must for giallo enthusiasts.

Tight, tense and engrossing

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 11 October 2010]

Luca (likable Aldo Reggiani) and Stefanie (fetching Laura Belli) are a young couple with a baby who move into a remote seaside apartment late at night. Unbeknownst to the couple, the neighbor (excellently played by Mimmo Palmara) who lives upstairs has just murdered his wife. Writer/director Luigi Cozzi does a fine job of creating and sustaining a considerable amount of slowly building suspense and milks the creepy and sinister atmosphere for all it's worth. Reggiani and Belli make for solid and sympathetic leads. The casting of Palmara as the killer is especially inspired: He's a bespectacled and gray-haired middle-aged guy whose deceptively bland and nonthreatening outward appearance masks his frightening capacity for brutal violence. The cut-off coastal setting evokes a powerfully unsettling sense of isolation and vulnerability. Elio Polacchi's cinematography offers lots of suitably spooky shadowy lighting and makes good occasional use of a jumpy and invigorating hand-held camera. Giorgio Gaslini's eerie and ominous score also hits the shivery spot. A sturdy and satisfying show.