THE CARD PLAYER (2003)

3 stars

Shameless Films. 4K. Blu ray. Digital. 10th August

Original title: Il cartaio

A killer is using an online poker card game to play against the police as they investigate various grisly murders. He uses a webcam to show himself torturing the girls he has kidnapped whilst playing.

Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca) is the detective working the case and is set to play to try and win the latest victim’s release – she is devastated when her chief tells her not to play along and the girl ends up dead. Unfortunately the tech guys can’t seem to track him down either.

As one of the kidnapped young women is a British tourist she ends up teamed up with irascible Irish cop John Brennan (Liam Cunningham), who was originally at the Met, with a specialism in forensic, but due to an incident in his past, is now seconded to the British Embassy in Rome.

They go to see the rather too jolly coroner to check the latest body for clues – bizarrely he does a little dance before he pulls out the corpse in the drawer. What’s that about?

Examining the grisly cadaver – presumably a Sergio Stivaletti prosthetic creation – Brennan finds a seed up her nose. When another girl is killed he finds another seed. An important clue?

At a video arcade they hear about a player who might be able to help and manage to track him down. They recruit Remo (Silvio Muccino), who isn’t much more than a kid – just 19 – but he clearly can play and offers a possibility of actually beating the nutter. Will it work and can they finally stop the murderer…

Considering director Argento, who penned the script with Franco Ferrini, is one of the leading lights for the Italian giallo, this is an unusually flat and uninvolving example of the sub genre. It lacks any of his usual flair and plays more like a TV movie. He does generate some tension, but it isn’t enough to really hold the interest. Apart from a rather neat killing near the end, there is little of the signature violence on show – just the distressed girls in the tiny webcam window. The finale is laughably stupid.

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

Interviews with Dario Argento; with Stefania Rocca; with Fiore Argento; with Walter Fasano; with Franco Ferrini; with Antonello Geleng; with Elisabetta Rocchetti

Commentary by film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson

Plus Booklet by Argento authority Alan Jones/Two-sided art card/Original poster/Limited edition, numbered O-card collectors edition