Perhaps best known these days for her role in spawning Scarlet Diva (and Maxim page fodder) Asia Argento, Daria, longtime partner of Italian horror cinema legend Dario Argento, is herself responsible for some of the greatest scary movies ever made.
Her memorable appearances in Argento masterpieces Tenebrae and Phenomena are giallo gold, and who could forget her death in Opera?
Deep Red (Profundo Rosa) was the first Argento film that Daria appeared in (as weirdo journalist Gianna Brezzi) on screen, but her greatest legacy is as a screen writer. She grew up in Florence with a grandmother who may or may not have been a white witch who could see the future. The old woman recounted how years before she had attended a music school that was supposably run by satanists; years later, once she and Dario became involved, Daria combined that story with some of romantic poet (read: opium eater) Thomas de Quincey's work and voila: Suspiria!
She also conceived Inferno, which is really uneven, but worth renting for the phenomenal scene where the girl goes into the basement with access to the flooded sub-building next to the sweet smelling cake factory alone. The Mother of Tears, the third in the Argento-directed, Nicolodi-conceived Three Mothers trilogy will hit selected theaters in February, just in time for Brittany's birthday.
Early criticism of the film is mixed at best–but here's to keeping my hopes up.
Oh, and it was Daria's idea to use a rock band to score Deep Red. Argento wanted Pink Floyd or Deep Purple but they weren't available so he went with an unknown band called Goblin. As many of you know, that turned out to be one of the of the best decisions in modern horror movie making.
But what do you think?