I have to disagree. I think that import "SHADOWS" cover sucks big time. It looks like some cheap thrown-together photo-collage, not to mention it being a blatant spoiler. If AB issued that as the US cover, I think most fans would be complaining even moreso than they are now. At least AB is still using a rendition of the original poster art which is much classier than some bloody photo.

I'm pretty new to Argento (only have Suspiria and Deep Red). How do the 5 films in this collection rank quality-wise among his work?

If you liked Suspiria and Deed Red, then you'll appreciate Phenomena and Tenebre - they are no less great. Trauma is slightly poorer, but still quite enjoyable. The last two films are made in the recent period of Argento career, and while Do You Like Hitchcock? is pretty watchable as a nice detective story (nothing special though), Card Player is just abysmal and along with The Phantom of the Opera can be considered as his worst work.

Personally, I would rank Deep Red one tier below Suspiria and Phenomena and Tenebre another tier below Deep Red. But that's just me. They're all enjoyable in their own way.

personally I'd rank 'em like this

1) Deep Red
2) Tenebre
3) Suspiria
4) Phenomena

Suspiria may have it's murder set pieces, music and visuals, the story though is flawed.

revised rankings:

1) Deep Red
2) Tenebre
3) Suspiria
4. Opera
5) Inferno
6) Phenomena
7) Two Evil Eyes
8) Mother of Tears
9) Card Player
9) Trauma

My taste is:

Suspiria

Then:
Phenomena
Deep Red
Tenebrae

I really like Phenomena myself. It is probably my favorite Argento film outside of Suspiria and Inferno. I also quite like The Stendhal Syndrome.

My Argento Tiers

Top Tier:
1. Suspiria
2. Deep Red
3. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Middle Tier:
1. Inferno (my favorite Argento underdog)
2. Tenebre
3. Opera
4. Phenomena

Bottom Tier:
1. The Card Player
2. Trauma
3. Two Evil Eyes
4. Do You Like Hitchcock?
5. Phantom of the Opera

I have not seen Cat O' Nine Tales, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Sleepless, or The Stendhal Syndrome. I really wish Anchor Bay could have secured the rights for Four Flies.

Of the ones I have seen:

1. Suspiria
2. Deep Red
3. Tenebre
4. Opera
5. The Stendhal Syndrome
6. Inferno
7. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
8. 2 Evil Eyes
9. Trauma

Just goes to show you that everyone has their own variant opinions on the merits of Argento's films. Here's my personal rough-ranking off the top of my head at the moment. I enjoy all of his films, even PHANTOM, to some degree or another.

1. Bird with Crystal Plumage
2. Four Flies on Grey Velvet
3. Opera
4. Tenebre
5. Deep Red
6. Cat O'Nine Tails
7. Suspiria
8. Stendhal Syndrome
9. Sleepless
10. Inferno
11. Trauma
12. Card Player
13. Two Evil Eyes
14. Phenomena
15. Do You Like Hitchcock
16. Phantom of the Opera

Small correction--I'm pretty sure that's meant to be May 27th. (25th is a sunday, heh).

Looks like all five discs are gonna be crammed into a reglular-sized steelbook on the Argento set. Or God forbid, they'll be flippers.
http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releas...llection2.html

I was expecting them to be packaged like the recent Bava sets.

Anchor Bay has finally posted the info for this on their "Coming Soon Page." Once again, "Italian Mono" is listed as one of the options for Tenebre, but there is no mention of any subtitles, meaning that the original Italian track is pretty much worthless for nearly every single person in Region 1 Land who buys this DVD.

They did this exact same thing the last time they released Tenebre and everyone complained. (I personally felt swindled as I would have reconsidered buying it if I had known that "Italian Mono" was a false choice and I actually had to listen to the goofy dubbed version whether I wanted to or not.)

I like Anchor Bay, but they seem to have some militant opposition to giving consumers products without infuriatingly unnecessary defects.

Yeah, but the releases do have closed captioning and 2.0 audio (in addition to the 5.1 mix) as a consolation prize. Unless the 2.0 is a mixdown...

Review up for the box set. Unfortunately, no word on whether Trauma and Card Player are still interlaced. Doesn't specify thickness of the metal case, either.

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/873/873623p1.html

That is the shitties "DVD" review I've ever read. WHile it talks about the movies included in the set, it doesn't mention anything about the DVD's themselves. Given the name of the movies included in this set, this same exact review could have been written 5 years ago.

Agreed, that is a horrendous review... No worthwhile info whatsover.

Anchor Bay/Starz is really dropping the ball here, if they really wanted to make some money they should have just released this on bluray along with the standard dvd edition.

IGN never give particularly detailed reviews about disc quality. But, you did click forward to page two, right?

Page 2 was just as useless as page 1. Are these the same transfers as the old ones? What are the tech-specs? That's all we want to know. I don't think anyone here needs the 1,000th capsule review of how good a movie "Tenebre" is.

No, because I am an idiot. Thanks. The second page was much more helpful.

Xploited has the box set in stock and confirms all 5 movies crammed in one normal-sized steelbook.

Nothing bad with that, the discs fit nicely inside and takes less space on the shelf.

Yea, I saw the case at Fangoria Weekend of Horrors so I can confirm they're all in one single-width steelbook. I should have asked their reps about the interlaced transfers. I'm still passing on the set since all I want are the new editions of Tenebre and Phenomena.