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Featuring: Dario Argento, Marisa Casale, Fiore Argento, Cristina Marsillach, Michele Soavi, Lamberto Bava, Luigi Cozzi, Asia Argento | Written by Simone Scafidi, Giada Mazzoleni, Davide Pulici | Directed by Simone Scafidi

Dario Argento Panico takes its title from an old interview where he said he didn’t want to create a sense of fear in viewers, he wanted to go beyond it and leave them in a state of panic. Its form is also taken from its subject’s past, following him as he isolates himself in a hotel to finish his latest script, something he frequently did early in his career.

I’m not sure that you really can isolate yourself with a film crew looking over your shoulder, but director Simone Scafidi uses this to frame his questions for the interview portions of the film. We actually only see about three seconds of him writing, and are never told what script he’s finishing,...

Four years after tackling the life of Italian horror maestro in Fulci for Fake, writer-director Simone Scafidi returns to the technicolor world of Italian giallo filmmakers with a retrospective look at arguably the greatest of them all: Dario Argento. Dario Argento: Panico gives genre fans an extensive, if not somewhat shallow, portrait of the master filmmaker from his early career as a film critic and screenwriter to his decades-long success as genre royalty.

The film begins with Argento on his way to a hotel — a mainstay of his screenwriting process — where he sets out to write his newest screenplay. The car ride to the hotel is playfully tense as Scafidi intercuts similar moments from Argento’s films accompanied by an anxiety-inducing score, ultimately showing the ominous German dance school from Suspiria before revealing Argento’s temporary abode. Calm and serene, the beautiful wellness retreat nestled in the lush Roman countryside...

For a documentary about tension and fear, it’s ironic that Dario Argento Panico is anxious about how to best pay homage to the Italian auteur. Director Simone Scafidi initially presents the film as something of a remixed take on the filmography-appraisal documentary, especially as Argento makes his way to a hotel where he plans to hole up and write his next film. In this moment, it seems as if we’re about to spend the majority of Panico with Argento playing a version of himself in a mockumentary of sorts. But this, alas, is mostly a tease, as Panico eventually settles into a steady collage of talking-head interviews, albeit mostly engaging ones, rattling off recollections and appreciations of Argento’s work.

Panico neither caters to newcomers to Argento’s work nor preaches to the converted. Instead, Scafidi positions Argento as subject, prompting the auteur to reflect on aspects of...