The Card Player | Telescope Film
The Card Player

The Card Player (Il cartaio)

Critic Rating

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  • Italy
  • 2004
  • · 103m

Director Dario Argento
Cast Stefania Rocca, Liam Cunningham, Silvio Muccino, Cosimo Fusco, Fiore Argento, Adalberto Maria Merli
Genre Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Policewoman Anna Mari is forced to play a dangerous game with the title serial killer. If she loses, she witnesses the maniac's tortured victims having their throats cut in explicit close-up detail via webcam. She teams up with British cop John Brennan to find out the identity of the murderer.

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What are critics saying?

70

Village Voice

Ingenious but relatively tame thriller.

63

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Argento keeps the suspense level high while throwing in trademark cringe-inducing moments.

60

Variety by Deborah Young

Argento fans lusting for a classy slasher movie of the "Suspiria"/"Opera" variety are headed for a disappointing rendezvous with an old-fashioned police thriller, upgraded by serious actors in the main roles.

50

The New York Times by Dave Kehr

The film unfolds as a tired, thoroughly conventional police procedural that might as well be titled "CSI: Roma."

40

Film Threat

The movie sucks. It's beneath Argento to be making such drek after so long a career. He's better than this.

30

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

This oddly flat serial-killer picture shows none of the baroque flair that characterizes the best of Italian horror filmmaker Dario Argento's work.