Card Player, The (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Oct 23, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Dario Argento

Release Date(s)

2004 (August 26, 2025)

Studio(s)

Opera Film/Medusa Film (Vinegar Syndrome)

Film/Program Grade: B
Video Grade: A
Audio Grade: B+
Extras Grade: B

vinegarsyndrome.com

Review

Like most late-period Dario Argento films, The Card Player (aka Il cartaio) received a mixed reaction from audiences, critics, and fans alike, for reasons that may not be entirely objective. Filmmakers like Argento frequently become victims of their own success, and once they’ve established themselves by making specific kinds of films, audiences tend to become unforgiving any time that they stray from the expected formula. In Argento’s case, he became indelibly associated with gialli with a string of films that included The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o’ Nine Tails, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet. Yet when he strayed from expectations by making the historical epic The Five Days, audiences turned on him, so it was inevitable that he would return to the world of horror. Yet he was clearly starting to chafe at the giallo formula, so while he answered that failure with one of the greatest films in the entire genre, Deep Red, he made a lateral move with his follow-up Suspiria, and fans have been arguing about it ever since.

Not about the quality of the film itself, which is universally regarded as a horror masterpiece, but rather over a simple question that can raise dread in the heart of anyone who accidentally gets caught up in an argument over it: namely, “Is Suspiria a giallo?” The answer to that question has been hotly debated ever since 1977, but the problem is that it’s the wrong question. The correct question should be, “Does it matter if Suspiria is a giallo?” The answer to that one is an unequivocal “no,” making the entire argument pointless. Yet horror fans can be some of the worst gatekeepers in existence, proceeding from their own self-imposed orders to identify, to clarify and classify. The problem with that is whenever a filmmaker strays from those arbitrary classifications, even the most ardent of fans can suddenly fail to see the forest but for the trees.

That’s an issue that has plagued Argento ever since Suspiria. While he continued to make unambiguous gialli like Tenebrae, he also started to explore different forms with oddball horror films like Phenomenon, and he started to lose the wholehearted support of some fans in the process. Phenomenon defies any kind of classification whatsoever, but it’s still pure Dario Argento through and through, something that gets lost in translation during fruitless debates over what is or isn’t a giallo. By 2004, when Argento made The Card Player, even his relatively straightforward gialli had started to play with the style and form with which he had been previously associated, leaning more heavily into the police investigation angle in films like The Stendhal Syndrome and Sleepless. While the latter was one of his most unambiguous gialli from his later years, it wasn’t well received, so Argento made another lateral move, this time making a full police procedural with The Card Player.

The script for The Card Player was by Argento and his occasional collaborator Franco Ferrini, loosely (very loosely) inspired by some real-world events. An anonymous serial killer known only as “The Card Player” has been abducting young women in Rome, challenging the police to online poker matches to determine the fate of the women. If the police win enough hands, the women get to go free, but the victims will be tortured and ultimately murdered every time that the police lose a hand. Italian detective Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca) is teamed up with British investigator John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) to stop the murders and catch the killer, and they even enlist the help of perpetually lucky gambler Remo (Silvio Muccino) in order to beat the killer at his own game. But the stakes are raised when The Card Player starts to target Anna, leading to a life-or-death match between the two of them, in the face of an oncoming train. The Card Player also stars Adalberto Maria Merli, Fiore Argento, and Cosimo Fusco.

Police investigations are a standard giallo trope, but they’re usually in the background, with the protagonist sometimes facing suspicions while trying to track down the killer on their own. Argento flipped that script with The Card Player, turning the police into the protagonists and everyone else into the supporting characters. That led to accusations of the film being little more than CSI: Rome, but as with questions regarding whether or not Suspiria is a giallo, the proper response should be, so what? This is the story that Argento wanted to tell, and he was firing on all cylinders with The Card Player. It’s just that he was driving a different kind of car than what his fans and/or gatekeepers expected.

That includes the fact that The Card Player features less overt gore than most other Argento horror efforts, at least in terms of the murders themselves (most of which occur offscreen). On the other hand, befitting the CSI: Rome nature of the story, makeup effects artist Sergio Stivaletti delivered some convincingly gruesome silicone-fleshed corpses for the crime scenes and autopsies. Everything is lit starkly but naturalistically by cinematographer Benoît Debie, which may seem at odds with the stylized lighting of previous Argento gialli. Even the driving score by Goblin composer Claudio Simonetti moves out of the realm of prog rock and into pure electronica instead. Yet The Card Player is still filled with pure Argento set pieces like the extended sequence where the killer stalks Anna Mari inside her own apartment. It’s the story that Argento wanted to tell, in the style that he wanted to use, which makes it a satisfying experience for anyone who is willing to let go of expectations and let Argento do the driving. Let’s face it: he’s better behind the wheel than any of the rest of us backseat drivers could ever hope to be.

Cinematographer Benoît Debie shot The Card Player on 35mm film using spherical lenses, framed at 1.85:1 for its theatrical release. This version is based on a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, cleaned up and graded for High Dynamic Range in Dolby Vision and HDR10, and the results are nothing short of spectacular for a film that hasn’t been prized for its visuals as much as Argento’s earlier work. The image is consistently sharp and beautifully detailed, with every fine hair on Stefania Rocca’s head being clearly delineated, especially in closeups. Facial textures and costuming are equally refined. The contrast range is strong, with clean blacks in the backgrounds that help define the foreground elements. The dupe footage in the optically printed opening title sequence does display some black speckling, scratches, and other debris, but that clears up as soon as the camera negative footage begins. There are still a few faint white scratches and other damage marks present elsewhere, but they’re barely noticeable without freeze-framing in order to spot them. (There is one prominent blue scratch running through the composite shot under the train as the villain loses the game, but that’s just part of the dupe.) In all other respects—colors, contrast, densities, etc.—there’s nothing to criticize here, so this is a nearly flawless 4K presentation of The Card Player.

Audio is offered in English and Italian 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English SDH subtitles for the English audio and standard English subtitles for the Italian. There are light ambient effects present throughout, like crowd noises, street sounds, and birds chirping, but not much in the way of directionalized sounds (with one noteworthy exception). Otherwise, the center channel remains the primary focus, with most of the stereo spread being provided by Claudio Simonetti’s pulsating electronic score. There’s not much depth to the low end, either, except for what’s provided by Simonetti’s music. But music has always been a key element in Argento’s work, and The Card Player is no exception, so everything sounds exactly like it should. (Note that Stefania Rocca and Liam Cunningham both voiced their own dialogue for the English track, so it’s probably going to be preferable for most English language viewers. Yet the dubbing for everyone else is arguably better in Italian, so listen to both and judge for yourself.)

The Vinegar Syndrome 4K Ultra HD release of The Card Player is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film. The insert is reversible, featuring new artwork by Suspiria Vilchez on one side and the theatrical poster artwork on the other. Vinegar Syndrome is also offering a Limited Edition version featuring a hard slipcase and slipcover combo designed by Vilche that’s available directly from their webstore and at a few select retailers, limited to 6,000 units (there are still over 2,000 left as of this writing). The following extras are included:

DISC ONE: UHD

Commentary by Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson

DISC TWO: BD

Commentary by Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
Playing the Game (HD – 26:44)
Digital Nightmare (HD – 19:10)
Like in War (HD – 10:04)
Sharp Cuts (HD – 20:04)
Watch Me When I Kill (HD – 17:45)
Taking Risks (HD – 8:45)
A Chip and a Chair (HD – 11:59)
Game Over (HD – 8:31)
Archival Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (Upscaled SD – 9:18)

The commentary pairs Troy Howarth, author of Murder by Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento, with Nathaniel Thompson of Mondo Digital. It was originally recorded for the 2020 Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing. They note how Argento was clearly working in a different mode right from the opening credits, but they dismiss the common accusation that The Card Player is little more than CSI: Rome. They do agree with the equally common accusation that it’s a largely gore-free movie (although I tend to disagree—those silicone-fleshed corpses aren’t perfect, but they’re still genuinely nasty). Much of their analysis is focused on how The Card Player fits in the rest of Argento’s filmography, both thematically and stylistically, but they also delve into other subjects like the varied quality of the dubbing and the score by Claudio Simonetti. It’s a fine track that’s worth a listen.

Vinegar Syndrome has added four new interviews for this release. Playing the Game is with Stefania Rocca, who says that while she was initially intimidated about meet with Argento, she immediately fell in love with him (it doesn’t hurt that she was a long-time fan). She also tells a variety of stories about working on the film (and for the record, she prefers the English-language version). Digital Nightmare is with Simonetti, who discusses the heavily electronic nature of his score, and gives credit to Rocca for the advice that she gave him about it (although Rocca says that he gives her too much credit for that). Like in War is with makeup artist Sergio Stivaletti, who describes the challenges of creating the realistic corpses, including painfully long lifecast session for the actors involved. (He also addressed the problematic digital double at the end of the film.) Sharp Cuts is with editor Walter Fasano, who talks about his own love of Argento and his surprising path to becoming the editor on The Card Player.

The next four interviews were originally recorded for the Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray. Watch Me When I Kill is with the maestro himself, Dario Argento, who explains how he conceived of the idea for The Card Player and the obstacles that he faced in bringing it to the screen. He also addresses his visual style in the film and Simonetti’s score. Taking Risks is with Franco Ferrini, who discusses the development of the screenplay and the research that he did with Argento. A Chip and a Chair is with production designer Antonello Geleng, who describes the locations and how that influenced the sets that he built. He also discusses the influence of Debie’s lighting schemes. Game Over is with Fiore Argento, who explains how her character was supposed to be a burst of light in the darkness, so they dyed her hair even more blonde and put her in light-colored clothing. She says that her tears and cries when she’s bound and gagged were quite real, since she was isolated from the rest of the crew for those shots.

Finally, there’s an Archival Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, which is a studio-produced segment that includes an abundance of behind-the-scenes footage, accompanied by music from Daemonia’s Dario Argento Tribute album, but with no narration or on-screen text to provide context. It appears to be the same video that was originally included on Anchor Bay’s 2005 DVD (titled Promo on their disc), but most of the rest of Anchor Bay’s extras haven’t been included here—or anywhere else, for that matter. They offered a commentary by Alan Jones, author of Profondo Argento: The Man, The Myths and The Magic, as well as interviews with Argento and Simonetti. The only extra of theirs that has been included elsewhere is the Making The Card Player featurette, but that’s still not available here. Other than that, there’s a bit of miscellany from some Region 2 DVDs and Region B Blu-rays, like a multi-part Dario Argento Special, some Alternative Scenes that were on an Austrian Blu-ray, and an International Promo that may be different than the one included here (I don’t have any of those discs to compare). The only other omission is the film’s trailer, but Code Red didn’t include that either, so there may be some rights issues with it domestically.

The biggest loss out of all those is the Alan Jones commentary, which even Nathaniel Thompson has humbly admitted is “the one to beat when it comes to tracks about (Argento)”, but Thompson and Howarth’s commentary here is a fine substitute. Add in a stack of new interviews and this genuinely impressive 4K presentation of the film itself, and Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K Ultra HD release of The Card Player is currently the one to beat. If you’ve dismissed the film after seeing murky-looking DVDs and Blu-rays, it’s a revelation in 4K. No, it doesn’t look (or feel) like any of Argento’s classic gialli, but it’s not supposed to, and it’s just as visually impressive in its own unique way. Highly recommended for open-minded viewers who are willing to hand the wheel over to the maestro.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).