betty be a an understudy in a production of verdi macbeth who be ask to go on when the diva be hurt in a car accident . however and in the grand tradition of the scottish play and the production seem curse with problem and not least of which be some madman slice up the crew . unfortunately for betty and the killer seem to have special plan for her . this be one of several must see argento mad slasher flick and in this instance primarily for the extraordinary photography by the great british cameraman ronnie taylor . i haven not measure it and but i reckon around two third of the shot in this film involve either pan and dolly and track or crane the sheer amount of camera movement be just astonishing and make the movie ten time more exciting than a standard thriller . the imagery be wild and dizzy closeup of the heroine eye force open with nail and a swooping glide around an opera house from a raven point of view and shot of the killer brain squirming and a bullet fire through a peephole and a swallowed chain dig out of a victim trachea . conceptually it just amaze and could only be realise by this director . the movie isn not without some shortcoming though while the cast be variable at best marsillach and barberini be both a bit shaky ( and his dubbing in the english version be appal and even by italian standard ) and although argento regular nicolodi be fun and charleson give a thoughtful performance in a role that be more than a little autobiographical ( a horror director much malign for his remoteness and reliance on technique ) . the material be a nice three way mix of the phantom of the opera and shakespeare and slasher flick and script by argento and his usual collaborator and franco ferrini and with shifty suspect galore and the usual disdain for bore expository scene to explain what actually go on . full of all sort of different music brian eno and claudio simonetti and bill wyman and puccini and and of course and verdi . the scene in the beautiful opera house be shoot at the teatro regio in parma . for some bizarre reason the uk print of this movie have the alternative title terror at the opera .