Dario Argento earned a cult following as a pioneering director of Giallo, the visually and stylistically flamboyant Italian horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. Video Librarian has an introduction to Giallo if you'd like to learn more about adding the pulp horror genre to your film collection.
Unfortunately, while he continued making films in the genre, the quality of his films declined over time, becoming more sadistic and less stylistically enjoyable. While not up to the standards of his best films, The Card Player is one of the better efforts of his later career.
The plot revolves around a serial killer who kidnaps women and bets on their lives in fatal games of video poker with the police. Stefania Rocca stars as the inspector he contacts via E-mail with "invitations" to each game and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) is the angry British cop from the English embassy who joins the hunt for the killer. This is more of a cat-and-mouse thriller mixed with police procedural than the gory spectacles that made his fame.
There's not much to the characters beyond their types and the story plods along between set pieces mounted with more professionalism than creativity. And while there is an element of voyeuristic sadism (the bound and gagged victims are displayed in a live stream during the games), it is downright restrained compared to the brutal "torture porn" films of the early 2000s.
The electronic score by Argento's regular composer Claudio Simonetti recalls previous efforts without actually delivering anything memorable. It should be more interesting and entertaining given the director and the premise, but it's still better than his previous couple of films. Otherwise, this is for diehard fans of the genre or the director.
Not rated, features nudity, foul language, gory violence, and gruesome scenes of naked corpses (all special effects dummies). Presented with English dub soundtrack (which features the voice of Cunningham) and in original Italian with English subtitles. Features commentary by film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson and video interviews with director Dario Argento, coscreenwriter Franco Ferrini, set designer Antonello Geleng, and actress Fiore Argento, all new to this edition. It was previously released on DVD with a different collection of supplements.
The Card Player belongs on library shelves focusing on the horror genre, or specifically international horror films. Film studies professors could use this title as a comparison between Dario Argento's earlier work.