For the first time, Dario Argento opens up about his life in a book: his passions, his love stories, and his fears. It's a "horror autobiography" in which, alongside the figure of the great filmmaker, the anxieties of a retiring individual, enamored of film and life itself, can be glimpsed. This unconventional artist, who trapped his own personal demons inside the film camera, has superbly described the nightmares we all experience.

Dario Argento (Rome, 1940) started off writing about film, theater and music for several arts journals, such as "L'araldo dello spettacolo" and "Il giornale dello spettacolo." His reviews clearly revealed his predilection for genre film, westerns and thrillers above all, breaking with the mainstream critics of the day. Four years later, he went to work at a newspaper, "Paese sera," working his way up from being a printer to serving as the paper's film and arts critic. Before he moved on to filmmaking, he wrote numerous screenplays including Sergio Leone's masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). His directing debut came in 1970 with The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, which opened in Turin and Milan but was a disappointment at the box office. Nevertheless, in just a few days the situation had turned around, the word of mouth was positive, and the film swiftly became a success, raking in over a billion lire, a record for the time.

Riding on this success, Argento turned out The Cat O'Nine Tails (1971), Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) andThe Five Days (1974). In 1975, his film Deep Red was a runaway hit and one of the high points of his career. In December of the same year, the soundtrack for Deep Red, composed by the Goblins and Giorgio Gaslini, topped the charts in Italy. The following year, Argento made his horror film debut with Suspiria, which raked in over three billion lire in Italy alone and catapulted him on the world stage, especially in the United States and Japan.

In 1978, Argento co-produced Dawn of the Dead by his friend George A. Romero, with whom he also co-directedTwo Evil Eyes. In 1992, he directed his daughter Asia inTrauma. They would pair up again for The Stendhal Syndrome (1996), The Phantom of the Opera (1998), The Third Mother (2007) and Dracula 3-D (2011), Argento's 3-D debut. He also worked with John Carpenter and John Landis on the series Masters of Horror (2005-2006), directing two episodes, Jenifer and Pelts. Argento has just wrapped up a crowdfunding campaign for his new filmThe Sandman, starring Iggy Pop.