Name: Dario Argento
Birthdate: Rome, Italy

Purveyor of contemporary stylish horror films who began writing and directing at the age of 24. Argento's films, for which he often also creates the menacing background scores, have developed a substantial cult following. His distinctive directorial flair and fascination with voyeurism certainly owe a nod to the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, but story development often takes second place to his cinematic theatrics. Indeed, while Argento has been dubbed 'the Italian Hitchcock', the stylized melodramatic excess of his films led to comparisons with a fellow Italian filmmaker via another nickname, 'the Visconti of Violence'.