Claudio Di Biagio
Dylan Dog - Vittima degli Eventi

Here is an innovative project. Not the usual Italian holiday comedies or sappy love films, which are now the only types of our domestic cinematography.

Finally, we have a fresh product as well, fantasy, with noir and horror undertones, based on a comic, and we have the world of YouTube to thank for it.

I'm talking about "Dylan Dog – Vittima degli eventi," created and staged by two young Italians, Luca Vecchi and Claudio Di Biagio.

I've never been a big fan of the Dylan Dog comic, published by "Sergio Bonelli Editore" and created by Tiziano Sclavi, but not knowing the character is almost impossible.

To know him, you just need to be Italian, you just need to be alive.

After the disastrous Hollywood product, destroyed by the public and critics not only for the substantial differences with the comic causing its saturation but primarily because, objectively, it was a bad movie, these two young men wanted to take on this venture.

Not having the support of the major film production and distribution companies, they rolled up their sleeves and turned to crowdfunding, meaning they asked users for the necessary funds. They succeeded and, thanks to their fans' support, managed to gather just over €10,000, not a huge budget by any means.

Now let's move on to the film.

Well, there's no doubt about it: it's certainly a very new product for the Italian market, still too static in the seventh art, and too stuck on the same themes, the same genres.

We are facing a product made by very young people, but which, in my opinion, is definitely better than many of our domestic film productions.

The direction by Claudio Di Biagio, known on YouTube as "Nonapritequestotubo," is decidedly dynamic and original.

The cinematography by Matteo Bruno, another YouTuber known as "Cane Secco," reflects the dark, gothic, noir atmospheres of the comic.

The special effects are amazing; certainly among the best in recent years in an Italian production. The set design is meticulously detailed. Everything is beautiful. Truly excellent work.

Unfortunately, there are also some flaws.

The acting above all: rough in some cases. Not very realistic, very tense, and not engaging enough; in this regard, the only one to stand out is Luca Vecchi, playing Groucho, as well as the author of the story and screenplay of this feature film. His is the best character, even too much, as he manages to overshadow the protagonist, the interpreter of the investigator of the occult, whom I personally found unsuitable.

Worth mentioning is the extraordinary performance of Milena Vukotic and the very humorous participation of Alessandro Haber.

Another downside is the writing: perhaps too many empty and dull moments, which are not entirely acceptable for a 50-minute film. And this saddens me: I've been following Claudio Di Biagio for years on YouTube and I know perfectly well how full of creativity and originality he is in the writing of his videos.

Perhaps the authors were afraid of putting too much of themselves in, in order to make their film as similar as possible to the comic.

Sure, there are flaws, but they are forgivable: let's remember that these are very young people who created all this with an insignificant budget.

And I want to go out on a limb by saying they have made a product definitely better than the Hollywood-made "Dylan Dog." They gave the fans of this comic what they have been waiting for a long time and what this character deserved.

They have shown that you don't need million-dollar budgets to make a good film, but you need passion, of which they have plenty. And unknowingly, they have shown that perhaps, the millions provided to make many Italian films are also quite poorly used.

With a little more experience, these young people could be capable of revolutionizing the Italian cinematic and television world, and honestly, I hope that this really happens.

Well done.