The Card Player

Watch The Card Player (Il cartaio, 2004) online on iFILM — a genre thriller from Italian horror director Dario Argento. A serial killer calling himself the Card Dealer sends emails to the Rome police with a grim offer: a game of video poker, played over a live webcam feed, where losing a hand means watching a hostage die.

Detective Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca) has no choice but to sit down at the table. British officer John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) joins the investigation as the body count rises and the killer keeps dealing new hands, daring the police to catch up.

For Argento fans this is a mid-career curiosity — less baroque in its visuals than his 1970s peak, but the early-internet setting gives it its own particular chill. Stream The Card Player (2004) on iFILM.