no. He's done a handful of mind-bogglingly perfect films (Opera, Susperia, etc) and a shit-ton of crap (Do You Like Hitchcock, The Card Player, Phantom Of The Opera, etc etc fucking etc).

yeah, really.

Argento was really influenced by Bava, who was really influenced by Hitchcok. I don't know that many horror-film directors in recent years that have been particularly influenced by Argento. Soavi and Norman J. Warren maybe, but they're hardly significant to the genre as a whole. I'm sure there re others of more note, but really, argento strikes me as being the end of a line rather than the beginning of one.

Soavi is definitely influenced by Argento. Although he tends to skip the Hitchcock plots and go straight after the dreamy visuals.