Review: Deep Red

A British pianist in Rome (David Hemmings) witnesses the murder of a psychic. He and a journalist (Daria Nicolodi) try to solve the crime whilst more murders occur.

 

Popular 1975 giallo from director Dario Argento (“Suspiria”, “Inferno”, “Opera”) and his co-writer Bernardino Zapponi (“Roma”, “Fellini Satyricon”, “Casanova”) failed to grab my interest, I’m afraid. 40 minutes in and barely a damn thing had happened, and the plot is fairly routine for a giallo. In fact, it feels more like a mystery-drama than a giallo movie for the most part. The performances are good (Daria Nicolodi steals it and has good chemistry with David Hemmings), there are some fantastic sounds and images, I just didn’t care all that much. There’s a masterful scene involving an author where it's truly suspenseful and genuinely terrifying. And damn nasty, too. Why couldn’t the majority of the film be like that? The infamous doll/puppet scene (clearly a favourite of the makers of “Saw”) while brief, is eerie as hell and followed by a nasty, brutal murder. Other than that, there’s some humour involving Daria Nicolodi’s awful car, and a solid score/soundtrack by Giorgio Gaslini (“Five Women for the Killer”, “Confessions of a Sex Maniac”) and Goblin, but that’s about it. The plot just didn’t grab me outside of maybe the final third, and even most of that is just David Hemmings demolishing the interior of a house. Credit where it’s due, the culprit is rather well-hidden, and the final kill is absolutely brilliant (though the effect has been replicated in the years since). Not one of Argento’s best, but many will vehemently disagree with me on that.

 

Rating: C

 

 

 

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