Deep Red (1975)

Tagline: ‘When was the last time you were really scared?’
UK Running Time: 98 Minutes (US ‘R’ rated version), 106 minutes (Theatrical version), 126 minutes (European Version)

Film Quality: 5/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value: 4.5/5
Originality: 4.5/5

Introduction

Having already carved out a reputation as a fine director with his astonishing debut ‘Bird with the Crystal Plumage’, ‘The Cat o’ Nine Tails’ and ‘Four Flies on Grey Velvet’ (later to become known as his ‘Animal Trilogy’), Dario Argento moved away from the Giallo to try his hand at comedy with ‘The Five Days’. It sank without trace so in 1975 he returned to the Giallo with what would become regarded as one of, if not the greatest example of the Italian sub-genre, ‘Deep Red’, or ‘Profondo Rosso’ in his home country. For the uninitiated, the Giallo is a thriller combining horror or elements of the supernatural alongside moments of highly stylised violence and gore with a whodunit construct that takes its name, literally meaning ‘Yellow’, from the lurid coloured sleeves of the pulp novels that inspired them. This is the film that cemented Argento’s reputation as ‘The Italian Hitchcock’, allowed him to take his place as a horror auteur and took him on an unbroken run of six movies that can rightfully be regarded as masterpieces.

In a nutshell

Pianist Marc Daly witnesses the murder of renowned psychic Helga Ulmann in Milan but there’s a part of the murder scene that preys on his mind, a small detail that he believes was removed from the scene that he can’t quite recall but knows must be important. When a local journalist publishes his position as an eyewitness in her newspaper, bringing him to the attention of the killer, he knows he must try and solve that missing piece of the puzzle before he becomes the next victim.

What’s good about it?

It oozes style from every frame. Argento isn't known for his coherent narratives, favouring style and flamboyance over substance but in ‘Deep Red’ he finds a perfect blend. The short, dreamlike fetishistic scenes that take you into the mind of a psychopath watch the camera glide over marbles, creepy dolls and knives against a black background are just stunning in their execution. There’s a remarkable wide shot (left) where characters shout at each other from the edge of the screen, seemingly set up purely to allow Argento to perfectly frame them either side of a giant statue to dwarf them as insignificant bystanders to the cameras focus. The camera glides down the exterior of buildings and through a window to focus our attention on TV screen featuring a news report and a standout shot where the camera follows the blade of a knife up and then down into a victim’s neck to make the ugly stunningly beautiful.

Argento’s films have frequently been criticised for neglecting the actors, giving them implausible scripts in favour of stunning set pieces. Despite those criticisms this is a well written film and characters are given ample room to breath and develop in what is a mature and well written script.  The chemistry between David Hemmings’ protagonist and Daria Nicolodi’s journalist (right) is very well constructed with some good verbal sparring and comedy that go against accusations of sexism that have plagued Argento's productions. I've always found it interesting that a director so often accused of misogyny should have such strong female characters in the majority of his films, heroines that take centre stage, save the day and take the initiative over relatively weak male protagonists – Nicolodi is the forceful one, takes the initiative in the relationship with Hemmings and the investigation, saves his life twice and beats him at armwrestling.

I mentioned the set pieces earlier, they’re all foreshadowed in the most subtle of details. Hemmings gets a steam burn in a café and moments later we see a character drown in boiling water. His character, Marc, compares playing the piano to smashing his father’s teeth, later in the film a character has his teeth smashed out against a fireplace. A doll loses its head in the same manner as another character towards the end of the film. Doubling and rhyming plays a big part in ‘Deep Red’, indeed the trigger for the murders appears to be (and this isn’t a spoiler) a nursery rhyme that resurrects a childhood trauma whilst mirrors (a reflection of the soul?) and windows play significant roles in the opening and closing scenes. Indeed this notional of duality, hidden characteristics and motives is taken further in the sexuality of at least two characters, the assumption of who the killer is and gender identity, reflecting the device by which the killer is eventually identified.

It’s the first Argento film to feature a trace of the supernatural. Our first victim, Helga, is a psychic who picks up on the murderous thoughts of our villain in the opening scenes, the thoughts still terrorising her after the audience has left her performance. We’re presented with what appears to be a point of view shot of somebody watching Helga with her agent, there is nobody there so is it the supernatural force of our murderous psychopath? Hemmings’ investigations take him to a library where a clue leads him to a book on ghost stories that talks about a nursery rhyme linked to a haunted house. It’s not the all-out supernatural horror that we get from the incomparable ‘Suspiria’ or its surreal sequel ‘Inferno’ but it’s starting to head that way and gives the film a sense of unease missing from his earlier Gialli that would punctuate his films from hereon in.

What about the bad?

Audiences today may struggle with some ‘of the time’ fashions and music but that doesn’t date the film as much as it should…it’s very much a foreign film in every way and Argento plays on this in a big way by casting Hemmings as a Brit abroad. My only criticism would be a gruesome death involving a bin lorry which, if you'll pardon the pun, drags on and is a little on the unintentionally funny side but other than that, to me at least, it’s a wonderfully crafted film that’s almost perfect in every way.

Any themes?

There’s a surprising amount to say about gender differences in this film. There’s a lot of verbal and physical sparring between our male and female leads but we also have significant character development with the revelation, to Marc at least, about his best friend’s sexuality. There’s ambiguity about the gender of the killer and what about the flashback scene – is it a girl or a boy who picks up the knife?

What belongs and what doesn’t belong is an interesting theme that keeps coming to the surface. Marc is a stranger in a foreign land, Carlo is embarrassed when his hidden homosexuality is revealed to Marc, the clue that leads Marc to the house of the screaming child is a foreign plant that wouldn’t take to the climate and of course there’s the missing painting that Marc believes belonged in Helga’s flat that has gone missing.

And then of course there’s doubles and opposites. We’ve talked about mirrors and rhyming scenes but there’s more than that, barriers are removed to reveal secrets and character traits. The opening scene sees the camera glide towards theatre curtains which are peeled back to reveal Marc’s occupation as a jazz pianist performing with his orchestra. The hidden room in the house of the screaming child reveals what is behind our killer’s trauma, Marc witnesses Helga’s death as she screams silently behind the window to her flat, the same window through which he thinks he sees the killer flee…the final shot is incredibly apt as Marc’s face is reflected back at us in a pool of deep red blood. There’s so much imagery and meaning pouring out of every frame that you can glean something different from it upon repeated viewing.

Release History

Like most of Argento’s films it has had a complicated release, not least in the US where distributers, keen to market it as a slasher film, butchered 30 minutes from the film and renamed it ‘The Hatchet Murders’. It fared better in European territories where the theatrical version lost around 15 minutes of dialogue and exposition, reportedly Argento’s favoured cut. There is also a European version which runs the full 126 minutes.

In the UK, Redemption Video released the full European cut in 1993, subtitled and in widescreen, but suffered minor BBFC cuts of two dogs fighting and a lizard impaled on a pin (it completely changes the meaning of the scene – the girl’s father slapping her in the face, seemingly for no reason in the cut version, making him appear unhinged and NOT the little girl who had tortured the lizard!).

‘Deep Red’ has been available uncut in the UK since 2011 in two versions, both the European and International cuts. Thanks to the wonders of DVD and blu ray audio tracks you can watch an integrated cut which dubs the majority of the European cut, however those additional 15 minutes were never dubbed into English so these segments (sometimes just a couple of sentences within a scene) remain subtitled. Check out the three disc Arrow version if you can,which also includes the soundtrack, on blu-ray for the definitive version.

Cultural Impact

‘Deep Red’ cemented Argento’s reputation as one of the hottest properties in Europe. Alfred Hitchcock, upon seeing the film, reportedly commented “This Italian fellow is starting to worry me!” and, as I wrote earlier, marked the start of his golden period that was followed by ‘Suspiria’, ‘Inferno’, ‘Tenebrae’, ‘Phenomena’ and ended with the gloriously demented ‘Opera’. It also marked the first collaboration with Daria Nicolodi, his future wife, who was a mainstay of this body of work.

Argento’s influence, and this film in particular, cannot be underestimated. James Wan cited his work as a major inspiration for ‘Saw’, just watch the scene where the doll makes an appearance from behind the curtain (left) and see the similarities between that and the puppet from Wan’s film. Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, M Night Shyamalan, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, Sam Raimi, Takashi Miike, George Romero, Guillermo del Toro and countless others have all taken cues and doffed their caps to Argento at some point. John Carpenter’s classic score for ‘Halloween’ took its cue from Goblin’s score for ‘Deep Red’, that repetitive piano indicating a single minded desire to kill – it’s difficult to hear one and not be reminded of the other.

Final Thoughts

An international hit at the time, it’s regarded as the very best of its type and rightly held as a classic of Italian cinema, regardless of genre. Confirming Argento as a major talent, the film has influenced a generation of film-makers in terms of its style and set pieces. Fans of the Italian often argue about which is his best film, which is a testament to his glory days rather than the quality of this particular film, but if you’re looking for a taut, well-crafted, intelligent film and don’t mind subtitles then it’s the perfect film to start your Argento journey.

Memorable Quotes

Marc: “There’s someone in the house….he’s trying to kill me.”

Helga: “I feel a presence, a twisted mind sending me thoughts, perverted, murderous thoughts…you have killed and you will kill again.”

Carlo: “Maybe the painting was meant to disappear because it represented something important.”

Carlo (to Marc): “I am the proletarian of the Pianoforte while you are the bourgeois…you play for the sake of art and enjoy it. I play for survival…it is not the same thing.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Amer’, ‘Se7en’, ‘Dressed to Kill’, ‘Blow Up’, ‘The Eyes of Laura Mars’