Tag Lines: You're either in, or you're in the way!
Country: USA
DVD: Come on Grindhouse hurry up & release this to DVD. It's all fine & dandy that you are touring this in rep theatres across the globe, but until it plays here in Toronto I have to see this film.
Plot: An English jazz pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal hatchet murder of a renowned psychic and is quickly drawn into the savage crime. With the help of a tenacious female reporter, the pair track a twisted trail of deranged clues and relentless violence towards a shocking climax that has ripped screams from the throats of audiences for more than 35 years!
Argento is often pegged as a visually stylish director who neglects a cohesive story line in favor of striking imagery and I must say very true with films the likes of SUSPIRIA (1977) but Deep Red is not such an animal. The characters are interesting and well rounded, in particular the two leads. The plot is full of subtle twists and turns but Argento's signature style is ever present and in full force. Each shot is meticulously staged and framed by Luigi Kuveiler's cinematography. The murders themselves are - as would be expected in Italian horror - hideous, but are shot with such skill and style that they reach the heights of art. A particularly brutal scene involves a man having his teeth repeatedly smashed on the corner of a heath & then a marble table after being attacked by a fucking (I hate them) porcelain-faced mechanical doll. Then there's a gorgeously shot drowning in a tub of scalding water, great stuff.
David Hemmings performance is fantastic as the prototypical Dario Argento film hero - the foreigner living in Italy, working in the arts, who finds himself included in a horrific murder case. While other versions of this archetype were a little one-dimensional, the character played by Hemmings is extremely memorable, as far as Giallo films are concerned. He's likable, humorous, and charismatic. Considering that Hemmings was speaking in a foreign tongue throughout his entire performance, top notch stuff.
It can't go un-said that the films score is easily one of the best that not only Goblin has ever done, but it laid the foundations for all synth style scores to follow. Just flat out brilliant stuff here. Many argue that it doesn't fit the tone allot of the time, I can't agree with this statement. For myself, it doesn't detract from the film but rather pulls me into it.
While it does have it's flaws, this is in my opinion Argento's masterpiece. His other films may have a greater following but when stacked next to Deep Red, pale in comparison.
9.5/10
Tag Lines: NAME: Jericho Jackson NICKNAME: "Action" HOME: Detroit PROFESSION: Cop EDUCATION: Harvard Law HOBBY: Fighting Crime WEAPON: You're looking at 'em
