The best magazine
Deep Red (or Profondo Rosso) stars revered actor David Hemmings (Blow Up) as Marcus Daly, an English pianist living in Rome, who one night witnesses the brutal meat cleaver murder of renowned psychic Helga Ulmann (Macha Meril) from the street through her apartment window. Helga had just come home from a medium conference, where during a live reading she connected psychically with a twisted mind and saw images of demented violence and gore that haunted her the rest of the evening until her brutal demise at the hands of the unknown audience member. Marcus decides to join forces with vivacious reporter Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi) and do some amateur detective work into the unsolved murder. But one night, while practicing some notes on the piano, Marcus is himself visited by the creeping, stealthy killer and discovers that the psychopath plays an eerie child's tune from a music box before striking, just as before Helga's murder.
Marcus does some research about the off-kilter melody and discovers a book written by Amanda Righetti (Giuliana Calandra) that connects the tune to a supposedly haunted mansion that was the site of a gruesome murder years ago. Marcus intends to visit Amanda to discuss the house, but before he can do so she is viciously beaten and scalded to death in hot water by the black-gloved assassin. Helga Ulmann's former associate Dr. Giordani (Glauco Mauri) investigates the scene of Amanda's death and begins piecing together the puzzle, but he too meets his fate at the gloved hands of the warped killer, who repeatedly bashes his head into a heavy wooden desk and plunges a carving knife through the back of his neck. Despite the killer's attempts to prevent him from doing so, Marcus finally discovers the location of the enormous house, which has been abandoned for years and is now in a state of dilapidation. He bravely searches the desolate home and discovers a decayed human corpse sealed in a secret room behind a wall, the victim of the gruesome murder years ago who's body was never found, and soon ends up face to face with the psychotic perpetrator. The identity of the killer is not as easy to figure out as you might think, and I won't spoil the surprise for those who haven't!
The acting is usually not one of the stronger aspects of Dario Argento's films, often due to language barriers, but Deep Red is an exception. David Hemmings gives a superb performance as the slightly neurotic pianist Marcus, who is determined to solve the mystery. Daria Nicolodi, Argento's then-wife who provided her talent on most of his best films, provides excellent comic relief as free-spirited Gianna,who enjoys arm-wrestling with Marcus and collecting miniature bottles of liqueur. Another standout is Gabriele Lavia (Beyond the Door) as Marcus's alcoholic best friend Carlo, who plays piano at a local pub and is with our hero just before Helga's murder. Argento's direction has never been better, and the Maestro indeed won a Medalla Sitges en Oro de Ley (equivalent to the best director award) from the Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival for his incredible work. The murder scenes are quite breathtaking, almost unbearably suspenseful and not recommended for the squeamish; Argento reportedly wanted to eschew the typical giallo knife and gun murders and feature more excruciatingly painful murders that any viewer who has ever been scalded with water or bumped into a table could relate to.
Deep Red is regarded as one of Argento's scariest, most unnerving films. His fifth film (and fourth giallo) after The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The Cat O' Nine Tails, Four Flies on Grey Velvet and The Five Days (his only comedy to date), it is tied with Tenebre as my favorite Argento giallo and will no doubt please the director's followers and fans of the genre. I rate Deep Red a well-earned 9 of 10 and give it my own personal slasher seal of approval.
Source: ...