Hidden Movie Gem: “Deep Red”
Here is a Hidden Movie Gem courtesy of jwebb66.
Movie Title: Deep Red (PROFONDO ROSSO)
Year: 1975
Writers: Dario Argento, Bernardino Zapponi (screenplay)
Lead Actors: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia
Director: Dario Argento
Plot Summary: 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!
(Summary taken from Blue Underground blu ray, a brilliant transfer of the English and Italian Director’s cut versions — I promise I do not work for them!)
Why I Think This Movie Is A Hidden Gem: Deep Red / Profondo Rosso is a prime example of the horror/thriller sub-genre ‘giallo’, a primarily Italian-made collection of films from directors such as Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci. The name giallo refers to the garish yellow book covers of the popular pulp fiction titles that influenced the genre.
Like its cinematic cousin, film noir (although giallo is more like noir’s beautiful but unhinged twin sister), the films feature protagonists with murky moral codes and twisting plotlines but they are distinctive in being, well, more Italian; in Deep Red’s case this means operatic levels of violence and gore (death by meat cleaver, pane of glass meets neck, drowning in scalding hot water and some lovely decapitation), dealt out by a sinister black gloved, masked killer. The genre is at once deadly serious and yet always walking a thin line into camp revelry.
Deep Red cannot claim to be the first giallo (that honour probably rests with godfather of Italian horror cinema Mario Bava and his 1963 film The Girl Who Knew Too Much) but it is the most fully realised example of the genre. Genuinely suspenseful and scary, the film matches incredible style with true substance.
It is also worth seeing to understand the ripples of influence it spawned in the horror/thriller genre; basically any macabre film with a taste for the theatrical owes Deep Red a debt. The film itself occupies a natural place between Antonioni’s Blow Up (which also starred Hemmings as an amateur detective on a killer’s trail) and Dressed to Kill, Brian De Palma’s twisted take on Hitchcock, which holds a reflective carving knife blade up to Argento’s masterwork.
A special shout-out must go to Goblin’s delirious prog-rock soundtrack, which heightens the action set-pieces much in the same way that Morricone’s scores elevated Leone’s westerns. Never has murder and intrigue sounded so … groovy.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: The supremely creepy credits sequence featuring a Christmas tree adorned room, a small child, a nursery rhyme and a carving knife is hard to beat but the titular panic-inducing moment takes place late at night when a tired man is given the fright of his life by a cackling, grotesque china-faced dummy. Chucky eat your heart out.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie:
‘I heard all those twisted thoughts, cruel yet childish at the same time’ — Helga, The Medium/Mind Reader
‘By the way I wish to thank you, it’s always nice to let the murderer know who you are’ Marc (David Hemmings) chides Gianna the reporter after she plasters his face across the front page of the newspaper under the headline ‘I saw the killer’
‘Gianna! Gianna! There’s someone in the house… absolutely trying to kill me, ya’know?’ Marc (David Hemmings)
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: The film is a twisting thrill ride with a final reveal which will have even the most attentive viewer reaching for the rewind button — all I can say is pay attention to the hallway of mirrors and gruesome paintings Marc passes when he enters the murdered woman’s apartment. Apart from that, just have fun piecing together the elements of the puzzle along with Marc as he journeys into increasingly dangerous territory.
(As a side point, I’m pretty sure the shot of the café in the background of the piazza where Marc witnesses the murder is a homage to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.)
Movie Trailer:
You can see the movie online for free here.
Thanks, jwebb66! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Tomorrow: Another Hidden Movie Gem!
Note: At this point, we have 23 guest posts. We are shooting for 31. If you’d like to submit a post for one of your favorite Hidden Movie Gems, please use the above template and email to me.