Profondo Rosso: Deep Red

Halloween  marathon? This is n°1 in your list.

Since Halloween is just around the corner, the S.P.A.M. Alternative team has lately been reviewing wonderful horror films for your enjoyment and "add to cart" list for partying hard with friends and forkin easy gals after a couple of drinks. Today's entry is 1975's Profondo Rosso, AKA Deep Red, a lesson on how a good horror film is made based sorely on creativity rather than on budget and (I puke just by typing this) CGI.  I'm pretty sure everyone's planning a party with the horror classics from the 80's (Fredy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, you know the type) BUT, truth be told, all those American horror classics we remember so fondly wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the original source from which they plagiarized a lot of stuff: The Italian Giallo genre.

 

Deep Red is the favourite Argento film of many fans mainly because it has a coherent plot with genuine scares and comedy thrown in along the way. It also paves the way for Suspiria in the use of colours and interiors/buildings, especially the beautiful haunted house, as part of Argento's renowned aesthetic.

Frequently Argento's killers do not seem credible because the plot does not contain a narrative, typically supplementing narrative for set killing scenes instead. In Deep Red there are the same killing scenes but they are better connected to the story of the killer (or killers).

Mediums & charlatans.

Yes, dolls in horror are a thing of the past.

Briefly a former actress, who is a paranoid schizophrenic, murders her husband when he suggests she should seek further psychiatric help. The murder is witnessed by their young son, Carlo(Gabriele Lavele). This scene is part of the denouement as the film begins 20 years later with a psychic inadvertently stumbling across the identity of the woman, who in turn murders the psychic to keep her identity and previous murder hidden. This first death is witnessed by Marcus (David Hemmings) as he returns home, bumping into Carlo who, coincidentally, plays piano in a local bar. Marcus rushes to assist the dying psychic unaware that as he does he glimpses the killer reflected in a mirror in the apartment. Marcus investigates the psychic's murder as he is constantly niggled by an elusive memory of something important - namely the face he glimpsed in the mirror.

The way Marcus glimpses the killer is the cleverest detail in this film. The killer, unable to exit the apartment before Marcus appears, poses as one of a number of faces in a painting. This is what Marcus sees reflected in the mirror. Later when he looks again the painting troubles him because he knows it is different somehow but does not realize it's missing the face of the killer. This detail is usually missed on first viewing of the film and its revelation, towards the end, rightly inspires admiration of Argento.

Don't fucking die on me!

...and it's gone!

One theme of the film is femininity and its connection to mental health and/or evilness. Marcus's sidekick in the investigation is Gianni, an ambitious female reporter played by Daria Nicolodi in her first collaboration with Argento. She speaks of her independence at various points in the film whilst bemoaning being single and arm wrestles Marcus to show her strength in one of their many comedy moments. There are suspicions she might be the killer throughout the film though ultimately she proves to be a benign female presence.

The antagonist and murderess is Carlo's glamorous agreeing mother who seems absentmindedly narcissistic, repeatedly confusing Marcus with being an engineer whilst lauding her past achievements. She is described as evil and childish and we see her playing, as a child might, with dolls enacting deaths she then perpetrates on her real life victims. Her death at the end is suitably gruesome and presents her as somewhat pathetic. A question remains as to how much Carlo might have been involved with his mother's murderous antics. Carlo is a disturbed young man drinking himself to an early death. Likely the consequence of witnessing his father's murder and living with his disturbed mother.

Girls who read get me horny.

Phone sex? bring it on!

The theme of femininity and evil is furthered by the caretaker's daughter. Her father minds the haunted house that contains important clues. We see him brutalise his daughter and her respond with the torturing and killing of a lizard. With her Argento sows the seeds of another female child mind with murderous intent.

The effects upon this young girl and Carlo of maladaptive parenting reflect a serious side to Argento's screen writing that is easy to overlook amidst the fantastic carnage and he comes closest to psychologically exploring what makes a serial killer in Deep Red than in any of his other films. This elevates the film above a stylish gore-fest.

There are two cuts available of the film: the director's cut is about 20 minutes longer and the better of the two as it lingers more with the narrative that makes this a coherent and intelligent film.

I know who the killer is!

Murdering eye.

Profondo Rosso has been praised many times as the number one film in Dario Argento's filmography, I for one, have a hard time deciding whether it's Suspiria or the aforementioned. Anyways, this is film making at its finest, believe you me, any film that has Argento's signature on it won't disappoint, moreover, any Italian film from the 70's will give you a 101 lesson on what a good movie feels like. So if you're looking for a different Halloween movies night, please add this to your cart.

Here's the movie trailer: