Mike_Bracken's Full Review: Deep Red: The Hatchet Murders
Deep Red AKA Profondo Rosso: Seda Spettacoli/ Anchor Bay Home Video
Rating: USA: R
By 1975, Italian horror auteur Dario Argento (Suspiria, Tenebre, Phenomena) had already directed four films and cemented his reputation as one of the most exciting directors working in Italy. The success of his first film, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage demonstrated the giallo (a popular subgenre in Italian cinema—they resemble thrillers. See my review of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage for a detailed discussion of the gialli) was still a viable subgenre for filmmakers—a fact witnessed by the sea of ludicrously named shock schlockers that came in Bird’s wake. Of course, Argento himself continued to churn out gialli as well, releasing both Cat O’ Nine Tails and Four Flies on Grey Velvet—two films that completed what came to be known as his "animal trilogy", neither one as successful as Bird. By the early 70’s, Argento stood at something of a crossroads—he needed a film to outdo all that had he’d done before…and the result was 1975’s Deep Red, a film widely regarded by hardcore Argentophiles as his masterpiece.
Like all of Argento’s films, Deep Red has a deceptively simple storyline that belies the complexity of the mystery driving the movie. The film opens with a scene set at a parapsychology conference in Italy. There, clairvoyant Helga Ulman (Macha Meril) and two noted experts are pontificating on the existence of telepathy and ESP. The doctors posit that animals already communicate telepathically—witnessed by the fact that a butterfly caged in a jar will draw other butterflies to the jar. Anyway, Ulman demonstrates that she can pick up the thoughts of others by singling out a man in the crowd and telling those in attendance his name, what he has in his pocket, etc. However, moments later, she picks up some other, far more sinister thoughts floating around the room. It seems that there’s a mad murderer amongst them—one who has killed before and will kill again.
Later that evening, Ulman is murdered in her apartment. Outside, her neighbor, jazz pianist Marc (David Hemmings: Blowup) witnesses the whole thing through a window while standing in the plaza below. He rushes to her apartment, but it’s too late. The police question him extensively, and Marc can’t shake the feeling that he’s seen something vital, but can’t recall what exactly it is. Soon after, he meets news reporter Gianna (Daria Nicolodi: Tenebre, Phenomena) and the two join forces in an attempt to solve the mystery—an attempt which may very well cost both of them their lives.
Ultimately, Deep Red is a transitional film in Argento’s body of work. It mirrors the earlier gialli he had made (particularly Bird With the Crystal Plumage) while at the same time opening the door on the themes he would explore more deeply in subsequent films (i.e. the psychic and supernatural elements which would appear in films like Suspiria, Inferno, Phenomena, and even to a degree, Trauma). Even more noticeable is the film’s resemblance to Bird. In Deep Red, we have an artist protagonist who witnesses a murder that he’s powerless to stop. Both protagonists become obsessed with remembering what little clue they’ve missed and begin investigating the crime on their own. From there, both are nearly killed before reaching what seems to be the logical conclusion—except that there’s one piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit. This leads them to the real revelation, and a climax that takes place at the scene of the original crime—driving home the notion that murderers always return to the scene of the crime and bringing the story full circle.
Of course, it’s not only a transitional film in terms of themes and ideas, but also in technical direction. Argento’s early gialli are interesting films, but not the technical wonders that films like Suspiria and Inferno are. Deep Red marks the birth of Argento, the visual stylist. This is the first film to showcase the director’s flamboyant camera movements, his incongruous editing techniques, and his eye for color. It’s an artistic giallo, clearly inspired by Mario Bava’s work on Blood and Black Lace.
These two new elements—the new themes and the more stylized direction—work together to create what is an incredibly intriguing film. Argento uses the camera almost as a weapon—prowling over clues in extreme close-up, flashing a shot of the killer’s face right after the first murder, and even creating some visual foreshadowing. The psychic theme is driven home time and again throughout the film—Ulman begins screaming in terror before she’s attacked, Marc comments that he plays the piano because it’s like symbolically socking his father in the mouth—later, a man has his mouth rammed into sharp corners of a table repeatedly. Never before had Argento synthesized all the elements so perfectly to tell a story—and this is the reason that Deep Red is so revered.
The film is also filled with the usual assortment of striking visuals. Argento shows us an eerie looking motorized puppet, a gruesome mural that’s been painted by a child and walled over, and a looming, decrepit haunted house. Once again, Argento manages to take the simplest of everyday images and infuse them with an inherent wrongness—giving the viewer the sense that he’s caught inside a beautiful, but potentially terrifying, nightmare. Like Suspiria, Deep Red is filled with a series of luridly lit sets, full of garish reds mostly, which can be credited to production designer Giuseppe Bassan.
In the light of such technical mastery, the performances from the actors tend to get overlooked. Hemmings basically phones in his performance—which isn’t to say it’s not good, but he’s clearly not exuding too much effort either. He’s believable as Marc, though—he’s just not a guy who I’d find myself all that interested in knowing in real life. Daria Nicolodi does a fine job as always, although viewing the new DVD can be a bit disconcerting—the film was shot in both Italian and English, so Nicolodi’s English lines were dubbed in, which is fine, except that the dub in voice is very high and Nicolodi’s own voice (which you hear during the Italian language scenes) is much deeper.
Germano Natali provides the gore, and does a nice job—especially when one considers that the film was made in the early 70’s. There’s some graphic stuff here, including the aforementioned mouth bashing, a decapitation, a head crushed by a car, and a face repeatedly dunked into scalding water (a scene that Rick Rosenthal would blatantly steal in Halloween 2).
After working with composer Ennio Morricone on his three previous films, Argento opts to go with Goblin here. Deep Red would be the first film that the synth rockers would score for Argento, and it stands as some of their best work (no small feat considering that they’ve created some of horror’s most classic soundtracks). Goblin’s work on Deep Red can basically be described as psychedelic synth. There’s a haunting and nerve jangling ominousness to their work here—one that will burrow into your brain and run through your head for days. If you ever doubt the power music plays in a horror film, rent Deep Red and watch it with the sound down—the effect is nowhere near the same.
Anchor Bay has recently released Deep Red in a newly restored DVD and VHS format. If you’re a genre fan and you’re not supporting Anchor Bay, then you deserve twenty lashes as a penance. Anchor Bay continues to put out hard to find genre classics on DVD—with great pictures, great sound, and loads of extras—and their work on Deep Red is no exception. The film has been around for years, released on HBO Home Video, and cut mercilessly. There was also a Japanese laserdisc, which ran longer than the US release, but was still cut. Anchor Bay has gone to great lengths to get US viewers the full two hour + version of the film—complete with scenes never before seen on our shores. The added footage is in Italian (with English subs), and adds a great deal to the film. However, it does slow the pace down a bit, and I think you could make a case for the slightly shorter Japanese print being the best version—still, it’s great to have access to a complete film for the first time ever.
The disc also features some extras (although not as many as Tenebre and Phenomena) including a featurette with interviews with Argento, Goblin, and others. The lack of a commentary track is disappointing, but Argento doesn’t feel comfortable enough with the English language to talk about his films at length (which is a shame, because when I spoke with him back in March, his English was surprisingly good). In short, support Anchor Bay and their efforts to bring you these classics and buy this movie.
In the end, Deep Red is more than deserving of its classic status. It’s a phenomenal giallo by one of the forms acknowledged masters. And while I can certainly see how some fans would champion it as Argento’s best film, this Argentophile is sticking with Suspiria as his contender for that honor. Is that to say that Deep Red is somehow inferior to Suspiria? Not at all. I simply find that I like the fairy tale angle of that film slightly better than the straight up giallo approach of Deep Red. Both are brilliant films, and well worth seeing if you’re an Argento fan or a neophyte taking your first trip into the wild and wonderful world of Euro-horror.
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