Profondo Rosso (Deep Red)

In Brief: Widely considered — at least by those who consider such things — to be Dario Argento's best film, Deep Red (1975) is perhaps more of a gory (except that people all seem to bleed red paint) giallo than an outright horror film. One thing is certain — it makes more sense (in strictly relative terms) than the director's full-blown horror movies that followed. Essentially, this is a mystery — and a surprisingly good one that pulls off the neat trick of showing the murderer to us quite plainly without letting us realize what we've seen. (It's only apparent on subsequent viewings.) David Hemmings stars as a jazz pianist living in Italy who becomes obsessed with solving the murder of a psychic (Macha Méril), whose killer he may have seen. This, of course, makes him — and several others — a target for the deranged murderer, and this single murder soon becomes a series of murders — with him and a wisecracking newspaper woman/love interest (Daria Nicolodi) on the trail. It's all pretty effective and compelling — and it doesn't lack for style. Whether or not it's Argento's best film, it's certainly one of his most visually striking. This excerpt was taken from a review by Ken Hanke published on June 16, 2015