Deep Red (1975) from Tuna
Deep Red (1975) is a personal favorite of director Dario Argento, and is a very violent, gore-filled mystery/suspense piece. Jazz pianist Marcus Daly, played by David Hemmings, witnesses a grisly murder in an upstairs window across the street, and spends the rest of the film, teamed with reporter Gianna Brezzi, played by Daria Nicolodi (Dario's significant other), in trying to solve the murder (or murders, but the end. When Daly rushes to the apartment of the murdered woman, Macha Meril, we see her left breast as he lifts her off of the window glass shards she is impaled on. 
I found the film slow moving, and was disappointed when they switched from the opening jazz piano to the typical Argento rock track.  Reviewers claim it reinvented horror, and has layer after layer of deep meaning. Maybe, but it seemed a rather slow suspense/horror to me.  

NUDITY REPORT
see Tuna's comments (in white)
 Scoopy's comments in yellow. 

Dario made this film because he was unsatisfied by the lack of answers in Antonioni's "Blow-Up". He was obsessed with that issue for years, and finally made his own version, filling in the blanks.

I was going to write a few thoughts on Dario, but then I read the review by Dumbass and The Fag, and I realized that they have already articulated my thoughts about this movie, and all movies by Dario and his clones, which I've found uniformly disappointing.  Every once in a while I have been fooled by articles which branded Suspiria, or some other Eurotrash gore-rock film, a masterpiece, and I've foolishly watched them. Sucker!

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1

  • interviews with Dario and some of his associates
Therefore, I consider this article must reading for three reasons:

1.  it is filled with iconoclastic, naked-emperor candor

2.  I agree with it almost completely.

3.  he saved me the trouble and misery of writing about Dario's movies. More important, he saved me from having to re-watch them in order to write the article. Most important of all, he may have saved you from being tempted to rent them.  

The Critics Vote

  • General consensus: three stars and then some! Apollo 90/100, Maltin 2.5/4, BBC 5/5

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.7, Apollo users 48/100. 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C.

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