By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Dario Argento has provided horror with countless violent, gory sexy and genuinely scary films. DEEP RED (1975) is among his best.
In the opening sequence we see a shadow of someone being stabbed while cheerful music is played and a Christmas tree can be seen in the background. It’s a visual of contrasting images and sounds that already kick this thing off in perfect Giallo form.
Without explanation of the events witnessed, the scene shifts to a bright red auditorium. The stage is red, the table is red, the sets are red, the floors are red. We are where we’re supposed to be. We are in the Deep Red. Lithuanian telepathic Helga (Macha Méril) sits with two male colleagues in front of a live audience. She starts off doing a fun routine, but is suddenly overtaken by a presence of death. Violent images of perversion surround her and though she begs to be saved from it, she falls in deeper. In an entranced state, she points to the audience and accuses them of murder. She says she knows they’ll murder again. All the emotions hit her at once so she was unable to convey them, but promises she’ll write them down later.
She never gets the chance to really articulate what she felt as the killer gets her first. Pianist Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) lives one floor above Helga and had been out with his troubled best friend Carlo (Gabriele Lavia) on that night. He was just arriving home at the exact time she was being murdered in her bare front window. Though he didn’t see the assailant, he did see the murder and rushes upstairs to find her body. The killer is long gone, but Daly waits for the officers to arrive and tells them what he has seen. Immediately, he thinks something is off. A painting that had been there upon entering the apartment was now gone and that’s not all. They ask him the same questions repeatedly and takes things he says out of context.
At that point, my favorite character enters. Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi) a sexy brunette photographer with curly shoulder-length hair, killer eye-liner and the tendency to use her employees as tables (YUMMY) comes in ready to get the dirt on the death! I love a gal who doesn’t mind getting gory to get ahead.
She also has a scene where she gives Marcus a ride and his seat drops a few inches down. The car is a wreck and has a few things wrong with it, but again it’s an extra little fem-gem where she sits taller in the driver’s seat than her male submissive. I love it.
Later, when he goes on talking about how women are weaker and gentler, she laughs in his face. Marcus is such a fem boy wanting to be an alpha and I love it. It’s a great mix of masculine and feminine. He just a boy still trying to prove to his dad that he’s a man despite loving art and music. I love when he loses an arm wrestling contest to Gianna and he huffs and puffs. Gianna doesn’t bow or try to stroke his manhood. Instead, she turns the knife and displays how foolish he’s being. I love her so. She has a Poison Ivy sting and is all about ambition, success and confidence. More importantly, she possesses the skills and intellect to back it up.
Meanwhile, Marcus needs help and tracks down Carlo at Massimo Ricci’s (Geraldine Hooper) apartment. It become apparent that Carlo was in the closet and Massimo is his lover. Kudos to this film for showing such a likable and cool gay man. Carlo is facing some serious issues as he’s trying to find himself as a gay man in 1973! Massimo is so out in the open, loving and caring and supportive. He’s sexy and just magnificent in every way – both inside and out. More than that, this film is daring enough to have the lead protagonist notice. Other than showing initial surprise, Marcus is completely on board with Massimo and with Carlo being gay. He’s just cool with it. It’s not even a thing for any main character outside of Carlo and for the time that’s fucking beautiful!
When the friends go for a walk, Marcus goes right back into talking about the paintings and stuff. The bonding scenes between the two men are sensational. Initially, it’s easy to hate Carlo when you don’t know his backstory. We’re introduced to him as a drunk who jokes about raping virgins when he hears a scream in the dead of night. He’s almost unlikable other than there is something vulnerable about him.
It is when we see Massimo that we learn and then the subsequent scenes between him and Marcus mean so much more.
In the end, the reveal is very well done. It’s compelling, it wraps up the intro nicely and touches on several plot-points throughout.
If you don’t own this, watch it on AMAZON PRIME.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8.5/10
