Deep Red

Rating:
Summary: A remarkable Argento classic
Review: To make this review shorter, I won't go on about the plot or the plot twists and the characters and such. I'll just say that this easily ranks amongst the top 10 Argento films ever. What I really like about Deep Red is that unlike some of Dario Argento's other movies (like Stendhal Syndrome), the ending was completely unexpected and nobody expected it. That plot-twist was brilliant and very well concealed. Anywhom, this is an incredible giallo. For the starting Argento fan, I'd reccomend this, his first film "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "Tenebre". I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND "Suspiria", IT IS NOTHING LIKE ARGENTO'S OTHER WORK, AND IS DEFINATELY NOT AS GOOD.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: The movie is long and slow. The uncut version is about 2 hours. The music sounds like it came from a 70s porn movie. The only good part were the original murders.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Argento Ever
Review: "Deep Red" is without a doubt Dario Argento's masterpiece. With a very clear (for Argento) storyline, absolutely dazzling camerawork and an unforgettable score by Goblin (which is bound to sound incredible in 5.1), "Deep Red" is a must for the horror aficionado, especially those with an interest in films that are historically relevant. "Deep Red" is the "Psycho" of Italian cinema. Back in 1975, when it came out, graphic gore was mostly relegated to ultra low-budget movies where carnage was the only point of the movie. With "Deep Red", Argento took gore in a completely new direction, mixing it with classy cinematography and a complex story, and unleashing it upon unsuspecting stars of the Italian stage and screen, people so prestigious in their own way you would never expect them to get it the way they do in a movie. The uncut widescreen version of this film, which has been long overdue in America, will reveal to those who have only seen it in pan-and-scan form the artistry and complexity of Argento's Technovision images. The previously unreleased footage, which I have seen and which was truncated from the version that has been in circulation in this country for decades, adds depth to the characters and the story. In my opinion, you should preferably watch this in Italian with English subtitles -- the English dubbing is atrocious and the Italian original is far more poetic-sounding and apropriate to the story and, besides, Anchor Bay is releasing the added footage in Italian because there is no English dub of those scenes, so you might as well watch it all in its original language. At any rate, this is a must for everyone who appreciates good scary movies, for anyone with an eye for truly spectacular filmmaking and especially for anyone who thinks European movies means Truffaut. An absolute must-have!

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Movie..try and see past the flaws
Review: Describing this movie as "Argentio's Masterpiece" is stretching the truth a bit in my opinion. Having said that, though, it stands well above so many other films in the horror/giallo style that it seems picky to find faults...but there are a few.
Firstly, the praise - Deep Red, for those who haven't seen it, is a mind blowing cinematic treat. Incredibly gory murders, convoluted plot, red herrings galore, this film has it all. Argento is one of the most stylish horror directors int the world. There are so many moments of jaw-dropping genius that it's impossible to list them. The print on this DVD looks absolutely gorgeous, with bright colours and crisp sharp widescreen presentation making it the best this movie has ever looked, certainly, I have never seen it looking this good.
It's also the longest version ever seen in English, and it's there that, sadly, the film's flaws start showing up. As other reviewers have mentioned, a lot of the inserted footage is all in Italian, so subtitles are provided whenever the characters suddenly switch languages...soemtimes in the middle of a conversation! This gets very annoying after a while. It would be ok if the missing scenes were crucial to understanding the bizarre mystery at the centre of the plot, but they aren't, they mostly show in more detail the blossoming comedy/romance relationship between Marc and Gianna, which may have been entertaining for Italian audiences, but does not enhance the experience of watching the film in English at all. Other missing scenes involve members of the police laughing at their own jokes , and people in cafes and streets chatting about inconsequential topics...hardly great additions!
I hate to say it, but it would have served the DVD edition better if these had been left out... a dual presentation that also offered the shorter version of the film totally in English would have been perfect. This is not to deter people from the film, but it is a shame that all the good work by Anchor Bay has resulted in a film that plays better for film completists than for a newcomer or casual horror fan.

Rating:
Summary: Where Death holds Full Dominion
Review: Let's talk about fear for a moment, shall we? Come, sit with me here on this cold bench, beneath the white, buzzing, utilitarian fluourescents---there's no one in this entire building tonight, so we'll have plenty of time to talk.

About Fear.

I don't mean the giddy, cozy shivers you get that makes you want to watch the cheap and banal slasher flick through your fingers, giggling like a fool the whole time. No, I mean Fear: Fear that comes floating into your brain at 3 in the morning, as you lie in your suddenly cold and vast bed, listening to the house creak and groan, wondering---well, God, it's silly, but still---didn't that creak, that shifting floorboard you heard just now, close to your bedroom door---well didn't it sound just a little too *stealthy*?

The fear that creeps over you and brands your naked back with a flotilla of goosebumps while you're taking that early morning shower, the outdoor blackness pressed close up to the house windows: the conviction that when the water and your fumbling hands wipe away the soap and lather, someone---something---else will have joined you in the shower. Something that wants to play and giggle and roll in your blood.

Yes. Now we're talking Fear, aren't we? Now you're with me: good.

"Deep Red" (the Italian 'Profondo Rosso') is Italian Grandmaster of Horror Dario Argento's masterwork of sick, revulsive, shudder-inducing Fear: it is gorgeous, jaw-dropping, ambitiously brutal, leeringly primal, as if Argento had furiously shoved a syringe straight into the pulsing, fevered brain of a serial killer, and drained the nightmares out of the creature's gibbering mind.

"Deep Red" is Nightmare made Flesh, and Flesh made Film.

American jazz musician Marcus Daly (the late, incomparable David Hemmings)is working in Rome: he composes, performs, dallies, drinks, and engages in bibulous battinage with sexually confused, angst-ridden friend Carlo (Gabriele Lavia, channeling a little of Fellini's "Satyricon" for our amusement).

All of this is brought to a halt when Daly witnesses a woman---a Ukrainian psychic (Macha Meril, insanely overracting---and oddly, it works)---slaughtered in her home by a black-gloved maniac, butchered like a pig or a cow. He witnesses this rapine from a Roman courtyard, and arrives to late to save her---but soon enough to glimpse a portrait, forgotten in the insanity of theo moment, but recalled after events lose their immediacy and begin to gel.

Oh---and after the Maniac demonstrates its interest in Marcus Daly. It enters his Roman apartment, while he composes on his piano; he is saved by noting those stealthy noises typically heard by nervous insomniacs at 3 in the morning, and watching a long shadow fall across the threshold of his study. He manages to leap up and close the study door, even as the Thing whispers its hellish ambitions through impenetrable wood.

Argento is a wizard. He conjures up his necromantic magic through high style: watch the camera in the opening sequences, as it arcs down like a vicious, hungry bird of prey over the audience, summoned to hear the psychic: watch as it glimpses the Killer in a dingy, begrimed, fog-sooted restroom mirror; recoil as it follows---faithfully,like a staid documentarian---the brutal slaughter of a girl in an isolated country cottage, her death prescribed by immersion in boiling water.

Or, for sheer gut-clenching shrill terror, try out the lonely death of Professor Giordani (Glauco Mauri), who dies a dog's death, death too easily imagined by those who have fallen against a sharp surface---a death pilloried, lampooned, by the twisted, robotic, dwarf creature that enters through the Professor's study door (anticipating, and doubtless inspiring, James Wan's nightmarish tricycle puppet in "Saw").

"Deep Red" is undeniably Argento's dark lodestone, a treasure gleaming and glimmering and seducing the unwary in the darkness, a brilliant accomplishment he rarely approached, even as his capacity for the craft grew. "Suspiria", perhaps, is as close as the Master came to this dark, poisonous, armor-piercing bullet of pure horror.

The delirious, dark delight of "Deep Red" is the intense, nearly sexual beauty, and intensity, of death and its Soldiers: the remastered deluxe edition merely underscores a movie astonishingly vivid in color and brutally ambitious in scope. From the moment the blood-red velvet opera-house curtains are parted, through the night-haunted cobblestones of haunted modern Rome, "Deep Red" is murderous---and glorious in its bloodthirsty frenzy.

Evil is whispering on the other side of the door. Escape---or talk to it. Flee the madness, or engage it: this is Argento's legacy in "Deep Red". Tremble.

JSG

Rating:
Summary: Masterful Argento
Review: We own every possible version of this movie (director's cut, etc) as it is Italian horror at it's best. Gorgeously filmed, David Hemming is fabulous and it has a wonderful soundtrack, too.

Rating:
Summary: a SUPREME DISPLAY ON HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE !
Review: Dario Argento's masterpiece "DEEP RED" is on a level of its own! there isn't that many movies out there that can compete with it. not many other directors know how to pick at your senses & nerves with a visionary & thought pounding atmosphere like Argento can & with the movie "DEEP RED" along with what in my personal opinion is the HOLY GRAIL of horror score's he displays this perfectly. the reason this movie is one of the GREATEST scary movies ever made is because most horror movies, even other great masterpieces always seem to atleast have a couple of flaws,somtimes those flaws make the movie better & alot of time they make the movie worse but "DEEP RED" isn't one of those type's of movies! this movie has no flaws,its flawless,its perfect,its perfectly balanced in all ways from the directing,atmosphere & acting to the efx,setting,story & score! with this movie Dario Argento simpley shows us all how its supposed to be done!!!!!! so if you don't have this movie yet then you can't call yourself a true horror fan!!!! !ENJOY!

Rating:
Summary: Giallo Epic
Review: Deep Red-Dario Argento's masterpiece. Though it's not my personal favorite of his, I can really see why it's regarded at his best. Deep Red is a 2+ hour giallo epic. Argento has found his style now , so you can imagine the look and sound of this film(it was the first to use Goblin's music). It's not quite as wild, colorful and violent as Suspiria, but I really wouldn't suggest watching it on a first date. We got an English pianist living in Rome who's only friends seem to be another pianist and his mother(the prototype for the whole "engineer" joke that runs throughout Michele Soavi's Cemetery Man). He witnesses a gruesome murder by a guy in a hat and raincoat(of course), becomes obsessed and launches his own investigation(of course), and winds up pursued by the killer himself(of course). I still can't get over how Argento can keep using this plotline and give it enough twists and turns so that it never once seems tired or repetitive. It's all in the storytelling, people! Anchor Bay has done their best to restore this film. The picture is fantastic, but some of the english dialogue couldn't be saved, so be prepared to be reading subtitles practically midsentence when a character is speaking. You'll get used to this very fast though. I could say more, but if you're an Argento fan(which most likely you are), I'd just be preaching to the converted. If you're wondering, "what's the big deal with this Dario guy?", then Deep Red and Suspiria would both be excellent starting points for you. You don't like either of those, then Argento's probably not your bag, baby.

Rating:
Summary: 5th movie of Argento's I watched..wow this was good.
Review: People weren't lying when they said this was Argento's masterpiece. Everything from murder scences to the ones where people were just talking kept me in interest. Once again the music was incredible. All of Argento's music in his movies seem to be well done. The ending of this movie was fantastic! I enjoyed this film a lot more then Tenebrae because it was more interesting. This movie made more sense..and kept me in suspence more. I don't know why some people said that this movie is boring, because it is not.

Rating:
Summary: scary as hell
Review: WARNING: TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE A HARD TIME SLEEPING AFTER WATCHING HORROR MOVIES, STAY AWAY FROM THIS. IF YOU LOVE BEING SCARED AND FREAKED OUT TO EXTREME LEVELS, JOIN THE F**KING PARTY.
Yes, that warning was necessary, this movie scared me to death. It is very scary, but in a different way than Halloween or Silent Night, Deadly Night or whatever. It is weird, too. It has those terrific Argento shots, all that stuff, but it is hard to explain how strange this movie really is. Well I guess you will have to watch it to find out. If you have seen Suspiria, you will know what I mean. They both are scary in an almost dreamy(or should I say nightmarish) way, and it's just really strange. SHIVERS!