After a pianist witnesses the death of a psychic he becomes obsessed with solving her murder. Accompanied by a journalist and a nagging suspicion that something in the psychics apartment was removed in the time between his rushing in to save her and the arrival of the police he follows any lead he can find in order to get to the answers. Along the way he must avoid the killer who wants his secrets kept and the police who think he has something to do with all the bodies piling up.

I mentioned before how I was reserving judgment on Argento until I viewed more of his work. I have to say Deep Red gets two big thumbs up. It was slow to start and some of the scenes lagged as if Argento wanted to film a pretty scene so he added long unnecessary conversations but other than that I really enjoyed this movie. By the time you get towards the end the tension has been built up so high you’re practically jumping out of your skin. Argento has added some humorous elements that lighten the mood at times giving me a much needed break from all the stress.

The scares come mainly from the buildup of anticipation. You spend most of the time waiting for bad things to happen and it puts you on edge. One big scare payoff came courtesy of the freakiest dummy I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t want to give too much away; it was a complete surprise to me and thus worked extremely well. Translation; it scared me half to death, probably taking a couple years off my life.

Argento had me completely fooled over who the killer was. After you finish watching you must go back to a certain point (you’ll know) just to see if he really gives up the killer so soon. Enigmatic enough for you? Trust me you’ll know what I’m talking about and it’s such a great shock.

Now about the score, you guys know I love me some Goblin and their music is always welcome in any movie but I felt a lot of it didn’t fit here. There were times when music of a more creepy nature should have been used. Much of the score sounded like music taken from an episode of Starsky and Hutch; it didn’t really lend itself to ratcheting the creep factor up at all. That was only a portion of it though and the rest was excellent as always, especially the main theme (Profondo Rosso) and the child’s lullaby which was dead freaking creepy.

The version I got from Greencine stated that the movie was 101 minutes long but it ran about 125. Checking on the internet showed me there are different cuts of this film and the best one to get is the one that is longest. The shorter version was the US release and I read it’s confusing because of what was left out. Do yourself a favor and make sure you have the uncut edition. The movie is dubbed except where scenes were added back in. Those are in Italian with English subtitles. It can be a bit jarring at first but once you’re involved it’s not so bad.

With some fabulous kills and bucketsful of atmosphere Deep Red is not to be missed. Argento’s gift of letting the camera tell the story is amazing; this is definitely the best giallo I’ve seen yet.

9 out of 10 movies that must have inspired John Carpenter