Deep RedMedhansh Kaushik10.0· May 6, 2024FollowDirector- Dario Argento.The movie is of a Giallo type, an Italian mystery thriller. Giallo was used to be adapted from Italian crime novels with yellow covers. Giallo means yellow in Italian.It was solidified by Mario Bava. Argento helped redefine it.Between 1971 and 1975 a hundred movies were made of that genre.Some staples of that genre are,There is a killer who wears black gloves and isn't shown until the final reveal.The hero is a foreigner who has come to Italy for reasons unrelated to the murders.He will be sucked into the mystery due to witnessing a murder or being targeted by the mystery killer.Psychological trauma plays a huge role, often the cause of the killer's violence and witnessed by the protagonists leaving a scarring experience.Structurally it's a whodunit.Stylistically it has hyper-colored aesthetics, bravado camerawork, and cinematography designed to heighten the terror.The kills are usually innovative, elaborate, and gruesome.Also, there has to be a bottle of J&BThe deep red is the perfect Giallo as it has all these elements polished to the best of the director's skills while also remaining unpredictable.It has vintage Argento strangeness to it or so I have heard.It makes its voyeuristic nature even more alluring.Just like other movies at the time, the actors spoke in their regional dialect and got appropriately dubbed in post before the release.The look of the movie is heightened modernity, surrounding the characters with towering loneliness filled with color.We get a continuous long shot from the killer's p.o.v and see some totemic objects.We get put into the p.o.v again when the killer closes in but mostly we just get quiet patient shots of would-be victims. The wait builds and builds tension till the killer finally strikes. When he finally does, we get a close-up of each violent shot which gives us unflinching brutality. The Giallo genre has similarities to the slasher genre and precedes the rise of the American ones. The movie isn't about the killer and more about the mystery of him. We are not here for answers but for the thrill. The best scenes are the ones where the killer violates the safety of the victim's homes. The protagonist (Marcus), a musician works with the Reporter Gianna to find the killer's motives and to stop it.The movie features a battle of the sexes as both of them are attracted and repelled by one another in the search for the killer.We get a lot of clues and murders towards learning the truth until it is unraveled in a pool of blood.The final reveal plays off Marcus's inability to recognize the strength of the women. Marcus has some sexist beliefs throughout the movie which he is vocal about. He believes that both are unequal and is often frustrated by Gianna's lack of ability to match him both physically and mentally.The killer is revealed to be Martha, the mother of Marcus's friend Carlo. She is facing the trauma of pushing her son Carlo to walk a path of alcoholism and depression by killing his father in front of him.The movie focuses on themes of perception and obsession as seen by Marcus's perception of the first murder and a painting going missing which made him walk a path of obsession.Argento uses misdirection with the victim's perception to pack a bigger punch.The sequence after Carlo bolts was awesome.CommentsSign in to react and join the conversation.Sign inGet the app