DEEP RED Uncensored English Version

Italy | 1975 Directed by Dario Argento Starring David Hemmings Daria Nicolodi Gabriele Lavia Color | 105 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) Blue Underground

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		Review by Brandon Tenold Film:8 : DVD:7

Italian filmmaker Dario Argento's Deep Red (also known as Profondo Rosso) is considered one of the finest examples of the Italian horror/suspense subgenre known as giallo, and it would go on to have a big influence on later horror films, particularly the slasher movie genre, which took much of its inspiration from the movie's blood-drenched murder scenes. But make no mistake: although Argento's film contains generous amounts of blood and gore, with Deep Red he was clearly aiming for the art-house, not the grindhouse, and the result is considered by some to be Argento's crowning achievement.

The film wastes no time getting started, with the first scene consisting of an off-screen murder. We then cut to a theater in Rome, where psychic Helga Ulmann (Macha Méril, Night Train Murders) is speaking to a captive audience. After giving a demonstration of her powers, Helga suddenly becomes very distressed, stating that she can feel death, and senses the mind of a killer. Soon afterwards, Helga is brutally murdered in her apartment by an unknown assailant. English pianist Marcus Daly (David Hemmings), who lives in the same building, witnesses the murder from the street below, and goes up to investigate. He arrives too late however, as Helga is already dead and the killer is gone, although Marcus does see someone in a brown raincoat walking away from the building. The police come and investigate, but something's not quite right. Marcus swears he saw a painting on the wall that seemingly isn't there anymore, and that painting may hold the key to uncovering the killer's identity. Teaming up with newspaper reporter Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi), Marcus begins investigating Helga's murder on his own. However, as he pieces together various clues, the killer's victims keep piling up, and Marcus himself may be next...

Deep Red is one of Argento's most finely crafted films, containing some of the best camerawork and editing of his long career. In fact, some of the film's images have an almost painting-like quality to their composition, which adds to the movies art-house appeal. The gore scenes are memorable and inventive, but they also never come across as tasteless or excessive, serving the story rather than overpowering it. Another strong point is the musical score by Italian progressive rock group Goblin, who would famously go on to do the soundtrack to Argento's Suspiria. Goblin's music for the film ranges from atmospheric pieces reminiscent of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" from the Exorcist soundtrack to bass and percussion heavy, almost funky tracks that sound like they were made for a chase scene in a cop movie rather than a suspense thriller, but somehow it all works. As much about psychological tension and creating a sense of pervasive uneasiness as it is about blood, gore and shocks, it remains a high point of Italian giallo cinema. While one could argue that some of Argento's other films are more atmospheric, some are better paced and some are more shocking, Deep Red remains one of Argento's all around best films, right up there with Suspiria.

Blue Underground's latest DVD incarnation of Deep Red contains the "Uncensored English Version" of the film, which means it restores the violence originally cut from the English-language theatrical release but unfortunately does not also contain the longer, superior Italian version like the simultaneous Blu-ray release. (That version gets a "9" rating from me.) As is to be expected from a film this old, there is a small layer of grain present in the movie, although the transfer is generally strong, with deep blacks and a good level of detail. I did notice a bit of color bleed from time to time, but overall there were no major problems. Audio is presented in DTS 6.1 surround, 5.1 surround and Mono, all of which are in English. When listening to the DTS track, Goblin's musical score comes off best, with both the bottom and high end strong. The dialogue is generally clear too, although the track doesn't use too much of the Surround Sound ambiance. With regards to extras, the disc includes both English and Italian language trailers for the film, as well as two music videos. One is a new music video of Goblin playing the film's main theme in a studio set to clips from the movie, while the other is a (rather lengthy) video by a group called Daemonia, who also play a version of the movie's main theme. It's nice to see some live footage of Goblin, and the Daemonia video is entertaining in a cheesy sort of way. Finally, there is a featurette containing interviews with Dario Argento, co-writer Bernardino Zapponi and members of Goblin. These are interesting, but also quite brief, with the total running time of the featurette being less than 11 minutes.

BU's 2011 DVD of Deep Red offers topnotch audio and video as well as some interesting extras, but I really wish it included the 126-minute European cut of the film like their Blu-ray edition does. 7/25/11

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