Deep Red is Argento's first masterpiece, every bit as good as (or maybe better than) Suspiria and Tenebre. The narrative follows Marcus Daly, a British jazzman in Italy as he attempts to discover the murderer of his neighbor--a murder that, as it happens, wants to kill him too.
Marked by the intermittently silly dialogue that marred all of Argento's work (hey, you don't watch gialli for their scintillating conversations), Deep Red strikes me as a remarkably notable achievement in Argento's oeuvre inasmuch as its the most viscerally affecting of his major works.
From the moment the camera miraculously parts the velvet curtains at the film's beginning, the audience is faced with inexorable tension. The only relief is when someone is actually murdered. Otherwise, you're left dreading, know what is going to happen but not knowing when. Argento does that in all of his movies, but here it seems more central to his narrative style. Suspiria and Tenebre, though they have vignettes of excruciating suspense, also have down-time--moments that allow your anxiety to subside. Not so in Deep Red: I was a nervous wreck throughout but unable to look away. I felt very ambivalent when it was over--energized and enervated.
Marked by the intermittently silly dialogue that marred all of Argento's work (hey, you don't watch gialli for their scintillating conversations), Deep Red strikes me as a remarkably notable achievement in Argento's oeuvre inasmuch as its the most viscerally affecting of his major works.
From the moment the camera miraculously parts the velvet curtains at the film's beginning, the audience is faced with inexorable tension. The only relief is when someone is actually murdered. Otherwise, you're left dreading, know what is going to happen but not knowing when. Argento does that in all of his movies, but here it seems more central to his narrative style. Suspiria and Tenebre, though they have vignettes of excruciating suspense, also have down-time--moments that allow your anxiety to subside. Not so in Deep Red: I was a nervous wreck throughout but unable to look away. I felt very ambivalent when it was over--energized and enervated.