Italy, 1975
95m (France), 98m (USA – as Deep Red), 100m (USA video and theatrical reissue – as The Hatchet Murders)/100m 32s (UK video – Techno Film/Fletcher), 101m, 121m 9s (UK video – Redemption), 123m (Italy – video), 126m (USA – DVD), 130m (Italy)
35mm film, Techniscope, Technovision, Eastmancolor, 2.35:1
mono, Italian
An Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento.
Plot Summary
English musician Marcus Daly is in Rome when he witnesses the murder of a psychic. Daly begins to follow a trail of obscure clues, convinced that he saw something on the night of the murder that he can’t recall clearly. But as he begins to unravel the plot, so the killer closes in on Daly…
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Dario Argento
Seda Spettacoli Produzione for Rizzoli Films; Lea J. Marks/Radcliffe Associates Ltd [on US posters]
Executive Producer: Claudio Argento
Produced by: Salvatore Argento
Written by: Dario Argento, Bernardino Zapponi
Director of Photography: Luigi Kuveiller
Editor: Franco Fraticelli
Music by: Giorgi Gaslini
Music Performed by: The Goblins
Sound: Mario Faraoni
Costume Designer: Elena Mannini
Key Make-up Artist: Giuliano Laurenti
Hair Stylist: Nicla Palombi
Special Effects: Germane Natali, Carlo Rambaldi
Production Designer: Giuseppe Bassan
Cast
David Hemmings (Marc Daly)
Daria Nicolodi (Gianna Brezzi)
Gabriele Lavia (Carlo)
Macha Meril (Helga Ulman)
Eros Pagni (Superintendant Calcabrini)
Giuliana Calandra (Amanda Righetti)
Piero Mazzinghi (Bardi)
Glauco Mauri (Professor Giordani)
Clara Calamai (Carlo’s mother, Martha)
Aldo Bonamano (Carlo’s father)
Liana Del Balzo (Elvira, Righetti’s maid)
Vittorio Fanfoni (cop taking notes)
Dante Fioretti (police photographer)
Geraldine Hooper (Massimo Ricci)
Iacopo Mariani (young Carlo)
Furio Meniconi (Rodi)
Fulvio Mingozzi (Agent Mingozzi)
Lorenzo Piani (fingerprint cop)
Salvatore Puntillo (Fabbroni)
Piero Vida (hungry cop)
Nicoletta Elmi (Olga Rodi)
Alternative Titles
As Sweet As Dying
Bloedlink – Netherlands
Chipsyomega – shooting title
Deep Red – UK/US theatrical/ US video title
Deep Red Hatchet Murders
Dripping Deep Red – USA (advertising)
Les Frissons de l’angoisse – France
The Hatchet Murders – USA (re-release)
Rojo oscuro – Spain
Rosso – Die Farbe des Todes – Germany
Sabre Tooth Tiger – shooting title
Suspiria No 2 – Japan
La tigre dai denti a sciabola – shooting title
Links
Extracts included in
Il mondo dell’orrore di Dario Argento (1985)
Mad Ron’s Prevues from Hell (1987)
Grindhouse Horrors (1992)
Press
1976
New York Daily News 10 June 1976
Argento, who’s no Hitchcock, manufactures suspense with flashy camerawork, loud noises and pounding music. Then, all is garnished generously with gore. Credibility, which comes in a distant second, flies out the window in the process; here the process is speeded up considerably by poor post-sychronization. Nothing quite fits – especially a low-keyed Hemmings among the overacting Italian players. – from a review by Ann Guarino
New York Times 10 June 1976
[A] bucket of ax-murder-movie clichés thoroughly soaked in red paint that seems intended to represent fake blood. I don’t think that Dario Argento, the director, meant to distance us from the action in this way. He’s simply a director of incomparable incompetence. […] In the lading role David Hemmings, the English actor, looks wan and in need of a vacation from Rome’s off-screen high life. – from a review by Vincent Canby
Cinefantastique vol.5 no.2 (Autumn 1976) p.35
The Italian whiz-kid of suspense, Dario Argento, exhibits the kind of up-and-down quality that ultimately made the career of Mario Bava so disappointing. This is his new low, a sloppy blood and gore fest involving David Hemmings in an obsessive search for whodunit. – from a review by J.F [Jeffrey Frentzen]
1977
Los Angeles Times 13 May 1977
[A] frightening atmospheric Italian horror movie […] Giuseppe Bassan’s screenplay promises more than it delivers, but provides an intriguing premise and ensnaring red herrings until finally dissolving into incredulity. Director Dario Argento provokes excruciating suspense but gets carried away with bloody flourishes. […] Photographer Luigi Kuveiller’s artful long shots and composer Giorgio Gaslini’s eerie music evoke primordial terror. – from a review by Linda Gross
References
Periodicals
- Avant-Scène du Cinéma no.560 (March 2007) pp.1-77 – illustrated article (Les Frissons de l’Angoisse)
- Cinefantastique vol.5 no.2 (Autumn 1976) p.35 – review by (J.F [Jeffrey Frentzen])
- Cineforum no.145 (June/July 1975) pp.478-480 – review
- Cinema Scope no.14 (Spring 2003) p.49 – review (Spotlight: Essential DVDs by Jaime Frederick)
- Cinematografia ITA vol.42 no.1/2 (January/February 1975) pp.79-80 – review
- Delirium no.2 – credits, review
- European Trash Cinema vol.2 no.6 p.30 – review
- Fangoria vol.7 no.66 (August 1987) pp.14-17, 65 – illustrated article (The Butchering of Argento by Tim Lucas)
- Fangoria no.194 (July 2000) p.74 – illustrated review (DVD dungeon by Michael Gingold and Matthew Kiernan)
- Film Score Monthly vol.10 no.5 (Sep/Oct 2005) pp.22-27 – illustrated article (Meet the proglodytes: A Goblin buyer’s guide by Mark Richard Hasan)
- Filmfacts vol.20 no.6 (1977) pp.141-143 – reprinted review
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.51 no.610 (November 1984) pp.349-350 – review (by Kim Newman)
- Positif no.199 (November 1977) p.68 – review
- Resto del Carlino 30 March 1975 – review (by D. Zanelli)
- Rivista del cinematografo (1975) – review (by C. Tagliabue)
- Sight & Sound vol.4 no.2 (February 1994) p.70 – review
- Variety 23 June 1976 p.16 – review
- Video Watchdog no.27 pp.10-11 – review
Newspapers
- Los Angeles Times 13 May 1977 – review (by Linda Gross)
- New York Daily News 10 June 1976 – review (by Ann Guarino)
- New York Times 10 June 1976 – review (by Vincent Canby)
Books
- 100 Cult Films by Ernest Mathijs & Xavier Mendik pp.61-62 – review by XM [Xavier Mendik]
- Art of Darkness by Chris John Gallant pp.276, 279; 297 – credits; video data
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) pp.306-307
- Dario Argento by Maurizio Baroni and Marco D’Ubaldo pp.44-51 – illustrations, credits
- Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.277, 312-15, 317, 321, 347, 348, 349, 351, 352, 366, 394
- Fright Night on Channel 9 by James Arena pp.177-178
- Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis pp.89-90
- Horror Films of the 1970s by John Kenneth Muir pp.389-391 – credits, synopsis, review
- The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies: An A-Z Guide to Over Sixty Years of Blood and Guts by Peter Normanton pp.152-154
- Serial Killer Cinema: An Analytical Filmography by Robert Cetti pp.121-122
- Terror Tracks: Music, Sound and Horror Cinema by Philip Hayward (ed) pp.92, 100, 191, 201
- The World of Fantasy Films by Richard Myers p.32
