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DVD The Hatchet Murders
Considered by many to be Dario Argento's first masterpiece, Deep Red recalls his first hit, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. British star David Hemmings (Blow-Up) plays an American jazz pianist who witnesses a brutal, bloody murder from afar and turns detective to find the killer. Kooky Italian journalist Daria Nicolodi (Argento's wife and cowriter on Suspiria) joins him as comic relief and tepid romantic interest, but the real costar is Argento's high style: gliding camera, razor-sharp editing, and gorgeous but gruesome set pieces. The story is convoluted, to say the least--plotting was never Argento's strong suit and the unnecessary exposition often drags the film down--but his vivid, horrific imagery is perfect for a thriller driven by haunting memories. Deep Red was originally released in the U.S. in a severely cut version retitled The Hatchet Murders (odd since the killer uses a butcher's knife). Producer Bill Lustig has restored the film to its original two-hour-plus running time, though some scenes exist only with Italian-language soundtracks (which are subtitled). It's a bit jarring at first (it makes for an unintended joke when a man suddenly checks his hearing aid after a language switch), but it's the only way to see Argento's original cut. There's also a brief 25th anniversary documentary with Argento and cowriter Bernardino Zapponi, and the DVD offers a choice of English and Italian language versions. --Sean Axmaker
There are two versions of Deep Red/The Hatchet Murder here but amazon has stupidly replicated the same set of reviews for both of them! Is this the uncut version with the italian language scenes that all the reviews speak so highly of, or is this the cut-to-crap not-even-worth-watching american version?
Clearly no where near as good as "Suspiria"!!
Like many of you Argento fans, I had heard a lot about "Deep Red" and some people even considered it to be Argento's best work. So, I just had to buy it. However, after viewing the movie, I respectfully disagree with the opinion about "Deep Red" being Argento's best work. While it is true that "Deep Red" is a bit more coherent with regard to plot development, the movie's atmosphere is no where near as effective as Argento's superior work in his true masterpiece named "Suspiria".
"Deep Red" is about a pianist who observes part of a murder and becomes obsessed with figuring out the identity of the murder and the mystery behind the killings. Unfortunately, the movie drags on and on, way too long to keep one's interest consistently with respect to a typical plot development with a beginning/introduction, rising action, climax and falling action.
In "Deep Red", you have a murder in the beginning that is fairly impressive, but the subsequent murders, mystery and investigation by Marc Daly are not equally as impressive. Unlike "Suspiria", the score and music that is utilized to create a chilling atmosphere and horror movie like theme is rather ineffective and I would argue that the movie that is played during the kills is more akin to the kind of music that is played during a trash pornographic film rather than a horror movie...the effect is damaging to the movie's ability to inspire a horror like theme within a sophisticated horror movie audience.
There is a great deal of "much ado about nothing" in the body of this movie called "Deep Red". For that reason, the movie is largely ineffective as a horror movie. There are parts of the movie that are good and there is a kind of horror like atmosphere at times, but overall, the movie works more like a mystery and suspense thriller without the thrills necessary to make it work as such.
Overall, the kills aren't that impressive (notwithstanding the first murder) really and as the movie drags on, the viewer becomes disinterested and frustrated at times. The identity of the killer, while somewhat unexpected, is really a downer when one considers the prowess or lack thereof associated with this villain. I agree with a previous reviewer that "Deep Red" is too long and drawn out...there are periods of time when nothing really happens and the result is a fairly dull movie. While there are times when a horror movie like atmosphere could be argued to be present in this movie, it is nowhere near as effective as the horrifying atmosphere present in Argento's stylish "Suspiria".
In short, I highly recommend the classic "Suspiria" as Argento's true horror masterpiece over that of the dull and often insipid "Deep Red". To be honest, TWO STARS might be a bit generous for "Deep Red" as with regard to its merits as a horror movie.
Deep Red
Argento is an incarnation of everything that film is and everything that it could have been as conceived by Lumiere. After Hitchcock and Ray, Leone and Fuller, Argento is the last true auteur to make genre films. Visually, a film like Profondo Rosso calls upon the ghosts of the cinema because everything that is filmed, objects and people alike, take on the same importance and that this inevitably leads to the resolution of the mystery which is at the center of the film. Argento can only film something as itself and this is why he is an extraordinary filmmaker. Cinema is not an answer but a question and Argento is the answer to Eisenstein's theory of film as violence, violence not only in the images themselves but in the great void that awaits them. A murder, a painting, a mother, a son, a mirror, all of these things will lead to a beautiful composition of images in which the mystery of seeing, the mystery of cinema, the questions, are resolved.
Outside of devoted cult audiences, many Americans have yet to discover the extremely stylish, relentlessly terrifying Italian horror genre, or the films of its talented virtuoso, Dario Argento. Suspiria, part one of a still-uncompleted trilogy (the luminously empty Inferno was the second), is considered his masterpiece by Argento devotees but also doubles as a perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with the director or his genre. The convoluted plot follows an American dancer (Jessica Harper) from her arrival at a European ballet school to her discovery that it's actually a witches coven; but, really, don't worry about that too much. Argento makes narrative subservient to technique, preferring instead to assault the senses and nervous system with mood, atmosphere,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harper - Bennett - Valli - Kier - Casi DVD Release Date: Released the 11 September 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Dario Argento's sequel to Suspiria, his first and to date only American hit, is an even more incoherent nightmare fantasy. Laden with symbolic imagery and fantastic explosions of death shot in candy-colored hues, it's a bloody feast for the eyes. Mark (Leigh McCloskey), an American music student in Rome, rushes home to New York after a frantic phone call from his sister only to find an empty apartment and obscure clues about a supernatural presence in her spooky building. It all has something to do with the mysterious Mater Tenebrarum, one of the "Three Mothers" of Argento's murky mythology, and the fun house of an apartment house she inhabits, complete with a fully furnished underwater ballroom, miles of secret tunnels flooded in red and blue light, and hidden passageways... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Leigh McCloskey - Irene Miracle Director(s): Dario Argento DVD Release Date: Released the 25 April 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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After several excursions into supernatural horror, Dario Argento returned to the homicidal frenzy that made his reputation with this mystery that plays more like a grown-up slasher movie than a detective thriller. Anthony Franciosa stars as Peter Neal, a bestselling horror novelist whose promotional tour in Italy takes a terrible turn when a mysterious killer re-creates the brutal murders from his book with real-life victims. The first to die are so-called "deviants," Neal's own friends, and finally there comes a promise that the author himself is next on the list. Columbo it ain't, but Argento has always been more concerned with style than story and his execution of the crimes is pure cinematic bravura. From the simple beauty of a straight razor shattering a light bulb (the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Anthony Franciosa - Giuliano Gemma Director(s): Dario Argento DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American reporter living in Rome who witnesses what appears to be a murder. Trapped by a glass wall, he can't intervene, but does manage to scare off the killer. Wounded, the victim survives, and Dalmas's curiosity drives him to look further into the story, but he soon finds himself and his girlfriend in jeopardy and stalked by the would-be murderer. Director Dario Argento's debut film is a remarkable work, more restrained than many of his later films. Based on an obscure 1950s pulp novel, Bird draws heavily on Hitchcock, as well as on American novelists such as Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich. At the same time, its execution makes it a highly original, inventive, and fast-paced film that plays with the conventions of the thriller genre. As... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tony Musante - Suzy Kendall Director(s): Dario Argento DVD Release Date: Released the 24 October 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Italian horror maestro Dario Argento made his name by turning homicide into modern art with a cinematic flourish, but with Phenomena he takes his stylish mayhem in new directions. The film opens with the dreamy grace of a fairy tale: a young girl wandering the green meadows of Switzerland and discovering a gingerbread house, wherein lives a monster more modern than mythic, a psychopathic maniac who plunges the picture into a lush nightmare. Jennifer (Jennifer Connelly in her first starring role), a gifted young girl at a Swiss school, has a psychic link to the insect world and develops a connection with the killer through midnight sleepwalks. With the help of a lonely, wheelchair-bound entomologist (genre stalwart Donald Pleasence, who inflects his sonorous tenor with a gentle... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jennifer Connelly - Donald Pleasence Director(s): Dario Argento DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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