4 out of 5

Director: Dario Argento

While Suspiria starts out incredibly wandering before finding its way, Deep Red jumps right in, showcasing all of those Argento things you’ve heard about: amazing music, fantastic sets, swooping camera shots and creative kills. I have to say, though, this misses a final star because it is an ultimately empty film, more stylistically pleasing than anything else. The “twist” doesn’t carry much of a shock to it, and is sort of a let-down in comparison to the incredibly creepy set-up. So that’s the negative. The positive? I cannot express how fantastic the sets were in this film. While Suspiria had great pieces, it was mainly isolated to one house. This film gives Argento room to stretch, applying some very interesting camera work (though some shots make you feel like he just wanted to do something to try it) and color to amazingly gorgeous and exciting set-pieces. The acting is, again, solid (a high point to Suspiria as well), with believable performances from all involved. There’s also more humor here, and it’s cleverly placed. The Goblins’ music was also much effective, both varied and spooky without being over-bearing. While Deep Red offers nothing new plot-wise, it was an fantastic example of how much expression can be added to a script via direction and production.