“Bloody-red” critics call the crown of the work of the master gallo Dario Argento and one of the greatest horror films of all time. But I think that for the modern viewer the tape will be extremely tedious, incomprehensible and boring. The painting lasts more than two hours. Little action, a lot of empty talk, superfluous scenes are very stretched. Cut the movie by half an hour or more and you won’t lose anything.
The costumes of the actors are not fashionable and ridiculous, the hairstyles are strange. Impression as if Yuri Antonov and Alla Pugacheva decided to arrange a cabbage inviting Sergei Minaev and Sofiko Chiaureli. Retro can be stylish, but this is not the case.
At the beginning of the movie, we'll have a murder, then an investigation. It is unclear why law enforcement agencies do not take measures and random people are involved in the investigation.
The whole investigation is quite naive and looks like a child detective. With some fairy tales, books, songs, secrets of abandoned villas. It's funny that pretty grown-up people with serious faces believe in all this nonsense and try to play detective. If it were not for the brutal murders that accompany this stream of nonsense, it would be boring to watch at all.
The ending is quite confusing and multifaceted. We don’t have to believe everything we see and believe. The mystery is revealed at the very end and everything in the film will fall into place, although there are many gaps.
The ubiquity of the killer is unclear. Where does he know everything, and the battle eliminates unnecessary witnesses? Telepathy or mysticism?
Perhaps for its time, the plot twists were innovative. But the film for a long time was so stretched on quotes that now it is perceived as a set of clichés. Fans of the genre of slasher with experience will not be difficult to unravel the identity of the killer, although the viewer will try to deceive.
As for the atmosphere, the disturbing notes sound from the very beginning and from the first scenes we plunge into the abyss of a nightmare. Making a two-hour screen fool and forcing you to watch the film to the end. Still, it is interesting to find out what was missing at the crime scene, which of the suspects was in the hall for the famous exposé session and other small details. I was so curious that I wanted to go ahead and watch the movie from the beginning. Rarely do these feelings occur while watching. A definite plus.
As in the Jallo, we see first-person murders, Argento does not cheat. Shot quite innovative, very unusual camera passes. Thanks to camera work, the viewer does not leave a feeling of anxiety. It looks pretty scary.
The music after the movie will not fade from your mind for a long time. Musical accompaniment somewhere interferes, somewhere on the contrary helps to create the necessary sinister atmosphere.
The director assembled a star acting ensemble for his project. The role of the first victim is not played by anyone, but by a real Russian Countess! The lead actor is familiar to several generations in his roles in Photomagnification and Gladiator. The director's wife needs no introduction. The role of the girl was played by the actress remembered by many for the role of a beautiful cinema keeper from the Demons of Bava.
Starred in the film and veteran film Clara Kalamai. She almost plays herself. A retired actress who no one cares about. Knowing what on-screen fate is prepared for her heroine, we present in her role one of the former stars of Soviet cinema like Svetlana Svetlychna or Irina Miroshnichenko. Do you understand the shock of Italian viewers?
50/50 total. Look for yourself if you like classics and want to get an impression of the origins of the genre of slasher. I liked the film and was a bit shocked that American Friday the 13th was not the original, but a reworking of Bloody Red.
8 out of 10
Still, I take scores for long scenes and terribly annoying, nasty music in some episodes.
At a parapsychology congress, Helga Ullmann, telepathically guessing the name of a particular viewer in the hall and what objects are in his pocket, suddenly fell into a seizure. She screamed that she saw a terrible murder in the villa and heard some children's song. This evening, a woman will be killed by an unknown maniac in a cape and black gloves, witnessed by a visiting jazz pianist who is drawn into this story and begins his own investigation, generating new victims.
Watching before “Bird with Crystal Feather” (1970), we can say that “Blood-Red” is the second successful filmography of Dario Argento, which is almost considered his magnum opus and one of the best representatives of the Italian subspecies of horrors “Jallo”, and it is tailored by absolutely the same patterns. An unknown killer in a cloak and black gloves, whose identity is almost impossible to calculate until the final, the main character is a foreigner who accidentally witnessed the first murder and began his own investigation, which will certainly multiply the number of corpses, colorful secondary characters, theatrical and aestheticization of violence with oversaturated red blood, and the same double twist in the finale.
The difference from the feathered debut of five years ago for the better is that the murders have become more rigid and maniacally inventive, as befits the genre, moreover, among this terrible set there are bloodless, sometimes striking in their sophistication stronger than those that are accompanied by streams of rich red color. Even humor, defusing the situation between episodes, is present, and the script is quite well written from the point of view of the detective, unobtrusively flirting with psychologism, and the opening image of the killer is able, without jokes, to stun. The musical accompaniment of the group “Goblin” sounds for those times avant-garde, and in itself good, let those accustomed to the classic disturbing violin in tense scenes may find such a move ambiguous (as I did when first watching many years ago).
And in the shortcomings, you can only write down some protractedness. Still, the timekeeping of two hours for the gallo is somewhat redundant, although this is compensated by the visual delights of the operator Luigi Kuweiler, pleasing the audience with magnificently built compositions, as if written by the artist’s brush (which is the walking of the main character through the abandoned mansion with its charmingly gloomy interiors). The star of the film hit Michelangelo Antonioni “Photomagnification” (1966) David Hemmings, in general, again plays his hero from the aforementioned film. Not the way the Englishman played, or his character here more than once resembled that fashion photographer Thomas, because here he “saw something that he cannot remember” that escapes, like a mirage. So, perhaps, these parallels are not by chance and the author was conceived a similar “hello” to the holder of the Golden Palm branch, which additionally attracted the attention of both film critics and film fans.
Who is an avid sinophile like me knows that Dario Argento is considered one of the greatest masters in the genre of horror. His earliest works became full-fledged horror classics and a real example of Italian horror films “Jallo”. Let me remind you that Jallo is distinguished by its visual content, an abundance of long and bloody scenes of murder, and the psychological portrait of the murderers themselves consists of madness and paranoia. One example of such films is the detective gallo "Bloody-red".
During a conference of parapsychologists, the famous medium Helge Ullman comes a vision that one of the guests of the event is a brutal killer. After the evening, an unknown man brutally massacres Helga right in front of her neighbor on the floor below, composer Marcus Daly. Since Marcus is the only witness and suspect, he decides to investigate the murder alone in the company of a young meticulous journalist, Gianna Brezzi. But the closer Marcus gets to the truth, the more dangerous the investigation becomes, as the killer does everything possible to cover up any traces leading to the disclosure of his identity.
The game of actors "Bloody-Red" as a gallo distinguishes a set of template characters. So, the British David Hammings played the role of a lonely composer Marcus Daly, who decides to diversify his boring monotonous life, becoming a self-taught detective who still manages to get to the truth, but to pay too high a price. Italian Daria Nicolodi, the wife of Dario Argento, played the role of journalist Gianna, a strong woman ready to rush into battle for a good article. The brightest role (we will not reveal all the cards) was performed by the legend of Italian cinema Clara Kalamai, for whom participation in this film was the last, but the role of which at first may seem something funny and caricature, and eventually turned out to be a complete brain explosion, as if such a role was performed by our Alice Freundlich or Irina Alferova (in general, you will understand if you look).
In fact, "Bloody-Red" although it is considered a Jallo, and the Jallo is regarded by some experts as a harbinger of a slasher, yet this film breaks all the traditional stereotypes inherent in the horror genre. First, the main character is a man - a curious man, but by nature gentle and weak, taking the traditional place of the "last girl". Secondly, usually the companion of the main character is a man who helps the hero in his investigation and even gets seriously injured by the killer. This place is occupied by Daria Nicolodi. Third, the Jallo is considered an exploitative film in which the killer deals with female characters with special cruelty. At first, sexist overtones may seem here, but as a result, the disclosure of the identity of the killer breaks another stereotype, because women are the strongest characters in the Jallo. Finally, “Bloody Red” has all the attributes inherent in this genre in terms of visualization of cruelty. Yeah, the blood here is unrealistic red. Yes, you can see artificial dummies that mimic body parts. But together it looks really beautiful, creating a special unique atmosphere on the screen.
Jallo’s script is still different from traditional horror films by having an independent storyline, due to which the film looks with special interest, and is not perceived as a banal horror movie. Of particular interest is the fact that we see unusual stories with the most ordinary people, whose usual life was turned upside down by terrible events that unfolded before their eyes. The focus is on a simple American-born composer, Marcus Daley, who has been living a boring monotonous life in Rome for the past few years, staging concerts. One day he returns late at night and finds a terrible picture: his neighbor on the floor above the parapsychologist Helga Ullman, an unknown person throws his head through the window, and then pierces with shards of glass, forcing her to bleed out in agony. Marcus immediately runs to help the victim, but it's too late. The police question Marcus because he is the only witness and the automatic suspect. Marcus decides to investigate this murder on his own, but the beginning of this is a sudden attack by the killer, who turned on a children's song before his arrival. It is this song that helps the hero to learn about a terrible story that occurred in the recent past, and to which, perhaps, a mysterious killer has to do. However, the criminal also does not stand still and brutally deals with everyone who can contribute to the disclosure of his identity.
If I were asked how many points out of ten I would give the movie Bloody Red, I would give it a solid eight. First, the film has an independent detective story, which smoothly falls on the horror component of the picture. Secondly, the film is really beautiful from a visual point of view. All the attention is in the details, the special angles, when we see things close up, as if something unexpected was about to happen. Finally, a special mystical atmosphere in the complete absence of anything supernatural sometimes really tickles the nerves. Therefore, I can safely recommend watching.
Dario Argento always goes to the end. He's not stopped by taboo themes, and he's not afraid to show images that any of the latest Hollywood productions would find too shocking. Watching any of his films is like diving into a flooded room in 'Hell'. It's reckless, but there's nothing you can do about it. There is certainly something unimaginable and unforgettable there. . .
Thriller “Blood-Red” is the pinnacle both in the work of Argento and in the entire subgenre of the Jallo. Here, all the ingredients necessary for expression are in place and they are served in the correct proportion. It's a string of obscure details that haunt the mind of a murder witness. A lot of bright images and frightening little things. The standard crime mystery turns into a multi-headed hydra-a real horror show. Finally, a beautiful party: the action begins with a conference of psychics and telepaths and the action moves into the realm of folklore and local urban legends. Bloody murders surrounded by bohemian scenery look like acts of sadistic retaliation. The investigation is taken by crafty amateurs, and everything that happens is characterized by some irrationality.
The tune-up atmosphere in Blood-Red has received more attention than ever in the Jallo. From night scenes on half-empty streets with overhanging statues to an abandoned mansion threatening the blood-red colors of the horrors of the past, the atmosphere is amplified by stylish sound, dominated by several key audio elements that affect the viewer in an organized manner – just as the expression of visual effects in the worlds of Argento.
The key to the mystery is easily missed by both the viewer and the central character Marcus. At the end of the day, Bloody Red is a really good mystery, with the human subconscious playing a big role, and also a prime example of how superb directing can elevate a film to something beyond the sum of its constituent elements.
I can hardly expect anything fantastic from Italian horrors, I thought when I started watching Bloody Red. Being familiar with Dario Argento from the film "Demons", I expected to see a frivolous parody picture, although not devoid of a sense of style. In fact, it was different.
First of all, horror turned out to be more of a thriller with elements of horror. Later I learned that “Bloody-Red” refers to the so-called “Jallo” – a criminal thriller, in the spirit of which many Italian directors of the 70-90s filmed. But the thriller is only part of the film, although important, the semantic core of it is the detective part.
It is not always possible to successfully link these two elements together, withstanding the necessary proportion, and at the same time, clearly make it clear to the viewer what exactly the emphasis is on: on the detective part, then you need to pay more attention to the investigation process, or to the foreground to put saspience and atmosphere, which distracts attention from what is happening, and draws attention to how it happens.
Dario Argento stopped at the second, and the film only benefited from this: the music of the group "Goblin" especially "revives" the plot. To tune in to the right mood helps disturbing melody and special frames of attributes inherent in the killer: gloves, beads, dolls and drawings. All this, coupled with the tension that is achieved due to the realization that the threat to the lives of the main characters becomes more real as the mystery is revealed, makes viewing interesting.
In episodes, the film is discharged by a love line between a pianist and a journalist. As I have noticed, Italian cinematography pays a lot of attention to love relationships (it immediately recalls “Contempt” Godar and “8 and a half” Felini), and it turns out that it is really skillful and clever, so in this aspect there is also time for the viewer to reflect. I personally this moment was very hooked, although by the end of the film the impression of this “episode” spoiled, as it was sacrificed to the thriller.
As a result, I note that “Bloody-Red” was able to surprise me; the film copes with the task of interesting the viewer, despite the length of some scenes: the music “Goblin” and the game “David Hammings” smooth out these “roughnesses” in the script.
If you want to watch a good detective thriller with Italian flavor, then safely take up watching the film.
7 out of 10
In 1963, Mario Bava directed the thriller The Girl Who Knew Too Much, which was made in the style of Hitchcock. Even the title refers to one of the last films. But Mario arranged "The Girl" in his own way. To escalate the suspense and keep the intrigue, Bava used the method of “the camera is the eyes of the killer”: the viewer saw everything with his eyes, but did not see the face of the killer – only his cloak, legs, hands in gloves, a knife in these hands. Bloody and unusual, stylish murders were also filmed in the first person. To strengthen the suspense, special attention was paid to the sounds of footsteps, the creaking of floorboards, doors and windows, the breath of the killer and the victim. All this pressured the viewer psychologically. Disturbing music increased this tension. A fragile foreign girl accidentally witnessed a murder, thereby beginning to pose a danger to the killer himself and, as a result, becoming the target of his hunt.
This film is considered to be the first representative of the genre of Jallo, which got its name from the color of yellow paper soft covers of inexpensive books. They produced unassuming detectives, fiction, thrillers. It was Bava who laid down several iconic features of the genre listed above and distinguishing the Jallo from the usual detective or thriller. Actually, Jallo is a fusion of these two genres, but having its own aesthetics, its own special style. It was the refined aesthetic that became the core on which the plot was strung, where cruel, unusual, even strange murders, an abundance of blood, fear and suspense prevailed. Also one of the features of the Jallo became strange, paranoid-schizoid psychological portraits of the characters, which brought a fair share of surrealism in the form of dreams, visions, memories. Plus some pretentiousness, artificiality and theatricality of both the plot and characters, and the scene. The visual range with bright, juicy colors, luxurious interiors, a considerable share of eroticism and beautiful women in the frame are also among the characteristic features of the genre, which with its development were polished, added, honed and modified. But the hands in black gloves and the sharp blade rinsing the throat and body of the victim remained unchanged and the main feature of the jallo. As a result, this genre even went beyond Italy, finding embodiment in the works of Spanish directors. The killer in the Jallo often dresses up in clothes of the opposite sex (a tribute to Hitchcock's "Psycho"). And although according to statistics, maniacs are usually men, in Jallo it is just the opposite: women who are far beyond the edge of a nervous breakdown kill them most often.
Dario Argento, who worked with Mario Bava, did much to popularize the Jallo as a separate genre of detective Eurothriller, perfecting it in “Bird with Crystal Feather” and subsequent films. In the painting “Bloody-Red”, he brought all its components to perfection, bringing them all together. At the same time, the colors in the frame are incredibly bright. The palette is dominated by red in different shades. It is present in the details of the interior - wallpaper, curtains, draperies, furniture, books on shelves. And, of course, the deep red of the victims' blood. The red upholstery of the chairs in the conference room of a parapsychologist in the theater just hits the eyes and nerves of the viewer, as if warning that soon there will be a whole sea of blood on the screen. And a parapsychologist who is in a seizure after entering into mental contact with the murderer in the audience only confirms this. The often-sounding obsessive melody of a children’s Christmas song, which has something mechanical and a little crazy, also does not bode well for the characters of the film, only hinting at the deep childhood psychological trauma of the mysterious killer. The very trauma we see in the first shots, when under this song on the villa on the wall rushing shadows of two people, and we hear the exhausting screams. Someone kills another person with a huge knife and then throws a bloody knife on the floor. And a child approaches him. We only see his feet in his golfers and shoes. It is not clear whether it is a boy or a girl. Later, this case became a local legend called “The Screaming Child Villa.”
What is this villa? Who killed who and why there? Who was that child? What does a maniac in black gloves have to do with all this? This mystery is trying to solve a foreigner, jazz pianist Marcus Daly, who accidentally saw how someone in a black cape kills his hotel roommate, the same woman-parapsychologist. He is assisted in the investigation by journalist Gianna Brezzi, who needs a high-profile article in the newspaper and another proof that women journalists know their business no worse than men, and that women are not inferior to men at all, and even surpass them. Argento here did not miss the opportunity to mock the fashionable movement of feminism, at the same time diluting the line of relations between the musician and the journalist with a fair amount of humor, which went only to the benefit of the plot.
Marcus was played by David Hemmings, while his musician turned out to be a continuation of his character from Antonioni’s “Photomagnification”. And the role of Gianna was performed by the muse Argento - Daria Nicolodi. This pair looked alive on the screen and very harmonious. Another of the cast is worth noting the long-haired red-haired girl Olga performed by Nicoletta Elmi, who starred in many horror films. Italian journalists decided to identify the best child actors of the horror genre. Among the girls, Nicoletta Elmi was the best, and among the boys - Giovanni Frezza ("House on the edge of the cemetery"). An interesting role is played by Clara Kalamai, who played the mother of Carlo, a musician and friend of Marcus, a beauty and a very popular actress of the 40-50s. Here she played, in fact, herself - a former actress, once incredibly popular, and now forgotten by everyone. And when she utters the words, “I used to be an actress,” the camera camera glides over the walls, which hung real portraits of her time and footage from the films in which Kalamai starred. Yes, and yet, the most important role in the film gallo - hands in black gloves, talentedly played hands of Dario Argento.
Deaths in this picture are very different and bizarre, as befits the canons of the genre. One victim hangs on shards of window glass slitting her throat. The face of the other is boiled in boiling water to bloody blisters. The third head is smashed against the stone edges of the table, trying to knock out the unfortunate teeth, and another victim’s head falls under the wheel of a racing car. But the most spectacular death is reserved for the finale, when a gold chain stuck in the doors of a moving elevator cuts off a person's head. The atmosphere of terrible mystery and madness is created by dolls scattered throughout the film, made of red threads, plastic navels suspended on wire, wrapped in wool, and mechanical self-propelled dolls with an afterlife laugh. Everything that happens on the screen is accompanied by the magnificent music of the band Goblin. It was with this film that the long-term and successful cooperation of Argento and this team began under the direction of the now famous composer and musician Claudio Simonetti.
8 out of 10
A modest room with carved chairs, floor lamp, a table with an embroidered tablecloth on it, an old gramophone and a Christmas tree in the corner ... The shadow merged into one creature, on the blue wallpaper, points us to the stage of struggle, in one hand the creature has a knife. Scream... A bloody knife flies to the floor, two small legs with golfers in lacquered sandals approach it.
Rome. The conference on parapsychology takes place in the opera hall. Helga Ullman is a handsome telepath (played by Machi Meril, a lustful bitch from Aldo Lado’s Murder on the Night Train), after a small monologue, decided to play a little with the audience and chose a man from the 3rd row, guessing what he had in his pocket, and his name. Surprising the audience, Helga falls into hysteria.
The plot of the film is very banal, but it is full of horror and cruelty. The picture is full of mystery, drama and tension, it is a lot of violence. All this is accompanied by appropriate, well-chosen music.”
This was a brief summary, to the picture, set out in the almanac “Video” in 1991, grated to holes, hungry and absorbing information teenager, which was then. This is a shabby edition, glued, glued and now with me ... The name put in the hat is also from there, in my opinion, more than acceptable.
What's the point? To the fact that once again I will use, in this opinion, my old notes (correcting only outright flaws). Maybe it will look a little experimental:
Yes, the plot is not really simple, but how implemented! A wildly twisted detective intrigue, I had four suspects at different times of the meter, but as soon as I began to cleverly and disturb the remnants of my gray matter, stacking all the pros and cons, the director showed figs, and, my little investigation came to a standstill. The choice of nature and locations is meticulously selected and suggestive, I will note the opera room and the abandoned house, with which all the intrigue is associated (personally, I remember a small episode in the house, with a picture under the plaster, which Marcus discovers, oh, how spectacularly done). Everything is lively and interesting, Argento, who can have fun (in early tapes), and, here, invigorates (the wrestling scene between a woman and a man), and even surprise with funny dialogues:
Why did you become a pianist?
My psychoanalyst said it because I hated my father, like, subconsciously, when I press the keys, I knock out his teeth. In fact, because I love music...
In the film there are such permanent elements of "Giallo" as: investigation, Faceless, gloves, a cloak, a hat, hidden behind the scenes of the face (and hidden in all sorts of ways, even the mirror in the toilet is old enough that nothing in it can be seen), spectacular sophisticated murders (for connoisseurs this is a scene in the bathroom), as well as the signature sauce of young Argento: installation on bright camera work, shadows, reflections, animals (here a bird and a lizard pin pinned with an English), "mis of memory" and eyes in the dark ...
The musical range is very happy from the very first seconds of the film against the background of changing credits, for Goblin it was the first experience with the director.
Of the actors, I was most pleased with Nicolodi (by the way, this is also the first role of a civil husband), she has the role of an emancipated lady, overly active and curious.
Great picture and well spent life time. In front of me is a sea of unseen “giallo”, but I suspect that this is one of the brightest.
Note. Against the background of the release of the remake of “Suspiria” (the original is extremely loved and revered by me (this is 10)), the modern viewer can also attach his eye to other films of Argento of the “golden period” or even two.
9 out of 10
Recently I watched Suspiria, which is a horror classic, it looked very fresh and interesting and, together with the musical accompaniment of the band Goblin, I really liked it and I immediately decided to watch other films Dario Argento.
The plot captured me immediately, during a lecture at a congress of parapsychology, a woman who gave a lecture and guessed the names of those present in the hall and what they had in their pockets, fell into a seizure, claiming that death was in the hall, that she saw a terrible murder in the villa, that she heard a children's song. And that same night, she was brutally stabbed to death by a man in a cloak seen by a jazz pianist. Unwittingly, the pianist is drawn into this story and begins his own investigation.
Surprisingly, the film is logical and correctly built, there is nothing to complain about on the storyline, all actions and words are justified and clear, so the film is even more interesting to watch.
The film is very tense, partly because of the search for a criminal, of course it is in all films, but this film has its atmosphere similar to the Gothic, it is expressed in dark colors, strange intricate paintings and narrow night streets of Italy. A special place is occupied by the musical accompaniment of the group Goblin - anxious, nervous, grinding. I liked the actors. And the finale is simply luxurious especially I liked the moment when the hero walked around the apartment looking at the pictures and remembering what happened the day before the murder of a parapsychologist.
Of the shortcomings, I can single out the reporter she turned out too tough, meticulous, courageous. Her attempts to flirt with the main character were ridiculous and clumsy, although perhaps so intended.
As a result, the film is strong, intriguing to the very end, a thriller with a Gothic atmosphere and a very memorable beginning, I liked and recommend watching.
8 out of 10
Coloristics of fear or tone of murder with particular cruelty.
“Style is the point. Style is the answer to all questions, said the American poet Charles Bukowski. Like no one else, his opinion would be supported by the founders of the genre of Jallo in the cinema Mario Bava and Dario Argento. In their work, style is not just one of the elements of the film, but the formative fundamental framework of the whole picture. It impregnates everything, including the content and discursive side of the tape, being its main generator. The thing is that in this kind of genre, the usual rationality, linearity and depth lose priority over pure aesthetics, imagery and eternally elusive and fluid superficiality, which “the more faithfully destroys a person with its skill that there may be no mystery from ages and she did not have.” In some ways, the ideology of “Jallo” is even close to “eternal femininity”, it attracts, lures, charms, makes you look for some reason, reason, bottom ... but the bottom is not.
So the hero of the famous actor David Hemmings, Marcus Daly, becomes an unwitting witness to a brutal murder, after which he is no longer in the power to resist the temptation to find his solution, truth and reasonable explanation (an ideal role for Hammings, repeating himself from “Photomagnification”). He is voluntarily drawn into a complicated and bloody history, the number of victims in which is steadily increasing. The maniac is paradoxically always one step ahead, which involuntarily suggests some of his superhuman abilities. It is as if some higher, powerful evil spirits support and nourish the murderer with otherworldly powers. But Marcus, although just a man, and moreover, quite weak physically, is not one of the timid ten and ready to face death and chaos.
The film uses the usual folklore, mythological and spiritualistic motifs for the “jallo”, flavored with a good portion of parapsychology. Argento seems to distill from them all the most alarming, inexplicable and mysterious, after which the obtained essences are carefully mixed, but not shaken. The result is a core, original and unique mixture of a surreal nightmare.
As for the purely narrative component, usually limp on both legs in Jallo, then “Bloody-Red” pleasantly surprises. Contrary to expectations, between stunning in style and brilliant in terms of artistic expressiveness scenes of murder, the action is filled with extremely intriguing, clear and original, detective story and rhythmic romantic line of Marcus and journalist Gianna. Not least, the positive result is achieved thanks to the excellent acting tandem of David Hammings and Daria Nicolodi. The scenes of their mutual flirting, flirting and just stupidity look fresh, easy and unobtrusive, which plays into the hands of the film. Yes, and in the tape as a whole there is a desire for a harmonious, interconnected and balanced representation of colorful murders and a leisurely, leisurely (in the rhythm of soul and jazz, the main musical directions for Bloody Red) story of their investigation. It should be noted that for "Jallo" this phenomenon is quite rare, because in most cases this genre is close to the musical and so-called "show stoppers", the main elements in which are only individual musical numbers (in this case, scenes of death). Interest in the plot is fueled by the fact that Argento is playing a double or even triple game, building the action so that the viewer is completely sure that the killer is, for example, this person. The director lets us think that way and bluffs until the end, and then... He opens the cards and wins. I honestly did not think or foresee such a development. No wonder the mouth of the (yet unsolved) murderer Argento warns the hero (spoiler): "No, you think that this is the truth, but in fact it is only your VERSE of truth." This phrase expresses the whole philosophy of Jallo, stemming from the worldview of Friedrich Nietzsche, who asserted that: “Truth is an illusion, the illusory nature of which everyone has forgotten.”
Dario Argento should be commended in another respect. He not only does not send the narrative on a free voyage between murders, but also tries to diversify the surroundings as much as possible with all sorts of symbols, strange architectural structures, literary monuments, paintings, statues and other works of art (even a kind of “rock painting” will take place). And he's doing just fine. Many metaphors, allusions, and scenes have been cited in other films. Let’s say the last episode, when the elevator, whose mechanism just cut off the head of the person (the main villain), goes down, and drops of blood slowly fall on its floor, it seems that it is heading straight to the underworld (after which follows a stunning frame with a ghostly, otherworldly reflection of Marcus’ face in a “blood-red” puddle). On the same elevator repeatedly descended the hero of Mickey Rourke from the movie “Heart of an Angel”, when he was going to the reception to the devil himself.
From a purely technical point of view, the film is habitually on top. Shot for ridiculous money, it will give a head start to most blockbuster horror genre. The shocking, sticky, immersive atmosphere of paranoia and surreal nightmare is achieved thanks to the incredible professional and technical skills of the film crew, and especially, naturally, the director himself. Operator work seems to reach the utmost skill in the film. Plastic, grace, camera mobility in murder scenes is replaced by absolutely symmetrical, multilayered and architecturally verified secondary episodes. A special camera, working on the principle of endoscopy, is not just a technical innovation, but an active character, the main translator of the entire discourse of the film. It explores, analyzes all points of view, looks at the world alternately - the victim, the casual witness, the foreign inanimate object and, finally, the killer himself, awakening in the viewer repressed feelings of "shameful pleasure." As for the music, it is quite strange. With the exception of a couple of tracks “Goblin”, the lion’s share of the soundtrack is ... blues and soul. The feeling is very unusual, because thanks to Steven Soderbergh and Guy Ritchie, this kind of music causes an associative connection with comedy action films, not horror, so some scenes begin to look self-parody. As if Dario Argento is already trying to keep his distance and looks at his creation with a sound irony. The paradox lies in the fact that today, after a huge number of imitations (up to and overtrolling in the form of “Scary Movie”), such a view looks original and justified. But maybe it’s just coincidences or my purely subjective perception.
Summing up, it should be noted in “Bloody-Red” outstanding artistic merits, “high style” and professional performances. Although, this is a familiar picture for the genre of Jallo as such, but the difference of this tape is that it, in addition to everything, preserves the integrity and unity of the narrative, and does not mince immediately after the first murder as a sexual organ after violent intercourse. It should also be said that today, forty years after the premiere, the film looks a bit shabby (thanks to the sequels and well-established cliches), but still quite cheerful and at the same time classically aristocratic.
Jazz pianist Marcus Daly witnesses the brutal murder of his neighbor, medium Helga Ullmann. At her last congress on parapsychology, Helga felt that a terrible killer was sitting in the hall, and she fell into a violent seizure. According to the phrases that Mrs. Ullman shouted, the killer realized that he was in danger of being exposed, and that evening he dealt with such a strange “witness”. Well, Marcus Daly gradually becomes involved in the investigation of this case.
A little historical background. The birth of a purely Italian subgenre of “horror films”, popularly called “jallo”, is inseparably associated with two names: Mario Bava and Dario Argento. And the first of these two directors became the progenitor of the genre, and the second – the man who brought the “jallo” to the peak of form. In total, Dario Argento at different times shot a dozen “jallo”, among which two films were most popular among viewers and critics: Argento’s first experience in a similar topic called “Bird with Crystal Feather” and the picture “Bloody-Red”, in which Argento, according to many researchers, achieved the highest success, after which slowly but surely began to slide down. That is, in fact, the film “Bloody-Red” is considered the peak of the director’s creativity, who himself is one of the classics of the genre “jallo”. I mean, there's nothing better.
My personal impressions of this film, along with all of the above, allow me to state with confidence that “jallo” is not my genre. As usual, after watching it, I mentally sketched out a list of the film’s shortcomings and went to read reviews online. And I found out that it turns out that the key features of the genre almost 100% coincide with my claims to this picture, the general word for which can serve as “unnatural”. The bright blood of the color and consistency of red gouache, the pretentious play of the actors, wildly open eyes and unnatural death crusts of the victims, causing a smile "sinister" whisper of the killer, predictable denouement and much more. All this is a bright marker of the genre of “jallo”, the emphasis is on the appropriate, finely calibrated, but at the same time crude from a cinematic point of view aesthetics.
However, some purely "Djallov" techniques fell to my liking. First of all, this is a musical accompaniment performed by the Italian group “Goblin”, which later became a faithful companion of many paintings by Dario Argento. Stylish, electronic music has rightfully become the hallmark of the film “Bloody-Red”. I also liked the camera work in murder scenes: the reception when the camera becomes the eyes of a maniac, of course, is not new, but in this film it is made very skillfully - leather gloves (by the way, worn on the hands of Dario Argento himself), committing terrible crimes, made a strong impression on me.
In general, I am not enthusiastic about the picture “Bloody-Red”, and, as it turned out, my displeasure extends to the entire genre of “jallo” as a whole. Therefore, I do not recommend this film to watch. Fans of the bloody Italian detective thrillers of the 70s and 80s have no doubt seen this picture. The rest may well run into a style that they can not adequately “digest”. Like me, for example. Although some restrained words of approval, this tape still deserves.
6 out of 10
Even before watching this creation of the great Argento, I got acquainted with his style from the film Suspiria. My acquaintance with the gallo is limited to this, and at the moment, unfortunately, I have not seen many Italian films. So the style seemed very original to me and impressed me a lot.
The plot is well thought out and keeps in interest and tension, as a result of which it is worth noting in the genre of the picture a good piece of a thriller / detective. However, the atmosphere is viscous and frightening, which more refers to the film as a horror style. Also bloody and rigidly detailed scenes of the murder include the picture in the last of these genres. The rest of the features are the style of the Jallo, so I will not describe them, but the details that I paid the most attention to.
First, murders with bright red blood (which is inherent in the style of Argento) and in some places the improbability of the old shooting, in spite of everything, look frighteningly cruel and eerily real. They are really intimidating, although they are not the only factor in whipping up horror in this film.
Also, masterfully executed camera work plays here. Sharp changes in frames and unexpected angles give the picture a very original visual range. And the chic and unusual color scheme here is full of bright colors, which also sets this movie apart from many others.
How can we not celebrate music here? It is so unusual that sometimes it seems as if it does not fit the events on the screen, but rather relaxes the viewer. However, almost immediately you realize that it nevertheless quite fits into what is happening and creates some creepy and extravagant atmosphere. Murder and everything. Which is also the director’s calling card. This film is very contrasting due to such music and some comedic moments, which reduces the tension for a few minutes, and then with a new force piling on the viewer.
Among the disadvantages, I want to note some improbability in the fearless behavior of the main character. It seems to me that in reality the average person (even if creative) would behave differently. I don't know about you, but it cuts my eyes and spoils my overall impression. Also, in some places, this European pretentiousness and mannerism is clearly visible, which also comes in an unpleasant contrast with the plausibility of the picture.
But mostly everything is fine here. If you are tired of flat and similar horror films of Hollywood, flavored with the same type and abundantly bloody spices, the rubbish of which very rarely shines a pearl, then I highly recommend this film. The plot here seems to be quite standard, but thanks to the skill and original approach of the director (and the entire film crew), a unique film emerges in front of us. Unique in comparison to Hollywood horror films, not Italian jallo. And perhaps if I had seen more of the latter than the former, it would not have seemed so unusual to me. But as a result of the situation, this film became like a breath of fresh air in a suffocating room.
8 out of 10
P.S. I’m sorry that Pink Floyd didn’t become the composers of the film as originally intended. Since this is one of my favorite bands, I would be very interested to see the classics of the great master of Italian horror to the music of legendary British people.
The title of this film is a hoax, a game. If in Russian they talk about the “yellow press”, then in Italian there is a corresponding “yellow” cinema, “jallo”. And the maestro giallo - just Dario Argento, imitators and plagiarists of which were Amato and Jesus Franco, who robbed, however, not only him. Against the background of these on-screen meat dealers, Argento is an artist who did not lower the bar too low. But the genre remains a genre, “jallo”, an analogue of the American slasher, these are intricate, rather scandalous films about psychopathic killers, with careless plot development and cardboard heroes. This is almost exploitative, that is, unabashedly parasitizing on the zemanno-gentle feelings of the audience, the “bulwark” cinema, which under the captivating sky of Italy was given due and improper by many authors, including Deodato and even the master Pasolini in “Salo”. The film “Bloody-Red” was shot in 1975, that is, the most fertile era, a year after the classic groundless mochilov “Texas Massacre”, when the grindhouse films with a mix of zombies, vampires, rockers and other enemies of the human race are fully satisfied with the adrenaline hunger of the public.
Argento in a recognizable style, not changing from "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" to "Inferno" and "Jallo". Economical visual range, without crowds of extras and with scant inventory. Large masses of color. Theatrical mise-en-scene, when attention does not break away from the few characters, the main and secondary, are replaced by pauses with empty interiors, conditional, studio, and the injection of indefinite tension, not to say fear. Zadnik is a Central European city, its suburbs. Often shooting as close as possible to the peeping eye to small objects and, of course, flesh subjected to violence, not particularly reliable, despite all the naturalism. Lingering on inanimate matter, Argento tries to use simple hypnosis, more boring. Undoubtedly, dosed eroticism is also involved in the action, but here Argento, how to see and compare, is just a puritan. He has enough of the outward appetite of the main victims. But he likes to tickle sentiments, showing killed animals, accompanying sinister scenes flashbacks from the childhood of the monster, a cheerful childish song, hanged and decapitated dolls, a mask with a baby face. The dialogues either deliberately do not involve intrigue, or frankly push it. Persecution, shown “from the side” of the creeping killer, is the best way to hide the face of the maniac and focus on his knife, cutter, hands or at least shoes. Characters “completely by accident” find themselves in space-time or causal circumstances where nothing can help them. Typical story - an American or an American, willy or not, is looking for a furious self-pest in Italy. The Anglo-Saxon protagonist Argento portrays with invariable seriousness, however, shaming the characters of the second plan and even the monster himself. Here's David Hemmings, familiar from Antonioni's "Photomagnification" and shaded by a rude, cynical police officer devouring a sandwich at the scene of a bloody crime, and a feminist armwrestling journalist (Daria Nicolodi), an elderly actress with senility.
Partly even parodied the plot of the unforgettable “Blu-up”. Jazz player Mark not only saw a knife-torn neighbor in the window of his house and a Nazi black leather cape of a suspect, he saw another “something” that he does not really remember. Some picture that disappeared almost immediately after the murder of a telepath, which penetrated into someone’s grotesquely creepy thoughts and gave a surprised audience several incoherent remarks. Blustered "Mr. Sexy" Hemmings is on the trail! What causes a string of new bloody dramas. Compared to the earlier "Four Flies", the casting of the victims was made taking into account the gender and attractiveness, these are mainly women, the murders have become more cruel, the broken nails are not limited, the beauties and not only put their throat on the fragments of glass, try to choke in boiling water, showing a boiled face, they are stabbed with a dagger, their head is torn off with a chain. The pressure on sentiment became more powerful - from the beginning we know that somehow on the pastoral background of the Christmas tree to a children's song and a grueling cry someone was cutting someone. Then there are puppets and clumsy drawings. To the former bare walls were added, perhaps, due to budget, lush Viscontiev interiors. Argento freed himself from Hitchcockian standards, the suspense is not so elastic. Spectacular violence, ketchup on the parquet and Biedermeier’s furniture became more interesting to him than the old-fashioned suspicion that does not bypass anyone. One must disinterestedly love cinematic evil in order to sit on needles from one massacre to another. But this implies a genre, although, of course, to the adventures of the necrophile Leather muzzle or gourmet Lecter “Bloody-red” far away.
A great movie that I would recommend to all lovers of good horror!
First, the very atmosphere of what is happening makes an impression. Secondly, all this is complemented by an excellent performance of actors who fall in love, investigate, and philosophize. The kind of diversity that makes a film one is rare. Thirdly, the actors managed to 100% show how people behaved in real life, and there is no playfulness, stupid and rash actions here.
Just a little bit of music... Sure, it's wonderful, but for a horror movie, it's not very good. Because in those moments when there should be psychological tension, it, on the contrary, relaxes, and all anticipation of something terrible disappears instantly.
8 out of 10