Daria Nicolodi, David Hemmings, Eros Pagni

A musician witnesses the murder of a famous psychic, and then teams up with a fiesty reporter to find the killer while evading attempts on their lives by the unseen killer bent on keeping a dark secre...( read more  read more... )t buried.

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85% liked it

8,176 ratings

R, 1 hr. 38 min.

Directed by: Dario Argento

Release Date: March 7, 1975

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DVD Release Date: April 25, 2000

Stats: 636 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (636)


  • November 4, 2009
    i can't deny there are beautiful scenes in it but damn, asia's mom is annoying. i kept waiting for her to die. on the whole, i prefer suspiria
  • February 7, 2009
    Flixster ate my review, which was lengthy. I can't be bothered retyping the whole thing though.

    Very slow in the middle. Last two kills are great. Goblin soundtrack is at times unusual for them but ultimately very effective. Didn't see the first half of that ending coming even t...( read more)hough I always operate on the conservation of characters principle.
  • August 19, 2008
    Creepy early psycho thriller with impressive music, lighting and sets. Reminded me of 'Don't Look Now'. Very stylish but a little dated.
  • March 8, 2008
    Dario offers here a really smartly filmed movie that, for some reasons, reminds me of The Eyes of Laura Mars, except that this one is better.
    I couldn't insist too much on the fact that this flick is technically superb: almost every frame is a work of art. And the music is excel...( read more)lent, too. So we've got here an obscure gem (that was my conclusion, lol).
  • February 25, 2008
    A great introduction for tose unfamiliar with Argento.
  • November 18, 2009
    It's perfectly campy 70's horror movie. It has all those cliches, but it just seems to work here. The acting is poor, but it's so entertaining at the same time. The story is actually really interesting, which made the movie separate from countless others like it. The brutality an...( read more)d gore is pretty far for it's time. It's just pure fun, even the music matches it's bizarre style. Dario Argento is one of those directors that can make anything classy, especially when it comes to serial killing.
  • November 11, 2009
    "But I'm telling you the truth! You think you're telling the truth, but in fact... you're telling only your version of the truth. It happens to me all the time."

    Profondo Rosso (1975)


    Director: Dario Argento
    Country: Italy
    G...( read more)enre: Horror / Music / Mystery / Thriller
    Length: 126 minutes

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    Before Halloween (1978), before Friday the 13th (1980) and even before Lucio Fulci entered into action and became "the godfather of gore" (which he certainly isn't), there was Profondo Rosso. I'm really proud to present what I undoubtedly call a masterpiece of horror. Dario Argento has created one of the most legendary, memorable, scary, brutal and even artistic horror films ever. This film is definitely the best film of Italian horror cinema and the most represetative of its syle as well, which would be copied afterwards endless times. Dario Argento is certainly one of the greatest horror directors that ever existed and one of the most respected as well.

    Profondo Rosso deals with the supernatural story of a musician who witnesses the death of a psychic who could read people's minds and had already predicted the past and future killings of an assassin. He later teams up with a female reporter in order to find who the killer is, who certainly has a deep and dark secret buried.

    I never imagined that horror films could be like this. I can clearly see now where it all began. Being a horror fan, this film has it all. It has shocking gore, well-built suspense, scary and fantastic imagery and a top-notch direction. I'll begin with the visual style. Argento's direction definitely surpassed my expectations, since I was left totally amazed. The camera work is extremelly beautiful and adds a lot of artistic value and susbstance to the story. The cinematography does not only capture wide shots in perfect angles, but also has some extraordinary close-ups to objects and people which show their most graphic details wonderfully. Just like Yimou Zhang is a master in the use of color in his films, Dario Argento uses red beautifully throughout. It sort of makes you fall in love with the color of blood, adding a lot of intensity to the plot and strong emotions as well.

    Profondo Rosso is one of the first horror films that belongs to the "slasher" sub-genre which uses childish elements to cause fear in its audience. This was a very daring concept which totally worked in an effective way. The use of a child's tender tune is a classic daring concept which is ultimately fantastic. Many horror films used this very same concept billions of times afterwards. Not only it uses a child's tune, but also relates it as a very important element in the killer's traumatic past. That is why Profondo Rosso is also a brilliant and macabre character stury.

    Although the slasher film Black Christmas (1974) came a year before and shares similar aspects with this film, like the killer's murders being graphically shown on screen and the killer being revealed until the end, Profondo Rosso goes beyond that, and just like several previous giallos did (including some from Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci), it builds a lot of suspense in the audience while making it to try keep guessing who the killer is with the help fo the narrative structure. The music is not for everybody's taste, and although it is not as masterful and moving as a melody composed by Beethoven or as scary as the classic tune of Psycho (1960), it is fantastic. It is certainly weird, but Italy tended to use this kind of thrilling and suspenseful weird music in its films and I just love it. Profondo Rosso doesn't fail in that aspect either, since even the music has some unusually unique style. The killer's outfit (such as the dark, leather gloves and jacket) is also a classic and somehow macabre element.

    Unlike several Italian directors of the 70's and 80's like Lucio Fulci, Ruggero Deodato, Umberto Lenzi and Mario Bava, Argento uses graphic and shocking violence and gore but not in a mindless and sadistic amount. The pace may be slow at times but almost every single dialogue and scene add important facts to the plot, and although the main focus of the film is not violence, it has a decent number of killings and all of them are quite shocking. The edition is brilliant. Have you ever seen a film which is dependent by its edition? Well I have, and this is one of those rare classic movies. Gore fans won't be dissapointed either.

    This is a classic aimed for all kind of audiences, and once you het the chance to see this horror masterpiece you'll understand where Hollywood got most of its ideas from and why Hollywood has made an incredible amount of awful horror films during the past 25 years, which, ironically, a lot of them are remakes. Argento consolidated his reputation and style of filmmaking with Profondo Rosso, which is his best film. Do not miss it.

    89/100
  • October 28, 2009
    una pelicula del ma estro argento
  • September 29, 2009
    Excellent! The kinda movie that you'll wanna watch closely, if not, you'll be missing something important. I love the tension it built. The killings werent exaggerating, effective & gory. An instant classic&favorite of mine.
  • September 27, 2009
    Creepy as it can be.

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Comments


  • lovecyn4ever
    March 8, 2009
    Check out my quiz!
    Fulci's Zombie Pictures, Images and Photos

    Argento Vs Fulci
  • supdawg1985
    July 1, 2008
    I had a half English/half Italian copy but still managed to enjoy it greatly. That's testament to Argento's talent with the audio and visual experience.
  • dontdropthesoap84
    April 22, 2007
    What a trip...not the best script, but very great direction and photography. Italian horrors rule.
  • Hellshocked
    April 22, 2007
    An awesome score by Goblin, dude. They've scored most of Dario Argento's films. Their music for Suspiria and No Ho Sonno is also amazingly good.
  • whoisthisguy
    October 14, 2006
    Anyone else think Deep Red has crazy music?

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