Deep Red (1975)

I actually wasn't going to write this one up. My initial reaction was this film had some interesting moments set at Christmas, but for a number of reasons neither qualified as a "Christmas movie" (at least by my definitions) or leveraged the holidays in ways that were thematically noteworthy enough to count. Obviously neither of those reactions reflect on the movie itself, which is a fantastic (albeit disturbing) entry in the Italian Giallo movement, a sort of quasi-genre that paved the way for the modern slasher and has influenced countless films across virtually every genre.

But the movie got me wondering whether there were any Giallos that used the holidays in a more sustained manner, so I did a simple web search for "Giallo Christmas movie" to see if anything popped up. And the only thing that did was Deep Red. While I didn't (and still don't) really consider this a Christmas movie, articles on Collider and Slash Film were more generous in their labeling.

Those are both good articles, by the way, from writers far more versed in the history of Giallo and in horror as a genre than I'll ever be, so if you somehow stumbled on this site looking for information about the movie itself, you'd probably be better off clicking on one of those links.

But I'm trying to put together as comprehensive an exploration into Christmas movies as a phenomenon as possible, so when I realized Deep Red was widely considered one of the best Giallos ever made (or possibly the best, if you listen to Mary Beth McAndrews in that Slash Film article), and quite possibly the only significant Giallo of its era to use the holidays at all, I figured I should write it up here.

Though, again, if you're less interested in exploring this from a Christmas nerd perspective than from a horror POV, you probably want Joseph Ornelas's Collider article instead. Honestly, Ornelas does a good job exploring how the holidays evoke, manipulate, and twist childhood associations with the holidays to heighten the contrasting horror.

Come to think of it, why aren't I just linking to those two articles and calling it a day? Oh, right, because Ornelas is lying about how the holidays play into the movie's story and climax.

To clarify, he's lying in the best way possible: there's something at the end he doesn't want to spoil, and it doesn't undercut the effect the holidays have on the viewer's experience, which in this genre is all that really matters. But since I'm apparently trying to assemble comprehensive notes on how Christmas is utilized (God, this site has gotten weird), I figured a more complete study of the movie's use of the holiday would be worth typing up, for me if no one else.

Side note: does anyone else still read this, anyway?

Moving on. Since this is going to explore the ending of what's undeniably a classic, I should probably include a spoiler warning here. Not that it matters: this is a genre with very little investment in plot. The stories in the handful of Giallos I've seen (three or four at the time I'm writing this, depending on whether you think Suspiria counts or not) struck me as fundamentally superfluous. The movies almost go out of their way to highlight this, playfully glossing over plot holes and calling out non sequiturs. The focus is on the audience's visceral response: these want an emotional reaction, not an intellectual analysis.

To that end, they employ gory and sexualized violence, heavy stylization, and an intrusive soundtrack (to be clear, I mean it's intrusive in the way it makes its presence known; I don't mean to imply Goblin's rad as hell music ever outstays its welcome). The genre is an attempt to create stunning, evocative art from subject matter best described as "trash."

That's not my word, incidentally. Deep Red's first lines of dialogue are spoken by its protagonist, a jazz pianist instructing a group of musicians, in which he warns them against playing too well. He tells them the music they're playing shouldn't be too clean or perfect - he outright says it needs to be a little trashy. Director Dario Argento isn't trying for subtlety here: he's talking about horror cinema. And the rest of the movie goes on to prove that a trashy exploitation flick can be a striking artistic accomplishment, an idea confirmed by the movie's enduring legacy.

Note I said those were the movie's first lines of dialogue, not its first scene. Before we introduce the protagonist, we're shown a brief sequence set long ago at Christmas. While childlike music plays in the background, we see shadows of two people struggle as one repeatedly stabs the other. The knife drops in front of us, and the shoes of a child step into frame.

Naturally, the movie will show us more of this scene towards the end, and elements are invoked throughout - particularly the music, which the killer plays as each murder is committed. The movie also spends extended amounts of time investigating a child's drawing connected to this event, showing an adult killing another in front of a Christmas tree. The killer also uses children's toys used as ominous distractions or warnings.

This is actually where the Collider article plays with the truth a bit. Ornelas asserts the holidays are driving the killer, an idea the movie explores as well, as it implies (and later seemingly confirms) the killer was traumatized as a child after seeing their parent murdered at Christmas, and that this sociopath has internalized this horror and is driven to act it out again and again, using the same music and toys to invoke a similar violent reaction.

Only all that's a red herring. When the killer is "revealed" to be the main character's best friend, a gay musician with a drinking problem, he confesses before dying horribly in an attempt to escape the police. But, as seems to be common in this genre (it's been pretty consistent among the ones I've seen) the confession was a lie to protect a loved one.

It's actually his mother, a disturbed woman who killed her husband, who's actually responsible for the deaths. In a final flashback, we're also shown she was disturbed before the initial killing - the Christmas murder was actually committed to prevent her husband from having her institutionalized.

How does this work with her playing the music or decorating with toys? No idea. But the plot ultimately rejects the premise this was all fueled by Christmastime childhood trauma. Really, this was a disturbed killer trying to cover her tracks - all the victims were offed to protect her secret. Her son just seemed to be helping out of love and loyalty.

This does help the movie avoid having the killer be one of the film's gay characters, which is better than the alternative, particularly given the era, when large portions of the public incorrectly associated homosexuality with violent disorders. Invoking those associations to direct the audience's suspicions towards a gay character is still pretty awful, but the fact the movie ultimately reveals them to be inaccurate is at least mitigating.

And to the film's credit, this character's lover (who's at least ambiguously coded as trans) is portrayed in an unambiguously positive light. The main character is also at least tolerant of this lifestyle, assuring his friend he doesn't care about his sexuality when its revealed (though his body language strongly implies tolerance is not the same as being comfortable).

Arguably the fluidity of gender is a theme throughout the movie. In addition to the presence of queer characters who don't conform to typical gender roles, the main character's love interest is a woman with masculine qualities (including being physically stronger than the main character himself). The movie's use of shadows at the beginning has the effect of obfuscating the genders of those involved, tricking the audience into assuming a man has killed a woman. Even the depiction of the child's footwear imply it's a girl, rather than a boy, who's witnessed the event, an idea the movie leverages to imply that the killer is perhaps the aforementioned physically powerful love interest.

This ambiguity runs throughout the film, of course, as we're given reason to suspect anyone - perhaps even the protagonist - could somehow be the killer. None of this is meant to invest us in the story of the mystery so much as the uneasy sense of uncertainty permeating the picture. In a sense, the identity and motivation of the actual killer is a throwaway detail.

Which largely sums up my initial dismissal of the idea this was a Christmas movie. Only the flashback is set during the holidays, which are ultimately just one of many misdirects. Though it's hard to deny it's one of the more notable ones, both because it kicks off the movie and because the Christmas illustrations, when finally revealed, are nightmarish.

I'd still hesitate to call this a Christmas movie. Without the benefit of the setting or a clearer thematic connection, I'm not sure it's integral enough to the film to qualify. Perhaps legacy is a more promising avenue, though this is a bit ambiguous for another reason....

Giallo was famously a major influence on the slasher subgenre (almost certainly THE main influence, in fact), and - as I've discussed in some detail - there's no shortage of Christmas slasher movies. It'd be nice to connect this to those and call it a day. Only there's a problem: Deep Red came out right after Black Christmas, the original entry among those films. I'll add that you can see numerous similarities between the two films, including shots in Black Christmas clearly drawing from earlier Dario Argento films. It's all so similar, I had to double-check to confirm there was no plausible way for either of these movies to directly influence the other, but unless there was some correspondence I'm not aware of, the timelines were just too close.

There are some similarities between the opening of Deep Red and the starts of Silent Night, Deadly Night and Christmas Evil, both of which were also influential and involve a traumatic childhood Christmas that would go on to inspire a murderer (essentially variations on if Deep Red's red herring hadn't been a misdirect). Perhaps this influenced those? 

Feels like a stretch. At the same time I can't deny this film's holiday credentials are at least debatable, which is a big part of why I'm writing about the movie. And, you know, because it's really goddamn good. That, too.

Though before anyone rushes out, be aware that a movie often heralded as the pinnacle of a genre known for gristly, horrific murders is going to make for an unpleasant experience for anyone who's easily disturbed.

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