Deep Red (1975)
A pianist and reporter join forces to catch a serial killer covering their tracks.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Gianna Brezzi - Daria Nicolodi
Amanda Righetti - Giuliana Calandra
Carlo's Mother - Clara Calamai
Carlo's Father - Aldo Bonamano
Cop Taking Notes - Vittorio Fanfoni
Police Photographer - Dante Fioretti
Massimo Ricci - Geraldine Hooper
Young Carlo - Iacopo Mariani
Agent Mingozzi - Fulvio Mingozzi
Fingerprint Cop - Lorenzo Piani
Police Agent - Salvatore Puntillo
Pietro Valgoi - Franco Vaccaro
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
Marcus Daly is playing piano with his jazz band when he tells them they are playing too cleanly and formal for jazz. At the European Congress on Parapsychology, Giordani, who is sitting next to Helga Ulmann and Bardi, tells the audience about insects and their use of telepathy. He goes on to say that humans are born with telepathy, but most lose the ability over time. He then introduces Helga to the crowd. Helga tells the crowd her abilities are not derived from magic, but she can detect things that are happening now or have happened in the past. She correctly identifies a set of keys an audience member has in his pocket and that his name is Pietro Valgoi. Helga suddenly screams out and detects a murderer is in the room and that the murderer will kill again. She mentions a children's song and villa and continues speaking as if she were the killer, telling another that they will hide the evidence and act like nothing has happened. After the conference ends, Helga tells Giordani that tomorrow, she will write everything down that she felt and she knows who the murderer is. The killer looks over a group of children's toys and puts on thick eyeliner after grabbing a knife. As Helga is talking on the phone, she hears children's music being played. She hangs up the phone when someone rings her doorbell and as she walks to the door, she lunges back from sensing the person on the other side is the murderer. The murderer breaks the door down and starts hacking at Helga with a meat cleaver. They then walk over to a table and take the notes Helga wrote on the murder. As Marcus is walking towards the Blue Bar, he sees Carlo, drunk, sitting outside nearby. Marcus tells Carlo he drinks too much and will die young, to which Carlo says he doesn't want to live a long life. Before going back to work, Carlo tells Marcus that while Marcus plays the piano for art, Carlo plays in order to make money. They hear a scream and Carlo assumes it is a woman being raped and walks back into the Blue Bar. Marcus looks up and sees Helga at her window and then sees the murderer kill Helga. He runs into Helga's apartment and pulls Helga's body from the window and sees someone in a trench coat walking away and Carlo staring at them. The police arrive and Cop Taking Notes goes over the numerous stab wounds Helga sustained. Calcabrini questions Marcus while a Fingerprint Cop dusts for fingerprints and Police Photographer (Deep Red)|Police Photographer. As Marcus is looking at Helga's paintings, he asks Calcabrini if he has had any of the paintings removed. As they are talking Fat Cops argues with Agent Mingozzi in the background. Police Agent walks up and asks Calcabrini if he wants coffee and Calcabrini continues to question Marcus. Gianna Brezzi walks into the apartment and the Police Agent tells her to leave. She sees Marcus and takes a photograph of him. Marcus is then taken to the police station by Mingozzi to fill out a sworn statement. Four hours later, Marcus is allowed to leave and sees Carlo even drunker sitting in the same area. Marcus mentions to Carlo about a painting being missing from Helga's apartment and Carlo tells him that what he saw might be important and what he thinks is the truth is only one version of it. At Helga's funeral, Gianna points out whose who to Marcus of the funeral goers. Gianna tells Marcus she doesn't have a boyfriend and offers to have sex with Marcus to calm his nerves. They get into her car and she asks Marcus to help her with the story. Giordani and Bardi go over everything Helga said to Marcus and Gianna and they ask them if they noticed anyone in the crowd. After sex, Marcus and Gianna argue about the fragility of women and she challenges and then beats him in an arm wrestling contest. Marcus goes to Carlo's house and Carlo's Mother answers the door. She seems absent minded and tells him how she used to be an actress, but her husband forced her to quit once they got married. She asks Marcus if he will do a piano duet with her and then tells him Carlo is at Massimo Ricci's home. Marcus goes there and finds out Massimo is a cross dresser. He finds Carlo drunk and Massimo tells Marcus that Carlo was screaming nonsense. As they are walking to the Blue Bar, Marcus brings up what Carlo said the other day and Carlo tells him he should leave Rome and it is too dangerous. During the night, as Marcus is writing a new song, someone starts skulking around his apartment. He hears the children's song being played, but it stops. The front door opens and he sees a shadow moving around. The phone rings and Marcus answers it after shutting his sliding door. He tells Gianna, who called him, he needs help and the murderer whispers that they will kill him sooner or later. He buys a record, Songs for Children and finds the same song, which he then plays for Giordani and Bardi. Giordani tells Marcus, he thinks the murderer is a paranoid schizophrenic, one that would appear normal in day to day life. He continues that the killer would need to create a situation similar to the one in which they first killed, with the same things or noises used as a trigger. Bardo reminds Marcus that Helga mentioned a villa and tells him of a book entitled Ghosts of Today and Dark Modern Legends, which mentioned an abandoned villa. Marcus goes to the Library of Folklore and Popular Traditions and finds the book, written by Amanda Righetti. He reads the story on The Villa of the Screaming Child which took place in a villa on the outskirts of Rome. Marcus rips the page out of the book which has a photo of the villa and then calls Gianna. He gives Gianna, Amanda's name and asks her to find where she lives. The murderer looks over their table of toys and puts on their eyeliner. Elvira asks Amanda Righetti why she keeps mynah birds and Amanda tells her it is to keep her company. Amanda walks back into her house and finds a doll hanging from a noose. She finds her back door open and another doll hanging from a noose. Children's music starts to play and she grabs a sewing needle and accidentally kills one of birds as it flies towards her. The murderer attacks her and sticks her head into boiling bath water. The murderer leaves and before dying, Amanda writes the identity of the murderer on the bathroom wall in the condensation. Marcus goes to Amanda's house and finds Amanda dead and leaves. He tells Gianna what he found and she suggests he leave, but he wants to continue trying to figure out the murderer. He tells her, he isn't going to tell anyone his next move as the murderer always seems to be one step ahead and Gianna wonders if he thinks she is the murderer. The next day, Marcus shows a botanist the photo of the villa and the botanist recognizes the plant in it is a rare Dracaena indivisa.