Deep Red – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1975
Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Dario Argento, Bernardino Zapponi
Cast: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril, Eros Pagni, Giuliana Calandra, Piero Mazzinghi, Glauco Mauri, Clara Calamai, Aldo Bonamano, Liana Del Balzo, Nicoletta Elmi

Release Date: October 25, 2021 (UK), October 26th, 2021 (USA)
Approximate running times: 126 Minutes 38 Seconds (Director’s Cut), 104 Minutes 53 Seconds (International Theatrical Cut)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10 (Director’s Cut, International Theatrical Cut)
Rating: 18 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 Italian, DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English/Italian Hybrid (Director’s Cut), LPCM Mono English (International Theatrical Cut)
Subtitles: English, English SDH (Director’s Cut), English SDH (International Theatrical Cut)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £39.99 (UK), $59.95 (USA)

"One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow Up), looking up from the street below, witnesses the brutal axe murder of a woman in her apartment. Racing to the scene, Marcus just manages to miss the perpetrator... or does he? As he takes on the role of amateur sleuth, Marcus finds himself ensnared in a bizarre web of murder and mystery where nothing is what it seems..." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (Director’s Cut, International Theatrical Cut)

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "New 4K restoration of both the original 127-minute Italian version and the 105-minute export version from the original negative by Arrow Films."

Deep Red director's cut comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 89.3 GB

Feature: 78.5 GB

Deep Red International theatrical cut comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 86.2 GB

Feature: 77 GB

The sources used for both versions are comparable. Both versions look excellent. Colors are nicely saturated, contrast, shadow detail, and black levels look solid. There are no issues with compression, and grain remains intact. This is another exemplary 4K UHD upgrade from Arrow Video. 

Audio: 5/5

The director’s cut comes with three audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Italian, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono hybrid mix in English and Italian. Included with this version are removable English subtitles for Italian dialog and there’s also removable English SDH for the English/Italian hybrid track.

The international theatrical cut comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English, and included with this version are removable English SDH.

All of the audio tracks included as part of this release sound excellent. Dialog always comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, Goblin’s score sounds robust and ambient sounds are well-represented. Sonically, you can’t go wrong with any of these audio tracks.

Extras:

Extras on the UHD disc that contains the director's cut include image galleries: posters (7 images), lobby cards (18 images), promotional stills (26 images), Japanese press book and flyer (13 images) and soundtracks (6 images), international trailer for Deep Red (1 minute 47 seconds, LPCM mono Italian with removable English subtitles), 2018 Arrow Video trailer for Deep Red (1 minute 30 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an interview with actor Lino Capolicchio titled Blood Stained (5 minutes 28 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Jacopo Mariani titled I Am The Screaming Child (7 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Gabriele Lavia titled Carlo Never Dies (15 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Claudio Simonett titled Death Dies (14 minutes 47 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with production manager Angelo Iacono (46 minutes 31 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Macha Méril titled The Medium Wore Black (20 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi (57 minutes 40 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival audio commentary with Dario Argento expert Thomas Rostock and an audio commentary with film critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Extras on the UHD disc that contains the International theatrical cut include U.S. trailer for Deep Red (2 minutes 44 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an archival introduction by composer Claudio Simonett (24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with Claudio Simonetti titled Music to Murder For (14 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actress Daria Nicolodi titled Lady in Red (18 minutes 45 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with English subtitles), an archival interview with director Dario Argento titled Rosso Recollections (12 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with English subtitles), an archival interview Luigi Cozzi titled Rosso from Celluloid to Shop’ (14 minutes 28 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with English subtitles) and an archival visual essay titled Profondo Giallo (32 minutes 57 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English no subtitles).

Rounding out the extras is a double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork, reversible cover art, six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards and a 60-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled Dario Argento’s Deep Red written by Alan Jones, an essay titled Deep Red: The Quintessential Guide written by Mikel Koven, an essay titled The Architecture of Fear: The Surrealist Spaces of Dario Argento’s Deep Red written by Rachael Nisbet and information about the restoration/transfers.

Summary:

Deep Red was co-written and directed by Dario Argento, a filmmaker who is often referred to as the Italian Alfred Hitchcock. And just like the aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock, Dario Argento has spent the bulk of his career working primarily in the thriller (Giallo) genre. In the early 1970's, Dario Argento quickly rose to prominence after directing a trio of thrillers known as the "animal trilogy" (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat O’ Nine Tails, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet). I have directed three films in the span of two years. Dario Argento would, over the next few years, pursue other avenues, like producing a thriller anthology series like Door into Darkness and a historical comedy/drama hybrid called Five Days in Milan. Unfortunately, this change of direction was not what he was looking for, and Five Days in Milan performed poorly at the box office. And after an attempt to adapt Frankenstein. Dario Argento would return to the genre that had made him a household name with the 1975 film Deep Red.

Deep Red's plot, like Dario Argento’s previous thrillers, revolves around an amateur sleuth, who becomes involved in the investigation after witnessing the original crime that sets everything in motion. And just like those aforementioned thrillers, Deep Red’s protagonist is joined by a companion in their investigations. The relationship between the film’s protagonist, a musician named Marcus Dailey, and a reporter named Gianna Brezzi, is arguably the most enduring pairing to ever appear in a Dario Argento film.

Cast in the role of Marcus Dailey is a British actor named David Hemmings, who rose to prominence after staring in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-up. It should also come as no surprise that the character's journey in Deep Red has many striking similarities to the character he portrayed in Blow-up. Cast opposite David Hemmings is an Italian actress named Daria Nicolodi, who would play an important role in Dario Argento’s evolution as a filmmaker. They would begin a relationship while working on Deep Red that would culminate while working on Phenomena.

The red herring is an integral element of the thriller genre. And if done poorly, it could quickly tip the hat to who the true perpetrator is. Thankfully, Deep Red is a meticulously laid out murder mystery that does not play its hand before its moment of truth. And when this moment finally arrives retracing the who’s and the why’s are equally satisfying. Another area that Deep Red excels are its kill sequences. which serves as so much more than a random act of violence. In fact, there are several instances in which clues to the killers’ identity are left at the scene of the crime.

Visually, Dario Argento proves once again that he is not interested in revisiting where he has been. And that he is always more than willing to experiment visually as a filmmaker. When talking about the visuals for Deep Red, one must not overlook cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller’s contributions. He had previously worked with Dario Argento on Five Days in Milan. Some of his notable films as a cinematographer include Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Flesh for Frankenstein and The New York Ripper. 

Another key collaborator on Deep Red was the progressive rock band Goblin, who would go on to work with Dario Argento on several other films, most notably Suspiria. The score for Deep Red was co-written by Giorgio Gaslini, who’s other notable scores include So Sweet, So Dead, Five Days in Milan and the Italian T.V. series Door Into Darkness. As important as the visuals and as good as the performances are, the real backbone of this film is its driving score. With the standout musical motif being a children’s song that the killer uses as a calling card.

Where Arrow Video’s other Dario Argento 4K UHD releases only carried over existing extras. Deep Red comes with three hours of new extras. Also, the Deep Red booklet comes with an additional essay that was not part of Arrow Video’s 2018 Blu-ray release.

Deep Red gets an exceptional 4K UHD upgrade from Arrow Video, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer