31 (or so) Days of Terror: Don't Look Now

Sorry, I've missed a few days in this month of frights. But hey, that's why I called it 31 or so Days. I expected to miss a couple. And speaking of disappointments today's feature is certainly one. British director Nicolas Roeg has a reputation for visual inventiveness and metaphoric narratives. To most people my age his best known work would probably be his 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches just to give you a frame of reference. That was a far more straightforward horror piece than the film I'll be talking about today, Roeg's 1973 psychological thriller Don't Look Now.

It almost feels like I'm cheating by including this film because it lacks many horror characteristics and, at least in my opinion, isn't very scary. For what's it worth, the story concerns an upper-class couple played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. After their daughter accidentally drowns at their English home, Sutherland moves them to Venice where he's restoring a church. Christie meets a blind medium who claims their daughter's spirit is trying to contact them from the other side. She immediately accepts this for the small closure it gives her, but Sutherland refuses to believe any of it. His daughter is dead and buried. But as a series of murders are being committed around Venice, he begins to see a mysterious figure in a red coat at the crime scenes. The same red coat his daughter used to wear...


Now, if you've ever heard of this movie before, it's probably because of the twist ending. An ending I am going to SPOIL by the way. And that's because the twist is one of the few memorable things about this film. It's honestly a rather boring film, with long stretches where not much happens or a focus on things that aren't connected to the story or mystery. Not that it isn't nicely shot. Roeg and cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond give the film an effectively grim atmosphere, depicting the Venice in Early Winter setting as very dank and empty. A city of cold water and echoing drips. An urban mausoleum, appropriate given the characters' state of mind.

Roeg's creepy Venice.

The problem with Don't Look Now is that however effective the mood, the story doesn't seem to unfold right. It's a very poorly laid out mystery, if you can even call it that. Which brings me back to the twist. All right, so I said Donald Sutherland's character had been having visions of a figure in a red coat. Now we the audience are meant to assume that he's seeing his daughter's ghost, whether by hallucination or actual ghost. But at the end he tracks down and confronts the figure in red, only to discover it's not his daughter's ghost but the person committing the murders throughout Venice. And then she kills him. This twist doesn't work though because both the murders and Sutherland's visions (which were just him seeing the killer escape the crime scene) have been on the periphery of the action. Roeg hasn't given either much focus. It would be fine if he treated the murders that way, they're peripheral anyway, but Sutherland believing he's seeing his dead daughter is central to the theme of the film.

That theme is one of Rationalism vs. Superstition, one we'll return to several times this month, and it's established early on in the film. After their daughter's death, Sutherland and Christie have very different reactions. Christie is the more grief-stricken of the two, it's mentioned she's been taking medication for depression, so having the blind medium affirm to her that her daughter is happy in the great beyond comes as a great comfort to her. She's willing to accept this impossible proposition due to her emotional vulnerablity. Though Roeg keeps it ambiguous whether the medium can contact spirits or not, he makes it clear she's not trying to cheat Christie out of money and is a believer herself. Sutherland on the other hand has descended into workaholism and hard rationalism in his grief. He refuses to believe in mediums or ghosts, and that split in viewpoints is causing the strife in his marriage. But it's Sutherland who's really the main character so his rationalism must be challenged, that's why he starts having the visions.

Sutherland cradling his dead daughter.
Note the red coat. Red is a recurring motif in the film.

And that's where Don't Look Now falls apart. It's thematic thrust is Sutherland's character trying to maintain his rational world look when it's challenged by outside forces. He can't let his grief get the better of him. But the film pushes the biggest challenge for him, the visions of his daughter, to the edges and so it loses the narrative force pushing it forward. It makes the twist less effective too. By tracking the figure in red down it means Sutherland has given into his grief and when it's revealed that it isn't his daughter's ghost, it should be a sign of failure. He ignored the more rational explanation and now he suffers for giving into superstition with his death. But by not showing Sutherland's visions more, by not giving them importance in the audience's mind, the twist lacks the weight it should. Making it the lackluster conclusion to a lackluster film.

Don't Look Now has some laudable elements. It has great cinematography, an effective mood, and one of the most passionate love scenes ever committed to film. And the second half where Sutherland believes his wife has lied to him for some unknown reason and becomes more active picks it up somewhat. But it just doesn't have the pacing or execution it should. I understand what Roeg was going for and his ideas are good ones, it's the expression of those ideas where he falters. This may be a classic more for inspiring others than for its own merits.

Good for an eerily shot Venice but not recommended.

Final Score: 2/5