Starring Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania, Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa, Giorgio Trestini, Leopoldo Trieste
Directed by Nicolas Roeg
Expectations: Very high.
Don’t Look Now is definitely a horror film, but outright calling it such creates a general expectation that it’s similar to other horror movies. It’s not. Even thriller is a bad genre designation, as the pace is much too slow without much that provides genuine thrills. But psychological thriller fits Don’t Look Now a lot better, as nearly every moment of the film engages the mind, usually on multiple levels simultaneously. The film carries an air of foreboding doom for its characters, remaining creepy and unsettling right down to its final frame. It’s definitely not a film for everyone, but for those willing to sit with it, Don’t Look Now delivers the goods.
The film begins with the children of John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura (Julie Christie) playing in the woods beyond their house. The filmmaking foreshadows that something disastrous is about to occur, and the psychological elements immediately creep in. Meanwhile, John is inside the house examining slides of church windows. He becomes preoccupied with a red-jacketed figure in the church’s pews, all the while his daughter plays outside in a red rain slicker amidst the ominous camera of director Nicholas Roeg.