Deep Red (1975)

Deep Red (original title Profondo Rosso also known as The Hatchet Murders) is a 1975 Italian giallo film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Barnardino Zapponi it was released on 7 March 1975 it was produced by Claudio and Salvatore Argento and the film's scrore was composed and performed by Goblin it stars Macha Méril as a médium and David Hemmings as a man who investigates a series of murders performed by a mysterious figure wearing black leather gloves Argento later opened a retail movie memorabillia store in Rome called Profondo Rosso operated for years by his long.time associate Luigi Cozzi.

​Plot
In silhouette against the wall of a living room, one figure stabs another to death. A bloody knife falls to the floor at a child's feet.

20 years later in Turin, Professor Giordani chairs a parapsychology conference featuring psychic medium Helga Ulmann. Helga is suddenly overwhelmed by the "twisted, perverted, murderous" thoughts of someone in the audience. After the lecture, Helga tells Giordani she also heard a child's song during the psychic link. She believes she can identify the person she sensed; in the shadows, someone watches them.

That night, a black-gloved figure invades Helga's apartment and kills her with a meat cleaver. Jazz musician Marcus Daly sees the attack from below and rushes to her apartment, finding her mutilated corpse. After the police arrive, Marcus thinks one of the apartment's paintings has disappeared, but he cannot pinpoint what is missing.

Reporter Gianna Brezzi arrives and photographs Marcus. Outside, Marcus encounters his alcoholic friend Carlo, who he helps get home. The next morning, after arguing with Gianna about women's liberation, he visits Carlo's home to check on him but only finds Carlo's eccentric mother Martha, who seems interested in Marcus.

The media identifies Marcus as the eyewitness and shows Gianna's photo of him. That night, someone plays a recording of a child's song outside his door; Marcus manages to lock the door before the person can enter, but he hears the gruff whisper "I'll kill you sooner or later." Marcus tells Giordani, whom he met at Helga's funeral, about the encounter. Giordani, noting that Helga also heard a child's song, recalls a book of modern folklore describing a local haunted house where a child's song is sometimes heard. Gianna begins helping Marcus because she feels guilty for taking his photo.

Marcus reads the folklore book and finds a photo of the house in it. He rips out the picture, planning to learn more from the book's author. However, the killer has been watching Marcus and brutally murders the author before Marcus can speak to her by drowning her in scalding water. Using the photo, Marcus finds and investigates the huge abandoned house. Under sheetrock he uncovers a disturbing mural: a child holding a bloody knife over a dead body. He leaves for the night before the full image of the mural is revealed.

Giordani, who has been assisting Marcus's investigation, visuals the scene of the author's murder and uses steam to find a clue written on the mirror. He then is brutally murdered that night after the black-gloved killer distracts him with a disturbing mechanized doll.

Meanwhile, Marcus finds a walled-off room in the abandoned house. In the middle of the dusty floor sits a desiccated corpse. Someone knocks Marcus unconscious as he backs away in horror.

Marcus awakens outside the house, which is burning. Gianna appears, explaining that she got his message about investigating the house and arrived in time to save him. As Marcus and Gianna wait at the caretaker's house for the police, Marcus notices that the caretaker's daughter has drawn a picture identical to the hidden mural he found in the house. She tells him she saw the picture in the archives of the local school.

Marcus and Gianna immediately go to the school. Marcus finds the drawing in a schoolboy's record. When Gianna leaves to call the police, someone stabs her. Marcus corners the attacker-- it is Carlo, who as a kid drew the disturbing pictures. The police arrive and Carlo flees into the dark street where a truck hits and kills him.

At the hospital, Marcus learns that Gianna has survived. Remembering that the night Helga died he met Carlo utterly intoxicated and coming from a very different direction than the scene of the killing, Marcus reinvestigates the apartment crime scene. There, he has an epiphany: the night of Helga's murder it was not a missing painting he saw, but rather a reflection of the killer, framed in a mirror-- specifically, Marcus saw the killer's reflection when he first entered the apartment. As Marcus realizes he saw Martha, Carlo's mother, she appears behind him with a meat cleaver. Martha explains that she murdered her husband in front of the young Carlo as a child's song played (the events depicted in the first scene), then walled off the room containing his body. Carlo, scarred psychologically, tried to repress the memory of the homicide compulsively drawing it and later taking up alcohol: he attacked Marcus and Gianna to protect his murderous mother from their investigation.

Martha attacks. As they struggle, her necklace tangles in the bars of the building's elevator. Marcus sends the elevator down, slowly decapitating Martha. He stares into the deep red pool of her blood as the credits roll.

Cast

 * David Hemmings as Marcus Daly
 * Daria Nicolodi as Gianna Brezzi
 * Macha Méril as Helga Ulmann
 * Clara Calamai as Martha (Carlo's mother)
 * Gabriele Lavia as Carlo
 * Eros Pagni as Supt. Calcabrini
 * Giuliana Calandra as Amanda Righetti
 * Piero Mazzinghi as Bardi
 * Glauco Maurio as Prof. Giordani
 * Aldo Bonamano as Carlo's father
 * Liana Del Balzo as Elvira
 * Vittorio Fanfoni as Cop taking notes
 * Dante Fioretti as Police photographer
 * Geraldine Hooper as Massimo Ricci
 * Jacopo Mariani as Young Carlo (as lacopo Mariani)
 * Nicoletta Elmi as Olga
 * Furio Meniconi as Rodi
 * Fulvio Mingozzi as Agent Mingozzi
 * Lorenzo Piani as Fingerprint officer
 * Attilio Dottesio as Florist

Reception
The film was a commercial success internally and met with critical acclaim.