There are few horror films imbued with the ability to get under your skin in quite the same capacity that Nicholas Roeg's strange, dreamy and anxiety-clad masterpiece Don't Look Now does, which follows a couple - played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie - who travel to Venice in the wake of their child's death. Based on a short story by Daphne du Maurie, it's chilling, intoxicating and uncomfortable to watch from start to finish, as Venice becomes the spookiest city ever featured on film, and a deformed serial killer, clad in a red coat, stalks the cobbled streets. Much of Don't Look Now is ambiguous, but the suffering experienced by Sutherland and Christie's noticeably realistic couple generally serves as a metaphor for their internal torment, the result of their having sex whilst - unbeknownst to them - their child drowned outside. Don't Look Now is all about mood; Roeg paints the entire film in such a memorable shade of red that it's impossible to think of it without thinking of its colour palette. At the centre of the movie are two remarkable performances from its leading actors, and a chilling finale that will lodge itself in your brain forever.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
