It’s the weekend, and that usually means I try to get to at least one movie at the local multiplex. But honestly, the stuff playing there this weekend didn’t grab me. I had either seen the movies already, had decided not to see it at least in theaters, or it was the last in that new Halloween trilogy, and I skipped the second part. Plus, if I really wanted to see the new Michael Myers mess, it’s on Peacock.
So, instead I opted for an older horror movie that I knew mostly by reputation. I actually found a few recommendations on a Shudder series that is counting down a Top 100 Horror Movies or something, and I had heard Don’t Look Now has a particularly devastating ending.
Married couple John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie) are enjoying a quiet afternoon at home when John suddenly seems to have a premonition. Sure enough, the couple’s young daughter has just drowned in a nearby stream, and the couple will need to deal with this grief. Some time later, John is working to restore an old church in Venice when they meet a pair of older British sisters while eating at a restaurant. They are Heather and Wendy, and they claim that Wendy, though blind, is psychic. And Wendy claims she can see John and Laura’s late daughter, happy and sitting together.
That seems to work to help Laura out quite a bit, but John is still skeptical. John, it should be noted, seems to have some psychic flashes himself, but he doesn’t seem to believe in that sort of thing, so he tends to discount it. Wendy believes John is in some kind of danger. John keeps thinking he’s seeing his dead daughter wandering the back alleys of Venice. Will the Baxters find some sort of peace or mind, and can John get out of this movie alive?
Now, I more or less knew a lot about the basic premise of this movie and how it opened with a child’s death. But what I wasn’t expecting was how well put-together that opening scene was. The way the direction, dialogue, and especially the editing all lead to the death of a little girl is actually rather impressive, and the movie as a whole keeps that up. I can’t really explain it very well right now, as it seemed like something that a viewer is better off experiencing for themselves, but let’s just say that director Nicholas Roeg uses a lot of quick shots, color, and snips of dialogue to suggest the tragedy that’s coming until it actually happens.
And that holds for the entire movie. John gradually comes to question this psychic stuff, and the question of whether or not he’s doomed if he stays in Venice has the same dreamy sort of feel as that opening scene. That fits in well for the story being told. The audience should have no more than a vague impression of what’s happening any more than John and Laura do, and the way the two take the same story–that a blind psychic can tell a grieving couple that their deceased child is OK–more or less sets both characters on the path that they end up on. Laura can believe and finds peace of mind. John can’t, and he’s haunted by visions he doesn’t understand. That sort of character work is what makes the movie work more than anything else. Haunting and effective, I suspect I probably wouldn’t like that new Halloween as much as I enjoyed Don’t Look Now.
Grade: A-
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