听 American distributor Anchor Bay follow up their fine release of Dario Argento's "Tenebre" with his earlier film "Deep Red". This stunning thriller has been remastered to the point where some scenes - like the one in the necropolis - look as if they were shot in recent years.
A good indicator of the picture quality comes early on as the camera zooms in on vibrant red curtains at the theatre. Despite them filling the screen you can see all the ruffles, smooth and picked out with delicate shadows, with no smearing of the dominant red colour whatsoever. And the climactic scenes in the house towards the end of the film have new depth and detail added to them despite the darkness that they're shot in.
The experts at Chace Productions in America have turned the original mono track into a brilliant new 5.1 signal. It adds a tremendous amount of atmosphere by intelligently directing the various effects around the speakers. Hemmings' scene in the library is now ten times more terrifying with the rears swapping howling wind and horrible ethereal shrieks.
"Deep Red" has surfaced in a number of hacked-about cuts with the best to date having been the UK video release (now deleted). This DVD contains much the same footage although the two-second sequence with the lizard and the needle, cut by the British Board of Film Classification, is on this version. You can choose between the original Italian and the English dub although some scenes revert to Italian, which is less confusing than you might imagine.
Also included is a special new 25th Anniversary interview with the now deceased writer Bernardino Zapponi, director Dario Argento and the band Goblin who provide the music.
Chapters: 32
Ratio: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Extra Features: Scene selection, 25th anniversary featurette, Italian trailer, US theatrical trailer, filmographies & notes, multiple languages and subtitles.
