The red coat klling scene creeped the hell out of me
When she turned around and had that face, I jumped and get chills thinking of it. Anyone else?
shareThat woman is super creepy.
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MovieChat Forums > Don't Look Now Discussion > The red coat klling scene creeped the he...
Thing is, it seems odd to have her as a serial killer. I mean, she has this slightly glum, hesitant look on her face, not the cold eyes of a psychopath or some sort of mouth-foaming rage...she's just an old woman who looks a bit sad. For me, it was a "what the...huh?" not because of the "brilliant" twist but because it was so utterly unconvincing. I tried not to laugh when she turned around and waddled over to him before stabbing him in the neck, it was so slow and entirely avoidable. I can't believe the ending is even taken seriously, it felt like someone had scribbled over the last paragraph of the script "n then a midget in a red coat stabs him in the neck lulz".
shareThe whole "being cornered and stabbed by an unexpected dwarf-lady psychopath" bit is actually in the original story by Daphne Du Maurier (not worth reading, by the way). The last line is something like, "As he bled to death, John thought, 'What a perfectly stupid way to die.'"
It was actually "What a bloody silly way to die." (He was British in the story, not American.") I liked the story, but I would have gone "WTF" at the ending in the film also if I hadn't read the story first.
It explains better in the story why he doesn't fight off the dwarf. He's actually kind of relieved that it's not his daughter's ghost, whom he had assumed was haunting him because she blamed him for her death.
But... that's actually what makes it extra creepy though. A seemingly harmless person who is actually deadly. I remember the guy who was chasing after the red figure said something like "that thing is possessed by demons" in Italian. I don't think she is actually possessed but she kinda serves as a symbol for the devil, and the appearance of the devil is often deceiving. This is truly a mind-bending chilling-to-the-bone masterpiece. Very few old horror films are able to scare me (not even The Exorcist), I would rate this alongside Psycho and Les Diaboliques as the scariest, greatest films ever.
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So agree :)
And, I first saw this movie as a kid and the ending *definitely* creeped me out.
"I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book." ~ Bradbury
I first saw this movie as a kid and the ending *definitely* creeped me out.I saw the movie years ago ( pre-internet spoilers, IMDB boards etc.) and the ending genuinely shocked and unsettled the cinema audience. share
"it felt like someone had scribbled over the last paragraph of the script "n then a midget in a red coat stabs him in the neck lulz"."
SUCH a great comment.
I agree with you...initially.
But then I thought, there is something I'm missing. So I ran through the film in my head again. And we saw the demon at the beginning in the pictures of the church that John was planning to rebuild. We all thought it was presentiment of his daughter but it wasn't. His notice of the demon called forth bad luck, hence the drowning tragedy.
While in Venice, as the demon got closer and closer to him, he began having visions of the future and the past. But he was unable to track which was which and how to piece them all together. Eventually that led him straight to the demon.
I think part of the genius of the story is that the police know they are looking for a female killer. That's why they take the weird sisters in for questioning. Everything in the film leads towards the dreadful, horrible conclusion.
shareIt's the particular aspect of the film I've not been able to agree with a lot of people.I have not read the novel(except this particular line of it which the killing scene pictures)but Roeg's point of view seems considerably bitter and tragic,along with horrifying,of course.That's why he assimilates the hero's little moments of his life with the last moments of his death.I still think it looks rather allegorical:he has the gift to communicate with his daughter but refuses to accept it,even when his own eyes and senses force him to-as it happened in numerous points of the film.His death by a figure dressed in his daughter's red coat seems like a punishment.Also,I recall the killer dwarf nodding his/her head in a negative way like quoting ''No,no!You are not allowed to do that'' right before the hero is killed.Like a message saying ''you opened a door you were not ready to open and you' ll pay for that''.It's just an impression.
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