It's episode lucky number 13 and we are packing our bags for Venice, where the canals are beautiful, the grief is crushing, and following a mysterious little figure in a red coat is an absolutely terrible vacation activity. This week, Sam and Sarah take on Nicolas Roeg's deeply unsettling Don't Look Now.
DON'T LOOK NOW
Theatrical Release Date: December 9, 1973 (U.S.)
Budget: Approx. $1.5 million
Directed by Nicolas Roeg and adapted from the short story by Daphne du Maurier, Don't Look Now stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as John and Laura Baxter, a married couple attempting to rebuild their lives after the accidental death of their young daughter.
The two travel to a cold, off-season Venice, where John is working on the restoration of an old church. But their attempt at moving forward takes a decidedly supernatural turn when Laura encounters two elderly sisters, one of whom is a blind clairvoyant who claims she can see the spirit of their dead daughter.
John is skeptical — naturally, because nothing bad has ever happened to the skeptical husband in a horror movie — but soon he begins experiencing strange visions of his own, including repeated glimpses of a small figure in a familiar red coat disappearing through Venice's twisting streets and canals.
What follows is less a traditional ghost story than a haunting meditation on grief, memory, fate, and the terrifying possibility that the universe may actually be trying to warn you — and you're just really, really bad at taking the hint.
Roeg turns Venice itself into something sinister and dreamlike, using fractured editing, recurring images, flashes of red, and a deliberately slippery sense of time to make the audience question what has already happened, what's happening now, and what may still be waiting around the corner.
So grab your raincoat, avoid any blind psychics bearing ominous messages, and whatever you do... if you see a tiny red coat darting down a dark Venetian alley, maybe just let that one go.
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Music & editing by Meika Grimm. Follow her on Instagram, or hire her for your audio/video/web needs. 😊
