The Guilty Spectator: Sexuality, Age, Crime and Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975)

This article performs a close reading of Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975) together with a speculative reading of how the film seems to address its spectator and what that spectator might think about the film. It argues that Argento’s murder mystery invests in the contemporary association between homosexuality and crime to concentrate suspicion in the character of Carlo, who is innocent. The film also exploits the disassociation of old age from crime to divert attention from the character of Martha, who is guilty. The double revelation of Carlo’s innocence and Martha’s guilt effects a sudden foregrounding of the spectator’s own flawed process. Deep Red does not simply unmask the murderer—it unmasks the spectator.1