Don't Look Now (1973)

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John and Laura Baxter are living in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic... (imdb)

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Directed By: Nicolas Roeg

Written By: Allan Scott, Daphne Du Maurier

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Massimo Serato, Julie Christie, Leopoldo Trieste, Renato Scarpa, Clelia Matania, David Tree, Hilary Mason, Giorgio Trestini, Sharon Williams, Ann Rye, Nicholas Salter

Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller, Horror, Mystery

Country: Italy, UK

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Don't Look Now belongs to 95 collections

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All Ratings | With Reviews

Order by:

TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
14	Prophet92	47 _11th
Someone once told me that this film was so good it was beyond human comprehension. I can comprehend it. And I can comprehend that it sucks. The plot is a convoluted mess, and it plods from one pointless scene to another. The film does have quite striking visuals, and the ending works, but not unlike the Blair Witch Project, one has to wonder if we need that much build up to one halfway decent scare. If you want to know if this one's worth it, the title says it all.
8	Paxton	48 _17th
Almost two hours of nothing to set up a flash scare. Oh, and no, I did not ask for a five minute Donald Sutherland sex scene.
7	INDYATMN	10 _0th
Is Roeg being subversive by taking the thrills out of a thriller & pissing all over the dictum that films r life minus the boring parts? I have no idea. I do know this is an insomniac's godsend w/ various plot threads & bits of strangeness (sisters who laugh maniacally, a dead child, injured son, several slightly "off" Venetians) grafted on2 the slightest of tales (psychic predicts man's death). All these oddities fail 2 tie 2gether in2 any kind of twist that might've excused this GODAWFUL slog.
6	spleen	86 _86th
Having seen this years ago I still can't forget the visuals: both majestic and terrifying, eerily graceful and unsettlingly nightmarish. I'm, of course, referring to Donald Sutherland's ass.
5	thegreyfox	20 _3rd
In the same way as the Blair Witch Project polarised viewers into "My god, the most scary thing ever" ... and "complete yawnfest where nothing happens" ... this is clearly the precursor to THAT film. I am not going to say it was rubbish, (although the acting was extremely wooden, which meant that any sense of reality was lost completely) but the story is completely devoid of purpose and denouement. It MAY be arty, and it DOES gets you thinking ... but only to ask what the hell was THAT about ??
4	Pickpocket	2 _21st
Ridiculously cheesy and absurd. Liked the opening scene but it takes a nosedive from there. The fake blood looked straight up horrible and took me right out of the film instantly. You aren't dying bro, that blood is runny jello. Also enjoyed seeing Julie Christie's glorious rack, could've used more shots of her randomly walking around naked to boost the score a bit. The only thing shocking about the sex scene is that Julie Christie would ever agree to have sex with Sutherland, unbelievable.
4	gleeb	30 _4th
Too absurdly silly to have any real tension. Julie Christie is easy on the eyes, though.
3	MartinTeller	71 _37th
Kinda good, kinda not. The film excels at building tension and creating a sense of dread. But it's also pretty cheesy, especially with the incredibly fake blood. The love scene felt superfluous.
3	TheDiceman	80 _95th
Amazing film.
3	Suture Self	3 _25th
Don't Look Now is a boring, stupid film.
2	CCLZA	80 _77th
An intriguing tale of loss and the fear of loss with an enigmatically horrifying ending for the ages.
2	Alex Watkins	2 _15th
An odd combination of a tragic domestic drama and a horror film. That gives it a unique mood, but it's not always as moody as you'd want, and in fact is kind of schlocky, right up to the ending, which is both frightening and ridiculous. Lots to admire about Roeg's approach here, but plenty to criticize as well. Nevertheless a fascinating film, but ultimately disappointing.
2	Anomaly	45 _15th
I'm sick of this style of filmmaking, anytime something happens there's a flurry of edits that completely destroys any emotional connectivity that's been built up. Without that emotional hook, there's no reason to be interested, and the film just becomes a detached montage of images. That people think this is somehow "atmospheric" shows that postmodernism went really wrong somewhere along the line. It also suffers from the "laughable climax" problem that many other horror films have.
2	Mentaculus	82 _77th
Less a traditional ghost-of-girl spookfest but more of a domestic drama about the horrors of marital separation. Roeg's most brilliant talents - the use of ellipses in time and space, and visual analogy - are perfect for horror. All sorts of disjointed, perhaps true!, perhaps not! relationships encourage that wide-eyed childlike terror when we never really understood the logic of it all. Maybe we still don't. Damned if I understand the climax scene.
2	forehead1	40 _26th
Suspense and mystery is built up well in this adult horror that constantly teases the viewer with snippets of eerily vague information, building up to what you hope will be an everything-comes-together climax. Unfortunately it doesn't, and the ending is not only insultingly daft, but also - the final nail in the coffin for any horror film - unintentionally laugh-out-loud funny. The Venice location is responsible for much of the movie's charm.
2	Sweekoden	48 _32nd
Can't knock the visuals or the direction. When it's at its most abstract, it's engaging. When it isn't, it's sorta sleepy, and the finale is not only unsatisfying, it is also hilarious, which is slightly inappropriate.
2	eCitizen	20 _8th
Much of it was boring and stupid. There is a great sex scene between Donald Sutherland and the gorgeous Julie Christie. Events are jumbled up and disconnected, one minute their daughter had just died, the next they are smiling at each other over lunch. I really disliked all the stupid psychic and religious nonsense and so much spoken Italian. There is also far too much setup for the pathetic ending. The setting and scenery are beautiful but the story telling was just terrible.
2	P u l p	81 _89th
After this movie you probably don't want to go to Venice anymore. I don't.
2	Jasongirl67	65 _43rd
Haunting film that's done very well Donald Sutherland is fantastic as the grieving skeptical father
1	Moribunny	100 _99th
A masterpiece, probably my very favorite of the genre, every last detail of Don't Look Now is perfect. Roeg is deeper, smarter, more sensible and more percise than Hitchcock ever was, for starters. Donald Sutherland kicks ass and the script is magnificent.
1	Nathan S	4 _74th
Roeg's associative and elliptical editing pattern creates an uncanny time and space, a byzantine geographic and psychological miasma which actually feels precognizant of The Shining.
1	Cowman	40 _7th
This movie takes boredom to a new level. Near the end you get exactly one mildly uncomfortable scene. Is it worth the 110 minute wait? Hell no. Apparently this movie is important for its 'impressionistic editing' and innovative use of 'time as a fluid non-linear concept'. I call that overanalyzed bullshit!
1	Stain	50 _33rd
This is supposed to be mysterious and suspenseful and everything, but I don't find it all that exciting. It's not erotic, either, even though it's been highly touted as such
1	amerigo	78 _52nd
Massively overrated. There are glimmers of brilliance and occasional sequences of unease, but ultimately it's messy, meandering, and feels like an illegitimate child of Polanski and the average giallo. Rampant overacting makes whole scenes laughably campy. The praise for the photography should go to Venice itself--as the flash cuts are annoying and come off like the work of an overeager film student. Still, the film's conceit is interesting and could definitely benefit from a skillful remake.
1	KasperL	90 _97th
Very moody. And the ending is, or ought to be, even more legendary than its love scene.
1	Vandelay1	84 _94th
Nice movie. Some very beatiful scenes.
1	NathanDarko	65 _24th
I really really wanted to like this one, but I failed. Nevertheless beautiful shots from Venice and a great cinematography (especially the sex scene).
1	Ella May	55 _11th
I had had high hopes because of the source story being by Daphne Du Maurier. The atmosphere and pacing were fantastic, but overall the story seemed muddled rather than mysterious. The climax felt campy and I laughed out loud. Then there was dreadful supernatural explanation at the end.
1	Anselmi86	80 _70th
Nowhere near as creepy as most made it out to be, but still a great mystery with fine cinematography and absolutely masterful editing. The scene with the scaffolding is unforgettable.
1	overrated	44 _38th
One of those mystifying "classics".
1	Valenzetti	87 _78th
Hauntingly crystalline, but it maintains a distance that ultimately works against the immediate impact of the visuals.
1	AndreasThau	75 _68th
Venice more horrible, beautiful and mystical than ever pictured before (or since). I didn't find it as terrifying and scary as I was told it would be, but that doesn't matter. Nice atmosphere all the way through, mainly due to the nice editing and camerawork - very subjective, felt as if it was inspired by the manifests of impressionism... Nevertheless, found the sound a bit annoying at times, and the problems with the plot: meant to add to the mysticism or simply sloppy errors? Hard to tell.
1	sofielykke	78 _58th
It's rare these days to see a steamy sex scene that feels real and intimate. Really liked that. As for the rest of the film, though, I was quite disappointed with the second half. At first I enjoyed the lack of exposition but it soon got really tiresome to keep searching for some kind of deeper meaning behind the mysticism. This is a mood-film more than anything else, reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby and the Wicker Man. The eery and experimental cinematography is what's most interesting.
1	damil	40 _13th
I think the best way I can describe this film is, "very 1970s". The direction, complete with superfluous zooms, the haphazard editing, the bad audio, the awkward performances, and the sex scene was... something else. It even managed to make Venice look unappealing. I didn't really care for it. I found it alternately boring and infuriating. Its one saving grace was the thrilling and scary climax. Otherwise, I don't really see what the big deal is. I wouldn't place this with other horror classics.
1	klea	48 _46th
More or less, this was a glorified, 2 hour Twilight Zone episode w/ nudity
1	KramYessev	62 _42nd
A lot more cerebral and profound than it initially appears, but that doesn't make it a good movie. Aside from the last half hour, 'Don't Look Now' is a plodding, overly long borefest, made worse by the insufferable acting. Whoever says this is an accurate depiction of grief is wrong. The infamous sex scene is nothing spectacular either. 'Are you a Christian?' 'Well, I'm nice to children and animals!' Ugh.
1	The Pirate	60 _16th
The editing is very interesting once you've seen the movie all the way through; it really works well with the themes of foresight and premonitions. The music, also, works very much to the film's advantage, whether it's to emphasize the love scene or add chills when it builds up to it's climax. But here's the thing, that ending is only half chilling, and half absurd and out of nowhere. The rest of the movie is completely boring!
1	talonmalon	85 _69th
This film is a real work of art. Couple that with an intriguing story, and you've got a great thriller here.
1	NathanBates	60 _34th
I'm in the "meh" camp here. It's a fairly simple Hitchcockian-style creepy movie. The acting is fine; I generally like movies where the place (Venice) seems to be its own character. But there were a lot of editorial choices, like the staccato back-and-forth viewpoints at the beginning and the overly-long sex scene, that distracted me too much.
1	JonnyHalftab	92 _96th
I'm all for a gonzo ending in a horror film, but not at the expense of the preceding 45 mins. I felt more lulled than tense. After the first half the psychic sisters hardly affect the plot at all, and Julie Christie's character is shafted for ambiguity's sake. Again Roeg offers a beautiful setting and lively direction but burns me with loose ends. (Actually, upon rewatching, this is a flawed masterpiece)

Average Percentile 62.96% from 1989 Ratings