“There’s someone in the house … absolutely trying to kill me, ya’know?”

The Christmas season is upon us! The warm glow of twinkling lights fills the air. Green pine trees decorate our living rooms and every solid surface seems to be decked out with ribbons and garland of deepest crimson. What better time to celebrate Dario Argento’s 1975 holiday giallo film Deep Red. Musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) is on his way home when he witnesses a brutal murder in the window of a neighboring apartment. To keep from becoming the next victim, he and quirky reporter Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi) must team up to solve not only the crime, but the mystery of the missing painting. This rocky partnership will lead them to a deep red lecture hall, a steamy bathroom, and an abandoned house in the canary islands all to track down a mysterious – and musical – killer.

There’s a lot to be found under this cinematic Christmas tree from glamorous psychics and folk tale researchers to red-haired children who might be witches. Like a gothic painting on a busy wall, Argento’s impressive film delights the eye with miniature montages, exquisite stalking, macabre death sequences and … killer robots? In a holiday episode of The Lady Killers, co-hosts Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, and Rocco T. Thompson unwrap the film’s bizarre moments, colorful themes, misogynistic characters, charming slapstick, and gorgeous composition before moving into a deep conversation about the film’s surprising villain.

Why is Marcus so obsessed with this particular murder? How much longer can Gianna survive in that ramshackle car? What’s going on with that murderous puppet and why does this doomed professor have so many sharp corners in his study? They’ll tackle all these questions and more as they puzzle out what it means to be a strong woman and who we should be trying to liberate ourselves from. Stream the episode below or subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.

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