Don’t Look Now
Summary
Nicolas Roeg’sDon’t Look Nowending is a perturbing and shocking conclusion that is part of the cause the movie is so extremely regarded in the chronicle of horror cinema . Based on the unforesightful story by Daphne du Maurier , Don’t Look Nowstars Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as Laura and John Baxter , a couple in crisis after losing a nestling . After the drowning of their young girl , Christine , the Baxters travel to Venice , where John has accepted a caper restitute an old Christian church , and they hope that getting out will help with the grieving process .
In the moving-picture show , as John gets to work on the church restitution , Laura visits an aged psychic who claims she can “ see ” her daughter and withstand a séance to get hold of Christine from beyond the grave . Meanwhile , John is suffering from foreign visions he ca n’t quite decipher . The slow - tan revulsion movieis an unsettling study of grief that culminates in one of the most unexpected endings in revulsion motion-picture show history . However , it alsoleaves a deal of questions to be answered and hide meanings to be analyzed .
Officials in Venice were distressed withDon’t Look Nowand feared it would scare away tourists .
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While a lot of horror movies stop with the Final Girl emerge winning , sometimes even the best genre offer see evil victory over good .
What Happens In Don’t Look Now’s Ending
The Figure In The Red Coat Is A Killer Who Murders John
After becoming paranoid that Laura is overleap in Venice , John inadvertently drags Heather , the psychic his married woman has been see , into the futile probe . By way of an apologia , John offers to take the air Heather back to her hotel , where she reunites with her baby . Heather then fall into a creepy dream state , and John leaves to return to his own abidance . When she awakens from the spell , Heather begs her sister to go after John because she senses that something atrocious is about to happen to him .
… a perfect payoff to all the hints and cue on subsequent viewing .
After again seeing the figure in the red coating that cue him of his late daughter , John pursue her into an abandon palazzo . When she turn over to face him , he is horror-stricken to find out that it is n’t Christine back from the dead ; the figure of speech is a killer midget , staring at him with a sinister grin . As John freezes in stunned silence , the gnome pulls out a meat cleaver and slashes his pharynx , killing him . This is one of themost shocking endings in any repugnance movie . It ’s a jaw - send away surprisal on the first viewing and a gross final payment to all the hints and clues on subsequent viewings .
Custom Image by Colin McCormick
Who Killed John?
The Dwarf Killer Is Hinted To Be The Serial Killer Mentioned Throughout The Movie
The dwarf who kills John at the end ofDon’t Look Nowwas played by Adelina Poerio , but very little is revealed about the graphic symbol besides her visual aspect and her homicidal deed . However , in the build - up to the stock - souse last scene , the moving-picture show cut down hint about her individuality . While John and Laura are stick in Venice , there ’s news about a serial killer on the loose . One of the grounds John involve the police in the search for his wife – who is supposedly back in England but has been appearing to him in sight – is the grampus .
After John ’s dying , the sequent killer is enjoin to still be at big , suggest that the woman who polish off him is the one who has been terrorizing the urban center . It ’s possible the consecutive killer whale on the loose is unrelated to John ’s murderer because reports about the grampus say they ’re specifically direct young women and killing them by drowning .
Since John ’s killer is clearly point a middle - senior man and bump off him with a chopper , it ’s unlikely they are the same one from the composition . The sequential killer ’s M.O. tie in to the means Christine died , calling into doubt how real those theme were in the first place .
Grieving parents John and Laura Baxter travel to Venice following the accidental drowning of their daughter, Christine. While in Venice, they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be a psychic who can communicate with Christine’s spirit. As Laura becomes increasingly convinced of the psychic’s abilities, John begins experiencing eerie visions of a small figure in a red coat, reminiscent of what Christine was wearing when she died.
What Were John’s Visions?
John Was Seeing Visions Of His Own Demise
When he arrive in Venice , John starts having strange imagination that he ca n’t explain . Hekeeps spotting a mysterious figure in a scarlet coatsimilar to the one that Christine was bust when she die . After Laura returns to England to deal with an incident call for their son , John spots her on a boat in a funeral rise .
When he is lather to death at the death ofDon’t Look Now , John realizes his visions throughout the motion-picture show have been premonitions of his own murderby a dwarf in a red coat , and the ensuing funeral help is defend in his honor .
What Is The Significance Of The Color Red?
The Color Red And Water As Both Powerful Symbols In Don’t Look Now
Do n’t Look Nowcontains two crucial symbols : water and the gloss red . Both are established in the agonizing opening panorama in which Christine swim in a pool while wear off a bright red waterproof . water system follows John and Laura after their girl ’s untimely death . There ’s a coloured caustic remark in the fact that the Baxters go to Venice , a metropolis immersed in pee , to get away from it all , and John ’s prophesied funeral progression takes topographic point on the waters of a canal . As it often does , water represents the unmitigated bedlam of the lifelike creation .
This musical composition of habiliment pops up whenever a graphic symbol is about to die , or whenever John has a forewarning of his own demise .
The red pelage worn by Christine is a recurring motif , typify the Baxters ' grief inDon’t front Now . The mysterious trope that John err for a reincarnation of Christine – who ultimately kill him with a core cleaver – is wearing the same red coat . Thispiece of clothing pops up whenever a case is about to expire , or whenever John has a premonition of his own demise .
Red is a colour of extremum , and it ’s often used to stand for wrath and violence . These are both prominent report inDon’t Look Now , as anger is an significant degree of grief , and the fierceness is another spot of adumbration of John ’s death inthe moving picture ’s great ending .
The Real Meaning Of Don’t Look Now’s Ending
Don’t Look Now Is One Of The Best Horror Movies About Grief
Though the final reveal inDon’t Look Nowis iconic , the horror film ’s twist closing is still confusingto some viewers and requires mysterious analytic thinking . The picture show uses the occult melodic theme and gothic mental imagery of a classical ghost story to research the psychological science of grief . The fact that the terminal murder is committed by a killer in a red coat propose Christine ’s last might not have been simply a tragical accident ; it might have been another cosmic warning sign sent to monish John about his own inescapable destiny .
Psychic visual sense and a killer in identifying garb are familiar tropes ripped straight from the horror playbook , but the anguish of losing a tike so young is all too real . The ultimatemessage ofDon’t Look Nowis that the emotion of grief is herculean enough to break asunder even the strongest , healthiest human relationship . The resort imagery of Christine ’s death – flashback of her playing in the fateful red coat , John ’s sighting of a mysterious human body break the same coat , etc . – is a visual metaphor for the permeance and pervasiveness of grief .
John and Laura go to Venice to get forth from the unthinkable repulsion of outliving their own daughter , but their mourning come after them there , and the pain does n’t go away . It is a haunting fate for both the characters and the personal interest at the center ofDon’t Look Nowhelp to make that unforgettable ending even more impactful .
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Cast
Grieving parents John and Laura Baxter travel to Venice following the inadvertent drowning of their girl , Christine . While in Venice , they encounter two elderly sisters , one of whom claims to be a psychic who can commune with Christine ’s disembodied spirit . As Laura becomes increasingly convinced of the psychic ’s abilities , John begins experiencing eerie visions of a little flesh in a flushed pelage , reminiscent of what Christine was wearing when she died .
