Cybersurfing: Deed Red Restored on Region 2 DVD

Keith Brown at Giallo Fever alerts us to the release of Dario Argento’s quintessential thriller, DEEP RED, on a Region 2 DVD that corrects the flaws in Anchor Bay’s old Region 1 release. The double-disc set from Another World Entertainment sounds as if it has some interesting bonus features, but much more importantly it restores the flm’s original ending, in which the protagonist (played by the late David Hemmings) stars at his own reflection in a pool of blood while the credits roll – an unsettling final fade-out that was ruined in the Anchor Bay release, which freeze-framed the image. This may not sound particularly Earth-shattering, but Brown explains the signicance:

If some critics may say “so what” here, I can only reply that for fans, long used to suffering through cut and otherwise compromised versions during the days of video and even into the DVD era, this is somewhat equivalent to having a version of Truffaut’s The 400 Blows which for some reason did not end on the famous freeze frame of Antoine Donael replaced by one which does, to preserve its author’s intentions, however unfashionable these may be as a mode of analysis that may be in certain circles.

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