Don't Look Now

by Roger Leese
(Manheim, Pa.)

A 1973 psychic thriller based on the short story by suspense author Daphne Du Maurier. For those unfamiliar with this author's name, she also wrote the short story "The Birds" which became the famous Alfred Hitchcock movie that everyone is familiar with. "Don't Look Now", directed by Nicolas Roeg, is an eerie supernatural film set in the moonlit background of Venice, Italy, where Donald Sutherland has gone with his wife, Julie Christie, so that he can do reconstruction work on an old church. The couple had just lost their child in a tragic drowning accident. They meet two sisters possessed of psychic vision who claim to be in contact with their daughter in the world beyond. Donald Sutherland, though known primarily for main stream movies, made his film debut in "Castle Of The Living Dead" and followed that with Hammer's "Die! Die! My Darling!" Julie Christie, an Academy Award-winning actress, is also seen in another 1970's horror film, "Demon Seed". I don't want to give away too much about this film, but the ending reveals that all has not been as it seemed. The evocative music score is by Pino Donaggio who will later write music for Brian DePalma's "Carrie" (1976) and "Raising Cain" (1992).