Director: Craig R. Baxley Starring: Michael Biehn, Joanna Pacula, Lisa Collins, John de Lancie, Tobin Bell Certificate: 15 (UK), R (USA)
"Immortality. It's a secret ....to die for."
Plot A security expert is hired to protect a young girl infected with a supernatural entity from a crazed scientist (It's better than it sounds).
SPOILERS AHEAD...
It's been a little while since my last review as the real world decided to rudely interrupt this little side hustle of mine. Still, let's get things back on track with this sexy little nineties sci-fi thriller.
When I mentioned on Instagram that this was my next review, someone accurately pointed out that Deep Red has a distinctly X-Files feel about it and they're totally right. For example, just like every episode of The X-Files, I spent the first twenty minutes of this movie scratching my head, wondering what the hell was going on. Now call me fussy, but I prefer my films to have a little bit of coherence, particularly at the beginning.
I don't mind a sci-fi movie; they're obviously designed to be a little bit "out there" however they really went for the hard sell on this one. Within the first ten minutes, our main character, Joe Keyes (Michael Biehn), meets Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) from the Saw movies in an office that is covered in sand for reasons never explained. Oh and Jigsaw's armed with a flame thrower which he then uses in an attempt to kill two seemingly immortal milkmen (The Immortal Milkman is a great band name, don't you think?). I did start to wonder if it was only sugar the barista put in my last cup of coffee.
Just as I was about to resign myself to the fact that this was probably going to be one of those movies that I watched merely to perv over Michael's pretty face, it all started to click into place and as it turns out, this is a pretty fun movie. Before we go on any further, I should point out that it is definitely not the 1975 violent slasher flick of the same name. This movie has got the aforementioned maniacal milkmen in it for starters…
So, let's try and break the plot down a little so that if you do watch this for the first time, you're going in armed with more information than I had. Deep Red is about a strange, supernatural bacteria called 'reds' that, when entering a human body, can repair their host and potentially grant immortality. There are some stunningly awful, cheap special effects to visualise their arrival on Earth at the start of the film. I know this was 1994 and the budget was low, but oh wow does it look iffy.
Now, I mentioned the morality bit and you might think we're going down the long and winding road of a morality tale or ethics debate. Fear not, Deep Red is character-driven, specifically our hero, security expert/private detective Joe Keyes.
When we first meet Joe, he's moping around from scene to scene, sitting in the shadows, cigarette in mouth, barely speaking above a whisper as if he's just stepped out of a 1950s film noir. You see, our Joe is a tormented chap after failing to protect his colleague's wife and daughter on a previous job. He's isolated himself in his office, refusing to accept any more work of a "domestic" nature, that is, until he meets the mysterious Mrs Rickman (Lisa Collins) and her daughter Gracie (Lindsey Haun), who request protection. Gracie harbours those aforementioned reds in her body. She is now the target of a crazed and nefarious scientist named Dr Newmeyer (John de Lancie), who wants the reds for himself. Joe, initially reluctant, is intrigued and takes on the job.
Conveniently, Joe finds himself working alongside his estranged wife Monica (Joanna Pacula) on this new job and this is when the movie finally starts to pick up the pace and, more importantly, make sense. Exposition teaches us more about the power of the reds and a little more about Joe's sadness. It turns out he's actually quite an affable gentleman underneath all that teen-style angst. Perhaps he just needed to listen to some angry metal music in his bedroom and wear nothing but black for a while?
Michael is still sporting his Johnny Ringo hair in this movie, minus the 'tash and is quite monotone in his delivery; however that's in keeping with his character and he plays it well. Joe becomes much more likeable the further into the movie you go and it's interesting to see a sci-fi movie being so predominantly character-driven rather than being all about the other-worldly madness. He and Joanna Pacula also have believable chemistry and I enjoyed watching them re-bond as the movie progressed. My stand out performance here though was Lindsey Haun as Gracie. She's both cute and creepy in equal measure and I wasn't surprised to see she's still acting pretty regularly as an adult.
Deep Red is visibly very low budget and takes place almost exclusively at night. Still, it's nicely executed and after the initial confusion, I rather warmed to it. The dialogue is cheesy sometimes and I got a bit bored of Joe telling us: "This is not a perfect world" (Mate, I know!), but it has a certain charm about it and a satisfying conclusion. I've since re-watched it with the clarity of knowing the plot beforehand and whilst those first twenty minutes are still pretty bonkers, they do make some sense once you know the backstory.
Conclusion A surprisingly watchable film, if only it didn't wait twenty minutes to clearly outline its premise, by which time I would imagine the more impatient would have switched off. Their loss though, eh? If nineties sci-fi is your thing, you'll like Deep Red. Nuanced it ain't, but it's certainly entertaining.
Deep Red is yet another Biehn movie that's quite difficult to obtain. No DVD release as far as I'm aware, but VHS copies are floating around eBay.
IMDB: 4.8/10 Rotten Tomatoes: Critics = Not enough ratings, Audience = 31% (As of October 2021)
Dies? / Villain? ALIVE! It would have been unfortunate for him to have died in a movie about immortality! / Not a villain this time round, more of the smouldering hero.
What Did This Movie Teach Me?
I feel strangely nostalgic for incomprehensible nineties sci-fi and now want to dig out the back catalogue of The Outer Limits and The X-Files (I won't, I'm too lazy...).
Change the camera angle slightly and you can use the same corridor over and over again for different locations.
Watch out for milkmen.
Anything Else?
Michael's next movie after Tombstone hence the dark rinse hair. I definitely prefer the blonde.
Joanna Pacula and Lisa Collins also both appear with Michael in Tombstone. I don't know if there was some kind of actor multibuy offer going on in 1993/94.
Comments