Don't Look Now

Some time after the tragic drowning of their young daughter, Christine, at their English countryside residence, John Baxter and his heartbroken wife Laura embark on a trip to Venice. Here, John has accepted a commission from a bishop to restore an ancient church. During a meal at a local restaurant, Laura encounters two elderly sisters, Heather and Wendy, where Heather, despite being blind, astonishingly claims to have psychic abilities and reveals that she can “see” the deceased Christine. This unsettling revelation leaves Laura shaken, causing her to faint at the table.

After being taken to the hospital, Laura recounts Heather’s words to John, who remains skeptical but is pleasantly surprised by the noticeable uplift in Laura’s spirits. That evening, following their hospital visit, passionate intimacy ensues between John and Laura. Later, while heading out for dinner, they lose their way and briefly separate. In this moment, John catches a fleeting glimpse of a small figure clad in a red coat, reminiscent of the one Christine wore when she perished.

The following day, Laura reconnects with Heather and Wendy for a séance in hopes of communicating with Christine. Upon her return to the hotel, Laura informs John that Christine warned her of impending danger, urging them to leave Venice. An argument ensues, but that same night they receive a distressing phone call: their son has suffered injuries at boarding school. Laura quickly departs for England, while John remains in Venice to finish the restoration. Shortly after, he faces death when the scaffold he is on collapses, a moment he interprets as the danger foretold by the sisters.

Later, believing Laura is in England, John is taken aback when he spots her aboard a boat in a funeral procession, accompanied by the sisters. With concerns growing about Laura’s mental state and the looming threat of a serial killer in Venice, John reports her mysterious behavior to the police. The investigating inspector grows suspicious of John, initiating an undercover surveillance. In a desperate effort to find Laura and the sisters, John unsuccessfully searches the city, encountering the childlike figure in the red coat once more.

Upon reaching out to his son’s school to confirm his condition, John discovers that Laura is indeed there. Confused, he races back to the police station to inform them of his wife’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, the police have brought Heather in for questioning. An apologetic John offers to escort her back to the hotel.

Once they return, Heather unexpectedly slips into a trance. Urgently sensing danger, she implores her sister to pursue John, who has already left. As John ventures out, he suddenly spots the mysterious figure in red again and decides to chase it down. He corners the figure in an abandoned palazzo, believing it to be a child. However, when the figure turns to face him, the shocking reality unfolds—it is a deformed female dwarf. As John stands frozen in disbelief, the dwarf unsheathes a meat cleaver and cuts his throat. In his dying moments, John realizes that the unsettling visions he had experienced were premonitions of his own murder and impending funeral.

Last Updated: November 15, 2024 at 20:45