When "Blow-Up" was released in 1966, Dario Argento was working as a film reviewer for the Italian daily paper "Paese Sera". Michelangelo Antonioni's thriller infuriated him as he felt that the audience was left dangling in mid-air by the lack of any satisfactory conclusion. This continued to irritate him and after making a few films of his own, Argento decided to make his personal interpretation of "Blow-Up".

Working with writer Bernardino Zapponi, they set out to find "all the essential elements that would be scary" for their film "Profondo Rosso" or "Deep Red". This attempt to create a movie that is constantly discomforting for the viewer was similar in principle to "Blow-Up". In that film Antonioni created an underlying, disconcerting tension in even the most ordinary settings. Argento's technique was far more literal. He used deliberate shock tactics and the camera-work was more aggressive than Carlo Di Palma's prying and secretive style in "Blow-Up".

In that film David Hemmings stars as a playboy photographer who realises that he's the witness to a murder. This revelation slowly develops over the course of the movie although he never discovers why the killing has happened and who is responsible. In "Deep Red" Hemmings was again the lead actor, but this time he's a playboy piano player and the murder opens the film. With the crime out of the way, Hemmings starts to delve into the mystery behind it rather than trying to unravel the actual event as in "Blow-Up". In the latter film the viewer is left in a passive role, observing the uncovering of a question whereas in "Deep Red" Argento seeks to involve the audience in trying to solve the question posed. As such he creates a far more satisfying and thrilling film, one that tackles the natural demand of the audience to know the reason behind the principal event of the movie.