Don't Look Now and Other Stories (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Ami Canaan Mann has also acknowledged she was influenced by atmospheric thrillers such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Don't Look Now while directing her debut feature, Texas Killing Fields, [84] and Ari Aster acknowledged that it was a key influence on Hereditary.

John brings her to Venice to forget her grief and recapture her former happiness, but meeting the sisters and hearing their news about Christine is what puts Laura back on the road to recovery—not John. Their relationship is full of denial: they come to Venice to get away from the pain of their daughter’s death, and John is willing to let Laura believe anything so long as she is not depressed. Dying, John realises too late that the strange sightings he experienced were premonitions of his own murder and funeral. Laura wants to leave immediately for England to be with Johnnie, but John is less concerned and feels that booking a train for the next night should be sufficient.

Indeed, as John fears, the sisters “lure Laura beyond marriage into new, transforming perceptions,” according to Auerbach.

Upon coming out of the trance, Heather pleads with her sister to go after John, sensing that something terrible is about to happen, but Wendy is unable to catch up with him. The scene was unusually graphic for the period, including a rare depiction of cunnilingus in a mainstream film. Later at the hotel, the police show up to take John to the station, where they are holding the twin sisters for questioning. The reputation of Don't Look Now has grown since its release and it is now regarded as a key work in horror cinema.The scene's much celebrated fragmented style, in which scenes of the couple having sexual intercourse are intercut with scenes of the couple post-coitally getting dressed to go out to dinner, partly came about through Roeg's attempt to accommodate the concerns of the censors: "They scrutinised it and found absolutely nothing they could object to.