A suggestive and deeply layered reinterpretation of a universal fairy tale like Little Red Riding Hood, which finds in its protagonists, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, two extraordinary interpreters. However, the director eludes any predefined scheme, escapes conventions and leads the viewer on a labyrinthine, almost subliminal path. What on the surface seems like a parapsychological horror, complete with a hunt for a serial killer, actually turns out to be a work of extraordinary complexity: an investigation into the reworking of grief within a couple, into the tension between faith and rationality, into the unfathomable depths of the human psyche, into the unfathomable mystery of death and into the feeling of existential disorientation.
The film also delves into the concept of the circularity of time, suggesting a destiny already written, an ineluctable karma, a return of the repressed that sooner or later manifests itself to ask for the bill. Every element of the narrative is constructed with surgical yet elusive precision, enveloping the viewer in an atmosphere of constant uneasiness.
It has it all: a breathtaking plot twist, an obsessive and melancholic melody that resonates like a funeral song, enigmatic figures that seem to embody arcane and threatening forces. A cinematic masterpiece that, after almost fifty years, retains its disturbing aura intact, remaining an unrepeatable and unmatched work in its genre.