But this film must be viewed from a proper perspective to be appreciated. It is not a film that concerns itself with realism, dialogue or even a particularly cohesive storyline. It instead relies on the emotions that it evokes through color and sound. Much like our dreams, backgrounds and timelines shift.

The film has a lot of expressionist tones to it and draws the viewer into its non-reality. The people that wrote bad reviews on this site were citing inconsistencies and irregularities in the story. They just don't get it. We all know that hands don't really appear out of nowhere to pull someone through a third story window. A prime example of Argento's avoidance of reality is when Suzy spills her wine down the bathroom sink. It doesn't look like wine....but it doesn't look like blood either. It looks like red fluorescent paint.

This is not due to bad film making; it reinforces the artificiality of the world Suzy has immersed herself in. We are so concerned with the primary action, like the stabbing scene, we don't even notice that the victim (who was in an apartment room) is now being stabbed against a steel grating. Argento's use of color further solidifies his expressionist style. His colors are coordinated in a psychological manner. The scenes are drenched in color which is not only artificial, but helps disturb the viewer's desire for reason. Even something as innocuous as a toilet becomes evil when saturated in blood-red hues.