5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas

5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas. Cinema Image Productions. 1997/2004. Reviewed by Brian Kirst

With the imminent release of their 2007 giallo Darkness Surrounds Roberta (featuring Razor Blade Smile’s Eileen Daly and recent horror film veteran Raine Brown), now seems the appropriate time to reexamine Cinema Image Productions crown jewel, 1997’s highly enjoyable 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas. This film, which was given the deluxe DVD treatment by Cinema Image in 2004, was the recipient of many festival and periodical awards upon its release and contains a deliriously stylistic attitude.

Director and writer Joseph Parda’s tale revolves around errant Bill Streeb’s attempts to locate his brother, famous painter Richard Streeb, after he bloodily disappears one night. Richard’s wife, Gloria, is sure Richard has been murdered after she witnesses his savage attack. Probing (but fairly useless) Inspector Andez is sure that former lovers, Gloria and Bill, have something to do with Richard’s disappearance, though. Of course, nothing is as it seems in Parda’s fluid, nightmare-like imaginings.

Parda takes the best of the giallo and Argento films and rolls them into one friskily bloody batter. There are traces of Opera (visionary death by eyeball), Bird with the Crystal Plumage (witnessing a killer through enclosed glass), Seven Dead in the Cat’s Eye (comically useless detective) and many others of that genre. Parda also references the delusional humor of Roger Corman’s original Bucket of Blood. At the film’s midway point, a modern day Beat poet spells out the film’s catchy title in his infectious rhyme and winds up signaling the truly surrealistic beginning of Bill’s journey. There is a hallucinogenic operation sequence in which a grue strewn painting is retrieved from Bill’s stomach and a humorous childhood flashback which pictures lengthy actor Joseph Zaso as his character as a young child. Just like many Italian horror pictures, Parda also throws out multiple red herrings and introduces characters that have little to do with the actual plot – marking 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas as both a loving homage and a bizarrely enjoyable journey in its own right.

The VHS to DVD transfer contains some jarring features that actually enhance the film’s otherworldly qualities. While the dialogue is perfectly synced, it is so heavenly bombastic that it appears to be happening above the proceedings as opposed to being entwined with them. The soundtrack is also attack mode loud. Both these irregularities work in this project’s favor, though, helping produce a mysterious dreamlike quality. In fact, this unevenness eventually seems like a directing choice when all is said and done.

As Gloria, Liz Haverty gives a completely smoky, sexually alluring performance. She eventually winds up giving giallo queens such as Edwige Fenech and Susan Scott a run for their money. Zaso is also appropriately mysterious and committed (in more ways than one) as Bill. Both are aided by Mony Daevsky’s clinical Richard and Xavier Domingo’s analyzing, differential Andez.

Other perks include a very bloody penultimate gallery slaying and a preponderance of dominating prostitute characters and heroines – a feminine foot in a male’s face is a common, artful occurrence here.

As a final note, Cinema Images’ 2004 outing And Then They Were Dead also takes Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians to 5 Dead‘s delirious, dreamlike heights. It isn’t quite as successful, but it does feature an artistically bloody opening with a beautifully fatal femme and a truly delirious and enjoyable performance from Zaso. Lynn Macri also delivers a tart, anguished performance as Zaso’s wife Rebecca (she, alone, may be well worth checking Dead out for) and B movie goddesses Tina Krause and Darian Caine also make appearances here. A twisted, murderous ending also adds to the fun.

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