YMMV / Don't Look Now

• Adaptation Displacement: Is based on a little-known novella by Daphne du Maurier.
• Awesome Music: Pino Donaggio's score, particularly "Christine is Dead" and "Laura's Theme", makes an already sad film all the more affecting. The latter later showed up in Euphoria of all places.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Why are the sisters laughing? It almost feels like it's a setup for a Reveal that Heather is really a Phony Psychic, but the rest of the story seems to contradict that idea.
  • The sex scene seems like a Non Sequitur meant more for titillation than anything else, until you realize at the end of the film that it was the last time John would ever make love with Laura, and he probably had a premonition of that, so that's why he got so passionate.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Who else? The dwarf, who only appears for a few seconds, but is impossible to forget.
• Just Here for Godzilla: That sex scene, and the dwarf.
• Narm:
  • John's Skyward Scream comes across as this because it is severely lacking in emotion.
  • The reveal that a dwarf in a red rain coat is killing people looks pretty silly, especially if you didn't pay attention to all those dead bodies extracted from the river. In fact, Daphne du Maurier Lampshades it in the closing line of the original story.
    "Oh God," he thought, "What a bloody silly way to die."
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The ending plays out like an actual nightmare, and climaxes the sense of dread that's been building up throughout the story.
  • Originally released on a double bill with The Wicker Man (1973). Seeing those two films back-to-back pretty much guarantees a few sleepless nights afterwards.
  • Admit it: the dwarf freaked you out a little bit.
• Once Original, Now Common: The sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie was very graphic for a mainstream film in 1973 ^note to the extent that there are persistent rumours that they were actually having sex, although everyone involved with the scene has denied it, and was extremely controversial (with Nicolas Roeg needing to trim it slightly so the film could avoid an X rating in the United States). Partly because of changing standards and partly because it was influential on future sex scenes, it's not terribly shocking anymore.
• Paranoia Fuel: If you're a parent, you'll never want to let your child play in the garden again after seeing this film.
• Special Effect Failure: The neon-bright blood spraying out of John's neck at the end.
• Tear Jerker: As John dies, you can see all of his hopes crumbling to pieces.

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