Following the drowning of their child in England, Laura (Christie) and John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) have come to dank, eternally dying Venice, where he is supervising the restoration of a moldering church and she is either slipping into or climbing out of madness with the help of a pair of creepy spinster sisters, one of whom can “see” even though blind. John may share this psychic power, though he resists accepting it as the canals fill with murder victims, surface realities turn shimmery as water, and a red-coated figure—the daughter’s ghost?—keeps flickering in the corner of our vision.
BAFTA Awards – Best Cinematography, nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Direction, Best Film, Best Film Editing, Best Soundtrack; Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Saturn Awards – nomination for Best Horror Film; Edgar Allan Poe Awards – nominated for Best Motion Picture.