| “ | I pray it is not another murder. | „ |
| ~ Bishop Barbarrigo as one of the dwarf's victims is pulled from the canal. |
The Dwarf Killer is the main antagonist in the 1973 Nicholas Roeg horror film Don't Look Now, based off the short novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Because the film is psychic, the dwarf is used primarily to contribute to the film's twist ending.
Biography
She is an unseen serial killer who terrorizes the streets of Venice. The dwarf seems to primarily target young women, killing them with a butcher knife. They may be prostitutes, but it is left unrevealed. Her motives in generally are entirely ambiguous, as in the 110 minute film, the dwarf has approximately thirty seconds of total screen time and no lines of dialogue.
John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) sees the dwarf throughout the film but mistakenly believes her to be the ghost of his drowned daughter Christine, since she also used to wear a red hood. He believes that she has killed his wife Laura (Julie Christie,) thought it is revealed she made it safely to England to check on their son. He also sees Laura with two sisters on a boat, dressed in mourning. John tries to track her down and finally follows her down a dark alley, still believing her to be Christine. She has her back turned to him, while he tries to comfort her. When she turns around, she is revealed to be a deformed old woman, who pulls a knife, slits his throat and escapes, leaving him to die. It is revealed that he had actually seen his own funeral earlier. The dwarf is shown in the photograph of the church John is rebuilding in her red hood, when he bled on the photo, perhaps showing that his fate was already sealed. The dwarf remains at large.