The film was among the top British titles at the UK box-office in 1974, second only to Confessions of a Window Cleaner, and ranking in the top twenty of the year overall. He follows the dwarf into a room and, thinking that he has rescued the frightened child of the day before, he bolts the door. John does not scorn Laura, but he does pity her and view her as one whose means of dealing with the immense grief of losing a child are a source of constant frustration and weariness.

Again the reader sees John as a would-be manager of his wife who finds the idea of Christine’s presence a pebble in the shoe of his rationality. Laura wants to leave immediately for England to be with Johnnie, but John is less concerned and feels that booking a train for the next night should be sufficient. The novel so impressed thirty-five-year-old Major Frederick Browning that he sailed a small boat past the du Maurier country home in an effort to meet the young author. He is suspicious that either the sisters are following them or Laura told them where they would be eating that night.

According to the editor of the film, Graeme Clifford, Nicolas Roeg regarded the film as his "exercise in film grammar".

If I can keep this going, if we can pick up the familiar routine of jokes shared on holiday and at home, the ridiculous fantasies about people at other tables, or staying in the hotel, or wandering in art galleries and churches, then everything will fall into place, life will become as it was before, the wound will heal, she will forget. The opening scene (in which he and Laura conjecture about the nationalities and sexual orientation of the sisters) is merely a game, but one in which they (albeit laughingly) try to discern everything they can about this strange pair of women: “You know what it is,” John tells Laura, “they’re criminals doing the sights of Europe, changing sex at each stop. Dying, John realises too late that the strange sightings he experienced were premonitions of his own murder and funeral.Flint instructed his guests to "uncross" their legs, which Roeg subsequently incorporated into the film. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has headed an effort to renovate and preserve the damaged historical buildings in the city. The sisters have helped Laura with this progress, letting her know that Christine is happy in the afterlife and sympathizing with the pain she carries from losing her daughter—something John is unable to do. When John sees his wife on a boat inexplicably sailing back to Venice, only later does he understand that this was a foreshadowing of his own death.

Almost mimicking the story’s visions and premonitions, du Maurier has filled the narrative with moments that point to some future event. In 1969, she was made a dame of the British Empire for her literary distinctions, and many of her stories and novels have been made in major motion pictures, including The Birds, directed by no less than Alfred Hitchcock. Thematic and narrative similarities with Lars von Trier's Antichrist have also been observed, [80] with Antichrist's cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, commenting that he has watched Don't Look Now more times than any other film. In Daphne du Maurier's novella it is Laura that wears a red coat, but in the film the colour is used to establish an association between Christine and the elusive figure that John keeps catching glimpses of.Her work was criticized as being mere romantic escapism, but this opinion never seemed to dim du Maurier’s efforts, considering she wrote until her last days. Don't Look Now is particularly indebted to Alfred Hitchcock, exhibiting several characteristics of the director's work. Du Maurier has John and Laura use humor and sarcasm to break the tension of the atmosphere around them, heavy with the memory of their dead daughter. She explains to John, “You know what it’s been like all these weeks, at home and everywhere we’ve been on holiday, though I tried to hide it from you. The reputation of Don't Look Now has grown since its release and it is now regarded as a key work in horror cinema.

Originally intended to show the gulf between John's and Laura's mental states—John's denial and Laura's inability to let go—the script included two pages of dialogue to illustrate John's unease at Laura's marked display of grief.Finding an appropriate church proved difficult: after visiting most of the churches in Venice, the Italian location manager suggested constructing one in a warehouse. His hopes for an unaffected life are dashed, though, when Laura learns that the blind sister is able to “see” a happy Christine seated next to Laura and John as they eat lunch. Ugo Mariotti, a casting director on the film, spotted Donaggio on a Vaporetto on the Grand Canal in Venice, and believing it to be a "sign", contacted him to see if he would be interested in working on the film. Playing such a game makes John and Laura feel superior to the sisters, as John hopes his rational mind will prove him superior to whatever threatens it as the story continues. The blind twin sister appears with her sighted twin sister at the restaurant where Laura and John are having lunch in Torcello, Italy, near Venice.