Upon learning of Christine’s ghostly presence, she becomes “happy, so happy” that she begins crying and remarks, “Neither of us need worry about anything any more. The hood slides away, and the little girl turns out to be a “little thick-set woman dwarf … grinning at him. But when they encounter two old women who claim to have second sight, they find that instead of laying their ghosts to rest they become caught up in a train of increasingly strange and violent events. The officer responds, “We hope to have the murderer under lock and key very soon,” pointing to just a few hours later, when John will mistakenly bolt the door to a room where he is trapped with the murderer and will hear the police just outside the door.

British tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, observed at the time that "one of the frankest love scenes ever to be filmed is likely to plunge lovely Julie Christie into the biggest censorship row since Last Tango in Paris".Modern Venice has struggled with physical damage from flooding, pollution, and age, as well as the loss of population to other areas. A new 4K restoration—supervised by cinematographer Anthony Richmond—was released by StudioCanal in the standard and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats in 2019, and given a limited theatrical release.

The film's imagery and stylistic techniques have served as an inspiration to films such as Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg, [93] Memento by Christopher Nolan, [94] [95] [96] The Dark by John Fawcett, [97] Frozen by Juliet McKoen, [98] Submarine by Richard Ayoade, [99] and Snow White and the Huntsman by Rupert Sanders.Bart reiterated Warren Beatty's discontent, noting that Beatty had contacted him to complain about what he perceived to be Roeg's exploitation of Christie, and insisting that he be allowed to help edit the film. The rumours were seemingly confirmed in 2011 by former Variety editor Peter Bart, who was a Paramount executive at the time. When she first tells him that the blind sister has seen a vision of dead Christine sitting next to them, he panics and doesn’t want to consider what this means, as long as Laura is happy. Christie commented that "people didn't do scenes like that in those days", and that she found the scenes difficult to film: "There were no available examples, no role models .

John suddenly sees the twins, much to his dismay, although Laura does not, and the blind sister’s eyes are fixed on him.

John catches a glimpse of a small figure wearing a red coat similar to the one Christine was wearing when she died. An encounter with two sisters at a cafe, and the blind one’s claim that she can “see” the deceased child sitting with her parents, launches a series of events that ends violently. The 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale contains a small homage where James Bond pursues a female character through Venice, catching glimpses of her through the crowds wearing a red dress. Canby also suggested that second sight was not convincing on screen, since it appeared simply like flash-forward which is a standard story-telling device in films, and concluded that "Not only do you probably have better things to do, but so, I'm sure, do most of the people connected with the film. Some time after the film had come out, renowned stunt co-ordinator Vic Armstrong commented to Sutherland that the wire was not designed for that purpose, and the twirling around caused by holding on to the rope would have damaged the wire to the extent that it would have snapped if Sutherland had let go.