i have notice that a lot of people be take opera to task for the way betty reacts to the murder . i think they be base these complaint on how they imagine a normal person would react . the thing be . betty be not a normal person and due to traumatic event in her childhood . she have problem way way before the movie ever even start . and by the end of opera . in my opinion . she have become totally unhinged . spoiler you have to keep in mind that when she be a very small child she witness her mother lover commit at least one brutal murder while her sadomasochist mother be get off watch it . she be raise by a woman who achieve sexual release tie up watch girl get hack and slash and and strangle to death . that do not make for a healthy home life . i think it pretty easy to conclude that her mother would have employ all sort of emotional manipulation and negative reinforcement to ensure that her daughter never snitch on her . it be also likely that at her impressionable age and betty might have be deeply confuse by what she saw . be this just something that adult do and etc . betty obviously look up to her mother . i mean . she become an opera singer just like her . if mommy like it it can not be bad and can it . mommy can not be bad and can she . she couldn not tell the police on her mommy or this mysterious hood fellow she associate with mommy . betty have a lot of deep seated emotional issue . her mind have for year be try to block out the memory of what she saw her mother do . but it keep come to the surface and manifest itself in the form of horrible nightmare and skull throbbing migraine and a dependence on relaxation technique and and sexual frigidity she associate brutal violence or bloody death with sex on a subconscious level . there an inner struggle between the part of betty that have confuse murder or sex and the part of her which believe these thing to be wrong . after she see her boyfriend murder by the hooded man . she call the police and yet be unwilling to give her name . the part of her that think murder be wrong force her to make the call and but the part that be ambivalent would not allow her to admit personal involvement . the ambivalent part of her take control before she can go all the way . so she walk away from the phone in the rain . and when she pick up by the director she act surprisingly calm and not as upset a you would think a normal person would be . because the part of her that be block stuff since she be a child be try it damned to block the horror of what she just witness . the state of affair in her life all contribute to an impasse within betty psyche . her singing career be start to bear fruit . she go to be a great opera singer like her mother be . but be she go to become like her mother in all way . in the darker way . or will she be able to make her own path . add this to the re emergence of the hooded man murder everyone around her . it not until the hooded man kill daria nicolodi character that betty really take an active role in defeat the killer . here someone who love betty and who support her wholeheartedly in her emerge career and who be in fact a maternal figure in betty life now since mommy dead . imagine how terrible it would be to lose your real mother and then to see the woman who be the close thing you have to a mother get shoot through the eyeball . i could go on . but i would not . the main gist of what i be say be that the character of betty be a lot more complex than most of the reviewer on here have be willing to acknowledge . opera be one of argento best . and not just for the visuals alone ( although they be truly magnificent ) and not just for the inventive murder ( although they be ) . there be a depth here . and attention need to be pay .