Suspiria (1977)

Definitely where an Argento newbie should start!

Suspiria has a very ominous beginning, and great musical score that is not only slightly scary, and used throughout as foreshadowing, but also appropriate for the plot and main character: Suzie, a ballerina traveling from NY to Germany for a dancing scholarship. Upon arrival to her new academy she encounters an eerie, gruesome murder of a recently expelled student. Soon thereafter she falls understandably ill after seeing an anonymous, hideous looking woman (picture the offspring of Capt. Lou Albano and an Eastern European bearded-lady carnival worker) who looks after the schoolmaster's creepy, Little Boy Blue nephew.

Essentially, the movie breaks down as a mystery; the killer, cause, and source of evil is completely unknown and secretive until the final suspenseful moment. It's psychotic and seductive, a true horror tale that leaves the exposition as minimal as possible and saturates the senses with prolonged action and climaxes.

This is where Argento's reputation is well deserved. While the story and acting are average, the framing of colors and shadows are wonderful contrasts that can't be avoided; they simply grab a viewer's attention. The camera angles and scenery are stupendous, with soul piercing close-ups and epic, wide-angle work, each scene is framed with a deliberateness that works perfectly. At one point a shadow is so masterfully filmed during a chase scene that it appears to be the tormentor or evil entity that seems to be ever-so-elusive in Argento movies. Brilliant.

For those who want to jump into Argento, learn from my mistake and begin with Suspiria; because, Inferno is not where you need to begin. November 9, 2008

great movie

I love horror movies, and this is probably one of my top three favorites. The story is ok, but the way the movie is shot and the technicolor are amazing. this movie is too good. November 1, 2008

not the masterpeice its praised to be....

i bought susperia thinking it would be a masterpeice like everyone said....i was WRONG.the only good thing about this movie were the kills.the story was ok,the plot kinda boring and it took FOREVER to get to the good parts.NOTHING scary about this movie at all so i dont understand all the good reveiws.See the third movie,mother of tears,its a better movie to me and moves at a better pace then this one.i havent seen the sequel,inferno,but after seeing this one i never will. October 21, 2008

What Color Lipstick Does Your Pig Wear? Argento's wears Blue and Red.

WOW!!! Talk about flirting with disaster!! So, clearly I'm not an Argento-phile. The pig I alluded to would be the film "Suspiria". The lipstick is Dario Argento's visual style. What I ended up with was a very visually appealing film that could have been 20 minutes long and still not have been nearly as interesting as the hype. I can clearly hear your cries of protest and disbelief; "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT MORON!!! Believe me, I've been here before. I'm use to it. You would present as evidence of my suspect intelligence, approval of films like "Hatchet" and "Slugs". Yet, I have watched this movie twice and a half and have recently watched four other Argento "classics", some of which I enjoyed to a certain degree. So armed, I will endeavor to explain why this film didn't do it for me on a complete level (yea, this is serious stuff!!!).

-THE PROVERBIAL PIG.
Of course, the "pig" in "Suspiria" is the story. Everybody who loves this film, including the amazon.com reviewer up there, willfully dismisses the admittedly convoluted story as extraneous to the brilliance of this film. I guess I'm screwy because I think that idea is just appalling. Let me qualify this by saying that I am a professional artist. I have knowledge of most of the visual arts including photography. I'm a visual person by nature. Yet, the visual experience in "Suspiria" was not enough for me to give the bloated and shallow story a free pass. I understand surrealism and the attempt at a nightmarish atmosphere. Though visually achieving these goals, the story was not given nearly the same attention to detail and thus suffered. Since my first Argento film (Tenebre) my opinion of Argento's story telling has been that he's "clumsy".After watching several other Argento films, that opinion has been greatly reinforced. Not surprisingly, I felt the story could not match the drama of the visual experience. My bad for expecting the Director to at least find a way to keep things moving. The result is that I spent a lot of time waiting for something to happen... ...ANYTHING!

-THE LIPSTICK.
There is just too much to say about the visual nature of this film. Given the time it was made, it is slightly rough around the edges yet visually alluring. From what I can tell, Argento basically invented the now cliché use of red and blue lighting to elicit a creepy feel. Heck, I use that same lighting on my Halloween displays at home to great effect. However, the images in "Suspiria" are more than just lighting tricks. He clearly intended to use the primary colors with a few tertiary colors as a palate for everything in this film. This would include bold paint schemes for the architecture. Speaking of architecture, as an artist, I love the building locations Argento chooses for his films. So many classic styles are on display. I almost felt I was watching a documentary on early 20th century design styles. I particularly enjoyed the Art Nouveau interiors of the dance school. Add this to Argento's love for the creative shot and you have visual heaven. My favorite shot in this film puts all the elements together as we look through a light bulb; beautiful. Clearly I enjoyed the visual experience of "Suspiria". To deny that would just be... ...pigheaded.

-LIPSTICK PART II
I'm not sure how many people realize this, and it might be a key to why so many are wowed by "Suspiria" on a visual level, but this film was the very last film ever to use the "Technicolor" dye transfer process. This highly stable process insures long term quality of color and a highly saturated color palate. Given these two advantages, this DVD and the film in general, have eye popping colors on top of the bold palate Argento employed. Though Technicolor was not as realistic a depiction of color as other film, it actually added to the surreal quality of the visuals in "Suspiria".

-ONE OF MY FAVORITE MUSIC SCORES.
See, I'm not a total loser! I thought this music was incredible and on the cutting edge of where music was going at the time. There are two main themes that get played over and over again, and I have to admit, I kept anticipating them eagerly. Since this film was made when I started High School, I was much more into the music trends of the day. This music greatly anticipates the "New Wave" African rhythm trends of the late 70s and early 1980s that Peter Gabriel so fervently promoted. I happen to be an old Gabriel fan so this sat well with me. The music is simultaneously very intense and sublime while heightening a sense of dread and anticipation. The problem occurs when not much usually happens in the story to accompany the music.

-SO, WHAT'S WRONG WITH PIGS!?
I have no problem with pigs in general, even when used as a metaphor for a screenplay. Heck, I love "Evil Dead II" and that has the loosest of story threads bordering on nonexistent. But I love evil dead because it's off the wall and wildly entertaining. I'd kiss that pig any day. My troubles with the "Suspiria" story are lack of dynamic or interesting developments. Now here is where many put up the red flag and say "you miss the point". Of course I would argue that I didn't. I've heard explanations of Suspiria's story that go kind of like this:

"...things happen which don't always make sense or get explained, and things move slowly. But this adds to the surreal, nightmarish experience of "Suspiria"."

I agree with two of those points. As far as the nightmarish experience, I'm not feeling it. Oh, visually and musically this film has "creepy" and "nightmarish" written all over it. However, more often than not, there is nothing going on in the story to make me feel that way. Often, defense of the bloated story sounds like excuses to me. This is a story that could be told around a campfire in 20 minutes. I don't mean to oversell my dissatisfaction with this film. I didn't hate it. But when the most brutal and frightening moment in the film occurs in the first 15 minutes, everything else is a bit of a letdown. Ultimately, it was the lack of fear or dread compounded by overwrought attention to mundane action that bored me with "Suspiria".

-FLAP, FLAP, SCREAM, WAVE, FLAP, FLAP...
To further the lack of scariness, a few very silly and unintentionally funny scenes appear in "Suspiria". One involves what might be the worst fake dog head ever. Other things about that scene are funny too, but I've said enough. The other is a scene with a bat that highlights why this film lacked the proper ingredients for me to bestow greatness upon it. In this scene, a character is attacked by a little, fat, motorized bat. Now, this sounds funny enough, but there is more. Said bat attacks for what seems like 5 minutes. All the while, his victim waives arms and screams with little conviction while standing in one spot. Finally, the bat flies off into the corner and apparently tries to flush the toilet. I'm kind of joking because I'm not sure what the little bugger was doing. Finally he decides to attack from the ground; "hump, hump, hump", he thumps towards the still stationary victim. It ends quite beautifully but I won't elaborate. Unfortunately, I laughed very hard at this stuff. Immediately after this diabolical bat attack, the mood of the film was completely moot to me. Nothing happens after that to make up for a complete lack of dread or fear on my part. It just wasn't good enough.

-IT'S SCARY BEING ME.
Sorry Argento-philes; the story here is just too uneventful for me to bestow greatness on "Suspiria". The film does a lot of things in a great way but the overall story lacked the required substance to keep me on edge. Not even the glorious visuals in Technicolor combined with one of the best soundtracks ever in a horror film could make me sit on the edge of my seat or scare me for that matter. I will admit that the second viewing was better than the first, so thank goodness I deferred reviewing after one look. However, the enhanced enjoyment wasn't because the film got better in my eyes; it was because I knew to pay more attention to the visual and musical aspects than to invest effort into the story. Yet, all the coolness of image and sound could not overcome the hype of how scary this movie is supposed to be. A little bit edgy? Okay. But without a flowing, eventful, scary story, this film will always be incomplete to me.

Visuals....5 Stars
Music......5 Stars
Acting.....3.5 Stars
Story......2 Stars

Average....3.88 Stars

October 21, 2008

A Great and Unique Start to the Three Mothers Trilogy!

This was the very first Dario Argento movie I've seen when I rented it a few years back! Needless to say it still blows me away. This was indeed Dario at his best and truly focused.(Albeit thankfully not the last time,mind you) I mean what can I say you get a gripping story with a seemingly harmless(at first) Ballet/Boarding School,that ends up run by wicked satanic sorcerer(ess) types including a creepy spellbinding old crone named"Elena Marcus!" In general as nasty as the character Miss Tanner proved to be! That was a worthy performance! The soundtrack by Goblin was much like the movie in that it was creepy and atmospheric! Naturally I love the way that Dario uses stunning colorful lights with his reds,darkish blues and occasional yellows! Granted this movie didn't possess any groundbreaking/breakthrough special effects like Star Wars did in the same year this movie came out. But it does possess a look that can't be compared with anyone elses,it's quite atmospheric,stylistic, claustrophobic in most scenes, not at all predictable, full of suspense and horror/terror and best of all I get really excited at the end when the main character Suzy Bannion not only finds out that all the staff members of the ballet academy are against her and are satanic sorceressses but the race against time insued when Suzy meets the infamous Elena Marcus aka The Black Queen,aka The Directress aka Mater Suspiriorum. Anyhoo I also love the way that after valiantly defeating the "old crone" everything starts to explode and fall apart as the academy collaspes forcing Suzy to naturally get the hell out of there! The murder scenes possess a certain uniqueness to them as well. My most favorite ones would definitely be: The scene where the lovely Sarah is trying to block the door from whomever is after her and as she crawls out of the window inside the room she lands in this wirey materials(of which I like to refer to as "The Slinkys of Death) that leave her perfectly immobile enough for the killer to victimize her, and the earlier scene where the escaped girl who tries to tell Suzy how to stop sorceresses first gets stabbed brutally then hanged to the point of crashing through the stain glass up above only to have its parts fall on her roommate was pretty unique! Other than that even though it was a brief cameo I was thrilled to see a younger Udo Kier(Johnny Mnemonic,Blade). Beyond that there's not much more I can say to truly do this movie justice 'cause it needs to be seen to be believed and indeed appreciated! All I will say is this movie is gorey and violent at times and features an unsettling yet thankfully brief scene of maggots falling from the ceiling. But for those who don't want to always follow the same conventions of an American or Canadian horror movie or just want an awesome and gripping murder mystery "Well Look No Further! And remember despite it all " You Can't Really Kill Elena Marcus! LOL! October 18, 2008

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