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Suspiria [1977] (Region 1) (NTSC)


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Outside of devoted cult audiences, many Americans have yet to discover the extremely stylish, relentlessly terrifying Italian horror genre, or the films of its talented virtuoso, Dario Argento. Suspiria, part one of a still-uncompleted trilogy (the luminously empty Inferno was the second), is considered his masterpiece by Argento devotees but also doubles as a perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with the director or his genre. The convoluted plot follows an American dancer (Jessica Harper) from her arrival at a European ballet school to her discovery that it's actually a witches coven; but, really, don't worry about that too much. Argento makes narrative subservient to technique, preferring instead to assault the senses and nervous system with mood, atmosphere, illusory gore, garish set production, a menacing camera, and perhaps the creepiest score ever created for a movie. It's essentially a series of effectively unsettling set pieces--a raging storm that Harper should have taken for an omen, and a blind man attacked by his own dog are just two examples--strung together on a skeleton structure. But once you've seen it, you'll never forget it. --Dave McCoy


A Proper Horror Film
Review date: 2008-09-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

It's easy to find fault with a film that is poorly dubbed and comes in a slightly grainy and blurred print. However, put that to one side and the sheer quality of the filmmaking comes through. The otherworldy and surreal atmosphere is brilliantly created. Even though you know something nasty is about to happen, you can't help but jump. Much of this is due to an astonishing soundtrack that truly makes the film stand out. After you've seen this film you'll appreciate just how crude and amateurish are the typical Hollywood slasher films.

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Reviews


Emperor's New Clothes?
Review date: 2008-08-20 Rating: 2 out of 10

I can't believe the pretentiousness of most of the reviews here. 'The Emperor's New Clothes' inevitably springs to mind.
'Suspiria' is a vacuous film, badly acted, risible dialogue, garish colours and no plot to speak of, but a series of disjointed scenes with no explanation for any of it.
Complete drivel.
I watched some of it years ago, but reading these ecstatic reviews thought I'd give it another chance.Mistake.
A complete waste of time.
Viv Rendall.


Are you reviewers blind???
Review date: 2008-03-10 Rating: 2 out of 10

To be honest, anyone who classes this as an absolute horror classic, or one of the scariest horror films ever is either delusional or just plain dumb. Maybe many people find it "cool" to jump on the band wagon by supporting a cult-hit director, but trust me if you are a experienced movie/horror fan like me, you'll avoid this all together and not waste your money. A lot of green/red lighting and some strange music do not save this film, it's dreadful.

The First Mother
Review date: 2008-02-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

Anyone out there who likes to be terrified by movies, this is one you cant miss. Definately Argento's best movie(sorry if anyone disagrees, I know you Argento fans are passionate). The story line is pretty thin and disjointed, badly explained and full of faults but it really, REALLY doesnt matter. Beautiful colours, reds, blues, greens, the best horror music score ever-even better than John Carpenter's Halloween, and some of the most terrifying set pieces you will ever see. The cover calls it 'an aria of horror', 'Dario Argento's horror masterpiece'. Thats exactly what it is. It takes a Gialloesque style and adds a bit of supernatural horror into the mix. An American dance student studying in a famous German school of dance discovers that it is run by a coven of witches lead by the infamous Black Queen, Elena Marcos(fans of Argento will know that she is actually Mater Suspiriorum, the first mother).
If you are watching this movie for the first time it will leave you shaking like a sh***ing dog! An absolute out and out classic.

Argento's garish slice of gothic gore... an experiment in pure-visual filmmaking.
Review date: 2007-12-15 Rating: 8 out of 10

For some, Suspiria is Dario Argento's greatest film... and why not? It has a strong atmosphere right from the start, with that drifting use of the camera, staccato use of montage and that pounding, over-the-top prog-rock score from Italian band Goblin. It's certainly a continuation of the style developed in his first film, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, and nurtured right the way through to his ultimate masterpiece (in my opinion at least), Deep Red. As with that film, the use of colour and wide-screen composition here is ecstatic and heavily indebted to Hitchcock's Vertigo, with those red walls, ethereal white lights, with softer hues of blue contrasting from those sinister, adjacent rooms. As a result, Suspiria could be considered the most beautiful horror film ever made, although; it's not necessarily a horror film at all... that's to say that the film doesn't really make you jump out of your seat with a number of well-timed, well-thought out scares, with most horror films these days really going for the cheap contrast between a lengthy passage of silence and then, a jolting burst of loud noise.

Instead, Suspiria is more of a lingering film, presenting us with images and situations that we keep stored in the back of our minds until the time we find ourselves walking alone through a park at night, or making our way up the stairs in our own house, moving past a darkened room, which could hide an unseen foe. As with a lot of Argento, the plot is slight, with some seeing his films as nothing more than an excuse to kill women in elaborate, over-the-top ways... however, for me, there is always something to hold our interest in the story, or some other way of interpreting the plot that makes it of interest to those wanting repeated viewings. For example, some fans see the film as a dream-play, with the whole thing taking place within the lead character's imagination, which could, I suppose, explain the film's dreamlike style and inconsistent changes within the tone and momentum of the plot. It might also better explain the ending, which has always been a little problematic for me... an opinion shared by a few other people on various websites scattered around the net.

The film seems like it's building to something epic, but it never really gets there, instead climaxing with a question mark, as opposed to a full stop. Of course, there's also the quasi-sequel Inferno, which some consider to be greater than Suspiria itself, but I haven't seen it for years... then, there's also the fact that the two films were supposed to be part of a loose-trilogy of works subtitled 'The Three Mothers', though, at the time of writing, Argento has yet to deliver the third and final part. Perhaps when this absent third film appears, we'll be able to appreciate Suspiria and Inferno in a whole new light... well, perhaps? What does impress about Suspiria, regardless of the ending, is the creation of it's own world and a completely foreboding atmosphere, with Argento taking the idea of stylistic abstraction to new heights, creating a gaudy, larger-than-life, Technicolor fantasia that owes as much to Disney and the brothers Grimm, as it does to Hitchcock and Mario Bava.

There are probably some elements of Freud scattered amongst the fairytale symbolism and allusions to occult horror too, with the notions of youth and womanhood, and the idea of the mother as hinted at in the proposed trilogy's subtitle, though these are just personal inflections on the plot thought out by myself. Like all Argento, the film can be taken at face value, as an over-the-top, slightly silly, slightly camp little occult thriller with pretensions at depth, or, as with Deep Red and, in particular, Tenebrae, you can choose to read deeper meanings into the characters and the overall plot. Argento has said in many interviews since the release of Suspiria that the film was influenced by a trip through the Austria and Swiss boarders with his co-writer/then-partner, Daria Nicolodi, on which he became obsessed with the Austrian-born Rudolf Steiner, whose notorious Waldorf schools had been criticised for allegedly teaching occult practices in the guise of arts-based education. It is this element that acts as the central backbone to the story, with Argento and Nicolodi dispensing with back story and, instead, employing the use of a voice over during the opening credits to fill us in on the background of the central character.

Again, this could further the idea of Suspiria as a literal dream/nightmare that the character cannot escape... which would mean that the bludgeoning use of dialog replacement (sadly, a prevalent factor in all post-war Italian cinema) and somewhat over-the-top tone of many of the actors could perhaps make a little more sense in conveying the character's nocturnal state. Of course, as I stated earlier, this is just one of many possible interpretations of the film... at the end of the day, you're enjoyment of the film depends entirely upon how far you're willing to go to buy into Argento's outlandish (and ultimately disappointing) plot... not to mention taking into account how susceptible you are to the overwhelming beauty of his cinematography. It's also perhaps beneficial to the enjoyment of this film if you're familiar with some of the director's other works, in particular his Giallo films, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, and Terror at the Opera.

As it stands, thirty-years on (and about to be remade by Hollywood as a EMO stalk-and-slash love story), Suspiria is a flawed work... somewhat incomplete but still completely unlike any other 'horror' film you're ever likely to see. It has it's own style and it's own little universe and if you choose to immerse yourself in that world and buy into Argento's ideology, you're sure to be rewarded by the film's unique sense of style, elaborate design, and grisly scenes of murder and occult conspiratorial revenge.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Eva Axen
Joan Bennett
Stefania Casini
Miguel Bose
Flavio Bucci

Creators:
Eva Axen (Primary Contributor)
Joan Bennett (Primary Contributor)
Luciano Tovoli (Cinematographer)
Dario Argento (Composer)

Recording label: Blue Underground
Manufacturer: Blue Underground
EAN: 0827058201391
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: NTSC, Dolby, Special Edition,
Release date: 2007-09-25
Universal product code (UPC): 827058201391
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Running time: 98 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1977-08-12
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Italian (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)

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