Suspiria (1977)

"Suzy, do you know anything about witches?"  Ok, so I may be a tad biased when it comes to the review of this movie, as it is one of my all time favorites and in my opinion a true horror classic.  Dario Argento’s Suspiria is downright awesome: from the set, to the costumes, to the murder scenes, to the score, to the lighting, the entire film is like candy for the eyes and ears of the horror-inclined.  For those of you who have not yet seen this film, I will indulge you with a synopsis:  Suzy Bannion, as portrayed by Jessica Harper, heads to Germany to attend a school of dance there.  She arrives, and immediately murders begin occurring all over the school.  Viewers eventually become aware that the school is instructed by a coven of wicked witches, and I mean that in the most literal sense.  This is the first of the Three Mothers Argento trilogy, and they are all exquisite films.       

Though I have heard the original concept was supposed to be young girls (ages six or seven), the actors in the film do a fine job with their roles.  Because it is an older film, some of the gore looks slightly stiff, but there is plenty of it to go around in this film.  The score was written by Goblin, a personal favorite of mine (horror movie score wise), and it compliments the tone that Argento sets with the red and blue lighting and intriguing setting that is full of bold architecture and unique furnishings.  Actually the setting is so gorgeous and unique that it adds an otherworldly element to the eerie feeling about the movie in a way not many other movies have pulled off (if any). 

This film is unique in many ways, but conceptually it is far superior to others of its kind.  I have never seen witches portrayed in quite the same fashion as Argento’s; they are very shadowy in his films and operate largely behind the scenes while the protagonists scramble for clues to explain the inexplicable events that keep occurring around them.  It is seriously a brilliant concept made even better by the acting, lighting, gore, set, and sound.  The murder scenes in this movie are inspiring – one girl is pulled through a window, stabbed repeatedly and choked with an electrical cord over a stained glass window/skylight, and when the window inevitably breaks underneath her she is hung by the cord.  Genius.  There is another scene in which one of the characters winds up trapped by the killer in a room full of barbed wire.  She gets caught in the wire and then, just as she is about to reach the door to this steel room of doom (still entangled in the hateful wire), her throat is brutally slashed.  The scene is one of those where the viewer also feels stuck in the wire, and it might make one’s heart race with the hope she gets free…well…unless one has already read this review and knows she doesn’t.  Bahaha!

For my friends that detest subtitles – no worries here, it is dubbed into English, and the dubbing was done well.  In a movie like this, it would be hard to focus on subtitles anyway with all of the lush scenery viewers will be taking in!  Anyone who has heard of Argento but hasn’t managed to catch any of his flicks yet – this is a great starter film that will show you exactly why Argento is a master of horror.  Often referred to as “the new Hitchcock,” Argento takes horror to a different place than most other directors.  Watch it now and thank me later.  Number of killers?  Somewhat unclear.  We know for sure that there is at least one, but many of the staff are part of the coven of witches, so I’m going with 1+  Body Count? Five +.  Boob Count?  Zero.  Cheap Thrills? Zero.  Actual Spooks Endured: Four.  Entertainment?  Oh hell yes.  Raven’s Scream Meter Says: 5 out of 5 Screams.  A true classic that will continue to be an inspiration to horror directors for years to come.