Suspiria

What sets Dario Argento apart from many of his contemporaries is his success with visual imagery. In a style where sudden visual shocks are used to thrill the audience, Argento creates elaborate deaths which cannot be quickly forgotten. The highly involved double-murder towards the beginning of the film still remains one of the most memorable scenes in horror history, standing next to the Psycho "shower scene" in pure sensory input. And in a technique so powefully employed here and here alone, Argento sets scene after scene aglow with color, using it to express the mood in ways only the subconscious can fully appreciate. All around, this is an excellent addition to the genre of horror cinema, one of the most expressive films to ever plunge a knife into the psyche of its viewers.

American ballet student Jessica Harper (as Suzy Banyon) goes to study at a European dance academy, where grizzly murders and hungry maggots reign supreme. "The Tanz Academy" is fronted by elegant Joan Bennett (as Madame Blanc), with stern Alida Valli (Miss Tanner) well-suited, as head teacher. Chief among the young leotard set is Ms. Harper's relatively long-lived pal, lovely Stefania Casini (as Sara). As hair-raising events continue, Harper begins to suspect a coven of witches may have infested the dance Academy.

The storytelling part of "Suspiria" is relatively weak, with events unintentionally serving to lesson the dramatic impact of the horror. The superb opening scenes, for example, are never really improved upon. Interesting characters are underdeveloped, and should have been more cleverly woven into the plot. Despite its haphazard script, and some obvious budget restraints, director Dario Argento's "Suspiria" remains an excellent film.

Mr. Argento's innovative, imaginative direction is the film's greatest strength. His cutting edge camera sense is often striking; and, the color photography, with Luciano Tovoli, is illuminating. The sharp soundtrack music, by the appropriately named "Goblin" band, is reminiscent of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells". Ms. Bennett and Ms. Valli are a treat. The usually underutilized Bennett is especially noteworthy, in her only post-"Dark Shadows" feature film appearance.

Bennett accepted the project on the strength of the director's reputation, and a chance to visit Rome. When "Suspiria" appeared in the USA, she received some unwarranted poor notices, and professed dissatisfaction with the film's violent content. Still, Bennett was "Saturn Award"-nominated as 1978's "Best Supporting Actress" for her work. Bennett duplicitously gives the "Madame Blanc" character just the right amount of respectability, or "class"; she keeps her Academy dancers enrolled, and helps hold the slim story together.

******* Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento ~ Jessica Harper, Joan Bennett, Alida Valli

Tonight I watched Suspiria for the very first time and during the first 20 minutes or so I literally had no idea what I was watching. The movie has a strange way of using its music and how it decides to show what's happening on-screen. The movie at first felt like a cheap attempt to scare the audience, but oh man, Suspiria is anything but that!

The design of the school and all of the lightning choices are all great. During the entire movie something just feels off, and that leads me into one of my huge positives: The atmosphere. This is by far one of the most unsettling and creepy movies ever made, and why is that? I'll try to break it down.

As previously mentioned the design and lighting plays a big part in creating the atmosphere and so does the music/sounds played during the movie. A lot of scenes are strangely put together like this one scene where two characters are swimming in a pool and discussing something that happened earlier on. In the middle of this scene the camera switches to a new angle from above, almost like somebody or something is watching them.

There's also a lot of violence and disturbing imagery throughout the film, and it still holds up for the most part. I won't go into details, but there is one scene near the very end that actually really disturbed me, which nearly no movie has succeeded with.

My only real problem with the movie was some not so great acting from a couple of side characters, because it was pretty distracting. Everything else was great, though. A solid 8/10!

Having heard such mixed things about "Suspiria," I was actually somewhat pleasantly surprised. My main interest in seeing the movie was because of Joan Bennett and Alida Valli.

The sets are quite marvelous and the opening sequence appropriately gripping. I can't say that I was scared by the film. The maggot sequence was actually pretty funny. One minute they're dropping all over the place and the next there's poor Joan Bennett (I read somewhere that she did the film so she could go abroad) in her best finishing school posture and accent explaining away the problem. Don't get me wrong, but there are some genuinely creepy bits. The scene with Jessica Harper walking down the hall and seeing the old woman and the little boy and then her dance class with the sadistic Alida Valli character was unnerving.

The script needed some work. It is, as others have said, a very dreamlike/nightmarish film, but I need some sort of narrative cohesion in my movies. I also have to agree with the reviewer here who questioned the whole sleep apnea thing.

The acting is . . . uneven. Jessica Harper does fairly well as the young woman who's come to the dancing school and discovers there's much more going on. I'm not sure what to say about Bennett and Valli. I've seen it suggested that their performances were supposed to be like that--why, I don't know--but it would be to their credit if that were the case, because both of them gave much better performances in their careers. Still, glad I saw it and I will probably watch it again.

All I ever heard was how brilliant this movie was. I was so excited when I finally got my copy in the mail and all I can say is, "What a disappointment". First the positives. Argento's use of bright colors and dark settings is a sort of eye candy that keeps you attentive. The murder scenes are rather gory though not too realistic looking by today's standards. The one excellent aspect of this film is the score. Absolutely creepy. Which Argento over uses to the point of ridicule. What the film lacked the most was substance. I know its an over used term but "All style and no substance", describes this film to a tee. The acting was less than mediocre to say the least. Like most cult films, a minority will rave on about how great the film is but an unbiased opinion will only tell the truth. The truth is, its really nothing special.