Suspiria
Article by David Loring
At some point in your life, that friend of yours who knows every movie ever is going to tell you to watch Suspiria, and you should listen to them! It is perhaps the most beautiful horror movie you’ll encounter, and an absolute delight from beginning to end.
Italian horror icon Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece is all at once a blood-soaked technicolour fever dream of sight, sound and fury, of spectacular sets and setpieces, of brutal murders and intriguing mysteries, astounding soundtracks and dodgy voice-dubbing, all contained in a dance academy hiding tenebrous secrets deep within its walls.
The plot - what little of it there is - concerns American dancer Susy Banion travelling to a prestigious ballet school in Germany only to find that people keep getting murdered, and suddenly finding herself at the centre of it all. Will she learn who is responsible? Where do the teachers disappear to every night? And why does the main theme song keep on hissing“WITCH!” every minute or so?
Suspiria is not a movie particularly regarded for its plot or its acting (reviews on its release were quick to criticise both as being thinly conceived) but it’s stood the test of time and remains beloved by horror fans as an audacious sensory experience that throws subtlety out the window and assaults the viewer like a black-gloved hand crashing through a window and stabbing them in the heart.
Sure, some may cry “style over substance”, but in this case the style is the substance – an excessive gauntlet of saturated colours and nightmarish scenes, bombastic and elaborate murders that revel in making the audience squirm as much as they push the envelope (the opening sequence still holds up today as a surprisingly vicious way of dispatching a character), and what may be the absolute pinnacle of horror soundtracks from prog-rockers Goblin to heighten the tension at every turn, from the creepy music-box motif of the main theme, to the caterwauling screeching and cacophonies of the score, all designed to keep pulses pounding and viewers on the edge of their seats.
Suspiria is a twisted fairy tale for horror fans, one that isn’t so much concerned with making sense as it is inflaming them – first time viewers experiencing its brutality may be curious (or shocked) to learn that Argento initially pitched the story as taking place with children as the main characters, envisioning the cast as ranging from ages 8-12;- the producers understandably rejected the idea, and while Argento acquiesced in aging up the characters, much of the script remained unchanged – which goes some way to explaining the often- clumsy dialogue, and adds an extra layer to set designs that emphasise the characters’ smallness and vulnerability.
Cult cinema favourite Jessica Harper (Phantom of the Paradise, Shock Treatment) makes an imminently watchable lead out of Susy, and performances from the greats Joan Bennet (Man Hunt, The Woman in the Window) and Alida Valli (The Third Man, as well as Suspiria’s semi-sequel Inferno) as the matriarchs of the school make for camp delights amidst the increasing body count. Bonus points for a very young Udo Kier appearing to do perhaps the most shameless exposition dump in all movie history.
If you’ve only encountered Suspiria via Luca Guadagnino’s sensational (albeit far more cerebral) 2018 remake, you’ll be surprised to learn how drastically different both pictures are, both in tone and plot.
Suspiria is screening at Rewind Cinema on October 15 at 5:30 pm