Suspiria

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1977
Country of origin:	Italy
Director:	Dario Argento
Genre:	The Wicca Women
Starring:	Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Udo Kier, Alida Valli
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/
Tagline:	The Only Thing More Terrifying Than The Last 12 Minutes Of This Film Are The First 92.
Favourite line:	"Oh, the poor little animal. The poor little puppy. If I ever see him within a mile of this school again….I'LL HAVE HIM PUT TO DEATH!"

When you sit down to watch an Argento horror movie you know two things:
1: It will look great.
2: It will make little sense.
Both are true here, though the plotting is not as impenetrable as many Italian horror movies out there.

A young woman arrives at a ballet school in Germany (I think it's Germany, could be Switzerland) and the first sight that greets her is a rather disturbed looking young lady fleeing from the building and out into the woods. Though any usual mortal would be truly alarmed, she seems to take it in her stride! The staff of the school explain the girls disappearance away, and life in the school continues as normal. Briefly.
One night, maggots start to rain from the ceilings of the dormitory and the place needs to be fumigated.
Further, the blind pianist is savagely attacked by his guide dog.
Could it be that the school is run, not by normal women, but by a coven of evil witches?
You bet your ass it could.

In a classic case of style over substance, this manages to take a frankly ludicrous premise and elevate it to the realms of pure fucking genius.
It's the direction that excels here, as anyone familiar with Argento's other output would surely expect, as well as the lighting work, all scenes bathed in truly disturbing blues, greens and reds.
Whilst not perfect - the middle section does drag its heels a little - the positives far outweigh any negatives, justifying the top mark rating.
Standout scene for this deviant?: the girl scrambling through a window only to fall into a room full of coiled metal, ensnaring her most painfully.
Ensnaring her what?
Most painfully.
A wonderful, wonderful movie.