November 7, 2018
Written by: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi
Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci
Quote: "This is Pavlo, our general handyman. He's really ugly, isn't he? Don't be afraid to say so. Can't understand you anyway, he speaks only Romanian. You see that gorgeous smile? He's felt very handsome ever since he got those false teeth."
Trivia: Director Dario Argento's original idea was that the ballet school would accommodate young girls no older than twelve years. However, the studio and producer Salvatore Argento (his father) denied his request because a film this violent involving children would almost certainly be banned. Dario raised the age limit of the girls to twenty years but did not rewrite the script, hence the naiveté of the characters and the occasionally childlike dialogue. He also put all the doorknobs at about the same height as the actress' heads so they would have to raise their arms in order to open the doors, just like children.
Overview: I first heard about this movie while I was at some house party right after high school. Some kid wanted to put it on and we all complained that we didn't want to see some Italian horror movie (we wanted to watch Cannibal! The Musical instead). The kid proceeded to put it on anyways and the party almost immediately went quiet as we watched this weird but beautiful movie. Right after the stained glass hanging scene, the kid turned the movie off and told us that because we complained we didn't deserve to watch the rest of the movie. It would take a couple more years until I finally got to watch the rest of the movie. For this screening, I was lucky enough to watch it with Goblin, the famous Italian prog rock band that did the soundtrack, playing the soundtrack live as the film was screened inside of some church here in San Diego. The performance was incredible and really made me realize how important the soundtrack was to the tone and atmosphere of the film. Afterwards Goblin played a bunch of other songs from movies as well (Demons, Day of the Dead, Deep Red, etc). Such a cool experience!
Synopsis: The movie follows a girl who joins a prestigious ballet school that seems to be hiding some secret. During the opening scene, one of the ballet students is stalked by an unknown person, killed, has her body thrown into a skylight and the debris kills another student. As the movie progresses, the bizarre happenings become odder and odder. Maggots drop down from the attic where food supposedly has spoiled. A blind man's seeing eye dog attacks him and rips out his throat. Another student is stalked by an unknown person and falls into a room full of barbed wire. Finally, the main girl discovers a secret room where she finds the heads of the school plotting her death. She is able to kill one before fleeing as the school crumbles behind her.
The Good: The movie has one of the all time great horror soundtracks by Goblin. The group (which is pretty much is just Claudio Simonetti with various backing members) has a very unique sound that can immediately be recognized in all their movies (and they did the scores to a lot of movies!). In Suspiria, their score really sets the mysterious and creepy atmosphere with their throat noises and loud banging over the hypnotic rhythm of the simple keyboard progression. Like all of Argento's films, the movie is also beautifully shot with vibrant reds and blues. The movie almost has a technicolor quality to it. Finally, the gore is brutal with a certain beauty to it. The initial murder scene involves a girl's dead body falling through a skylight. Her death is juxtaposed next to the beauty of the skylight with itself becomes a murder weapon as it falls on another girl. Like earlier films, Argento also opts for the deep red blood that, while it doesn't look real, also has a grotesque beauty. Then there's the maggots. This is something that is unique to Italian horror, the use of bugs to repulsive viewers. Finally, the scene where the girl gets trapped in a room full of barbed wire is a scene that will forever be locked into my psyche. Absolutely brutal.
The Bad: There really isn't anything bad to say other than the storyline meanders a bit here and there but that is just me being nit picky.
Gore: 4/5
...what's your thoughts?
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