Review of Suspiria (1977) by Johnny R — 21 Feb 2014

In 1978, legendary Italian, Master of the Murder/Mystery and Horror Dario Argento Directed Suspiria. One of the most important movie in the history of movies (Since Les Frères Lumière invented the Medium) in my opinion. And it stands as one of the best films ever made.

This one is surely one of the scariest and most disturbing movies i've ever seen. My favorite entry in the genre and probably my favorite movie period, all styles and genres involved. Although Argento's work has never been praised for the quality of his actors and scripts (It should never be), neither for his stories and plots (Stories made no sense and mostly in Suspiria. This one is also filled with plot holes.) But I honestly think no one should really care to understand an horror movie but he/she should expect from it to be scary, gory or disturbing and nothing more.

But the work of Argento himself and the effort he puts into making each scene his own, filming it and then editing it to render it in his own unique way, make this film maker a man apart from everyone else. You can name them all, but none of them can make horror movies and scenes as beautiful as Argento more than often did during his illustrous career, which didn't start with and didn't end with Suspiria. But this one in particular- The first of a trilogy dedicated to 3 witches, each one haunting an ancient residence- is surely the biggest film he's done in terms of making a name for himself. His originality and love of music showed throughout most of his following movies. But Suspiria's music and sounds were rarely matched in the genre.

Dario loves to play with his actors and his camera crew. He loves to play with colours and he won't hesitate to show his audience the most gruesome death scenes in such a gorgeous way (Say for the first murder scene in Suspiria). He's one of the master at using and even overusing the old cliches and he does it pretty well and without shame. Back during the days when the Murder/Mystery and Horror flicks were still fresh, scary and fun, Argento was arguably the master at it.

The story 4 Suspiria: Suzie Banyon (Jessica Harper) is a young American that came to a prestigious Ballet school in Germany. But the European Dance Academy runned by Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett from Dark Shadows) hides some sinister secret. Indeed, one so dark that those who find out about it or try to escape are killed off one by one.

If the story, actors and even the voiceovers could have been much better (In English, I recommend the french version which was really good) these are the only flaws. This witch tale is guaranteed to stay buried deep within the minds of many viewers and todays paranormal flicks could never stand an inch tall in front of this masterpiece. The flicks trying to pay Suspiria the smallest hommage or the smallest amount of respect, taking their inspiration from this flick have for the most part failed miserably sadly.

So, that you like or not Horror, Suspense, Mystery and Giallo movies, you should give this one a shot and instead of judging it for its acting and writing talents, just judge it based on the effort put forth behind the camera, the way the movie was rendered and how they intended to tell the story from the start. The Images, the colours, the score. Because I think I heard that from someone once and I Totally agree and quote: "Not liking Suspiria, is the same as not liking cinema/movies at all.".

10/10 Devilishly Delicious!! Or Deliciously devilish?