Review of Suspiria (1977) by Peter H — 09 Jun 2010

There's probably nothing wrong this movie that isn't an inherent characteristic of being a dubbed, Italian, '70s era, horror flick, but, while the visual and musical elements do often succeed in creating an atmosphere of menace, the lackluster performances, ham-handed dialogue, awkward leaps in editing, and general lack of taste in costuming, architecture, and interior design, too often render the whole affair ridiculous.

The aforementioned poor aesthetics are probably due, as I said, to nothing more than being made in the '70s. The poor acting is not as easy to forgive. I can't judge the Italian actors too harshly, but the voice-overs were simply awful- canned, emotionless, often laughably so, although this effect isn't helped at all by the absurdity of the dialogue.

What does work really well for this movie is the score, composed by a band called "The Goblins." It's very creepy, filled with the sounds of mad, wailing laughter and taunting demons. The only problem is how awkwardly the music is edited into the film. One shot, it will be playing loudly. The next, it will abruptly be gone, only to return at a different point in the song on the next shot.

But Suspiria actually is kind of scary in spite of itself.