Review of Suspiria (1977) by Alex S — 02 Nov 2016

Nightmarish and bizarre Italian splatter flick by master of horror Dario Argento. Right from the very first frame, you know your in the hands of a ghoulish madman. The film's garish Technicolor photography gives the brutal nature of the murder scenes a lyrical, fairy tale quality almost making them more disturbing.

Jessica Harper's large saucer eyes call to mind the title character in Disney's Snow White as her character, Suzy, a New York ballerina, finds herself thrust into the sinister world of a German dance academy where the staff might actually be murderous witches.

It has some of the trappings of the gory Italian giallo genre, but with a large dose of the supernatural. The film never makes any real world sense, but with visuals like this and pulsing score by Goblin, who needs boring logic.

Props go to Alida Valli who manages to make her large smile into an instrument of terror.