Suspiria
Directed by Dario Argento
Written by Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi
1977/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
One of 1000 Greatest Horror Movies on They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?
Madame Blanc: We must get rid of that bitch of an American girl. Vanish! She must vanish! Make her disappear! Understand? Vanish, she must vanish. She must die! Die! Die! Helena, give me power. Sickness! Sickness! Away with her! Away with trouble. Death, death, death!
Dario Argento throws everything but the kitchen sink at a very slight plot to create the ultimate slasher film.
Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), a young dancer, has been accepted as a student at a prestigious dance academy in Germany. Â She takes a taxi to the place in torrential rain and is denied entrance by a feminine voice who says something unintelligible including the words “secret” and “iris”.
When she is finally admitted, she discovers the academy is decorated in an extravagant combination of pop art and art nouveau. Â The staff is very, very creepy. Â Soon people start dropping like flies.
Suzy wants to get to the bottom of these goings on (somehow the police are never called) and puts herself in greater and greater danger. Â Blah, blah, blah … something to do with witches.
OK, I could hardly follow the plot not that it matters much. Â What we do have in plenty is highly stylish art direction, brilliant cinematography – much of which is saturated in various colors, and some of the most inventively gruesome murders you will ever see. Â No kidding, Â the sinister imagination in evidence here is amazing. Â If you like giallo movies of this sort, I can highly recommend. Â I’m glad I watched it but will not be doing so again.
Fan-made Trailer – better quality print and more representative of the film
“Blah blah something to do with witches.”
Yes! That one!
I saw this a long time ago when I was visiting my film-buff mom, and she couldn’t say enough bad things about it. She’s very entertaining. I was trying to keep an open mind because I was somewhat aware of the film’s reputation. It was the first Dario Argento film I ever saw.
I liked it a lot more than my mom did!
See, even you and your awesome Mom could differ! I don’t think the film is exactly bad in any way except for the lack of a solid plot but there’s a lot of images I didn’t necessarily want to see.
My mom walked in when I was watching Nacho Libre … and she kept asking what was going on and why I was laughing, and I had to explain Mexican cinema to her. I think she thought I was making it up.
She really hates Jack Black, so it was a futile effort from the start.
One time my mom said “Hey! The Killer Bat is starting! Do you want to watch it?”
What choice do you have? You stop what you are doing and you watch The Killer Bat with your mother.
That’s my experience, anyway.
You had me at “Killer Bat”. Talk about an offer you can’t refuse! Have you ever watched Robot Monster together?
I wouldn’t be surprised if my mom saw Robot Monster at the theater when it first came out. She was 11 or 12 when it came out and she went to the movies all the time. We’ve never watched it together, no.
I love watching movies with my mom! She hates dubbing! All dubbing! (That was one of her problems with Suspiria.)
When she doesn’t like it or she doesn’t get it, she doesn’t hold back! Her critiques are like a shotgun blast – both barrels!
She thought Sleepaway Camp was hilarious! But now my step-dad – The Colonel – has put a temporary ban on watching anything that I recommended.
Hoping that the temporary ban doesn’t last long! My husband often goes on strikes from watching movies with me. I can usually entice him back with a Western or something.
My mom “got” Sleepaway Camp. The Colonel didn’t.
There’s no reason to be ashamed, Colonel!
He should have known in advance!