Gateway Cinephiles

3-Minute Intro: Suspiria

Screened: October 29, 2007
Format: DVD - Blue Underground (2007)
Horror Fest 2007

Critics and fans of director Dario Argento usually name his 1977 horror debut, Suspiria, as the Italian filmmaker’s unrivaled masterpiece. Already acclaimed for his giallo films–lurid, sexy Italian thrillers–Argento sought to craft a trilogy about three immortal and diabolical witches, loosely inspired by English author Thomas de Quincy. The second film in Argento’s trilogy, 1980’s Inferno, was also well-received, and the long-overdue third feature, The Mother of Tears, premiered this year amid critical buzz. However, Suspiria will likely be Argento’s legacy. A revolutionary and shocking work, it transformed genre filmmaking and subverted traditional assumptions about the evocation of horror.

In some respects, Suspiria has all the characteristics of a bad horror movie. The plot loses its way about five minutes in, and many scenes have no apparent connection to one another. The acting is wooden, and the dialogue almost laughable. Fortunately, the story and performances are secondary to the film’s exquisite artistry and depraved imagination. Disney animated films had a profound influence on Italian filmmakers of Argento’s generation, and he was particularly obsessed with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In this context, Susipiria can be approached as a fairy tale for adults, its world more vivid and perilous than real life.

There is nothing unassuming about Suspiria. The film has a bright, almost garish palate, full of bold primary colors and suffocating shadows. Every scene is lit in candy hues, and the sets pop with baroque and hallucinatory details. The camera hovers and zooms and tilts at odd angles. Relentless synthesizer music dominates the film’s soundtrack, scored by the Italian progressive rock group Goblin, frequent Argento collaborators. And then there is the over-the-top violence, which prompts even Argento’s fans to squirm in their seats. Blood suffuses the film, spurting and pooling in brilliant red. Characters suffer horrific, grotesque, almost comically elaborate deaths, filmed with unflinching realism, and prompting some to accuse Argento of sadism and misogyny. Suspiria is, in a way, a counterpoint to the less-is-more school of horror filmmaking, a shrill shriek that insists, no, more is more. What makes it endure as a horror classic is its resemblance to the worst sort of nightmares: pitiless, harrowing, and unforgettable.