Suspiria (1977)

Terror at the Dance Academy
American, Susie Banion, has just started at the prestigious Tam Dance Academy in Switzerland, but something isn't quite right. On the day she arrives, one of her fellow pupils is murdered, and in the weeks that follow a number of strange occurrences happen. Could it be that the dance academy is really run by a coven of witches? Why would a coven of witches even want to run a dance academy in the first place?

Along with Dario Argento's previous film, "Deep Red", "Suspiria" is considered to one of Argento's masterpieces. I recently watched both films, one after the other, and in my opinion, although "Deep Red" has the better plot ("Suspiria" is barely coherent at times), visually, "Suspiria" is the better film. Dario Argento is renowned for making some of the most visually stunning horror movies of all time (this man can make a gory murder a thing of beauty) and in "Suspiria" he has some of the most visually stylish shots of his career and of any film that I have ever seen. "Suspiria" also has a chilling score, written by the Goblins, that perfectly sets the scene and is my favourite score of all time.

"Suspiria" is the first film in Argento's "The Three Mothers" trilogy, the second film being "Inferno", and the third film being the recently released "Mother of Tears", which was made 30 years after "Suspiria".

Poor unrealised film
Has classic problem of a filmmaker who thinks in still images not motion. Great picture ideas somehow try to come to life as motion but hardly do. Weak story lacking flow and complexity. A classic example of a boring B- - movie but made in Europe so it is supposed to be brilliant but is a bore. See Jean Cocteau's Orpheus 1950 to get the real effect of a slow but great Euro movie.

Argento defines horror.
Italian film director, producer and screenwriter Dario Argento is best known for his work in the "giallo" horror film genre, which is a assimilation of the horror, fantastique, and erotic film genres first created by director Mario Bava. Argento not only acknowledges Bava as an influence, but also recognizes Riccardo Freda, Sergio Leone, Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini as influences for his films. Argento collaborated with George Romero on the 1978 zombie cult classic, [[ASIN:B0002IQNAG Dawn of the Dead]].

His violent semi-surreal supernatural thriller, Suspiria (1977), is considered by many to be Argento's best work, alongside [[ASIN:B000KRNG4U Deep Red]] (1975). (I have read the title "Suspiria" was drawn from Thomas De Quincey's sequel to his [[ASIN:0140439013 Confessions of an English Opium Eater]], [[ASIN:B000J6F4RO Suspira de Profundis]].) Argento envisioned Suspiria to be the first film of a trilogy about "The Three Mothers," three ancient witches residing in three different modern cities (Rome, Freiburg, and New York). The second movie of the trilogy was 1980's [[ASIN:B000KRNG5E Inferno]]. The third movie in the trilogy (The Mother of Tears) was released in 2007. Suspiria tells the story of a young American ballet student, Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper), who enrolls in a European dance academy. Upon her arrival, she observes a young blonde student fleeing from the school in a raging rain storm. That night the student is brutally murdered. (The murder scene is graphic: first her face is shoved through a window. Then she is stabbed in the heart repeatedly. Then she is bound, and her body is dropped through the glass skylight. Her body is then stopped in mid-fall by a rope around her neck.) Soon after her arrival, Suzy begins experiencing dizzy spells, and the school's blind pianist is killed by his own guide dog. Suzy then discovers the school is actually a front for a coven of witches practicing black magic. What gives the film its surreal, nightmarish effect is Argento's set design and cinematography emphasizing vivid primary colors, particularly red. The Italian rock band Goblin composed the film's creepy musical score. Argento's Suspiria is definitive horror. Truly, an unforgettable film.

G. Merritt