The horror movie Suspiria
(1977) qualifies as a work of art, albeit a flawed one. It has a vibrant colour
palette, very creative shots, and some truly gory scenes of violence that are
artfully directed. Directed by the legendary Dario Argento, the movie has a
mostly female cast who all take the role of protagonists and antagonists. The
problem is some of these women do the smart thing and investigate the strange events
at their Italian dance school, while others are reduced to screaming their
heads off while the killer is slowly making his/her way towards them. The movie
could have a had a worse treatment of its female characters, but also a better
one.
I listen to horror
podcast Shockwaves every week and Suspiria is a movie that will come up
every now and then as a point of comparison to other horror films. Plus, the
movie was of course remade recently so it came back into the zeitgeist. I
haven't gotten around to the remake yet, but the original is available for free
on the Tubi app along with other classics, cult classics, and a lot of Z-movies
that time forgot. Having recently watched it, I can recommend it for any horror
fans or any cinema fans who want to be completionists. However, if horror is
not your thing you might be grossed out a few times by the gore.
Among other things this
movie is somewhat of a fish-out-of-water story as it follows an American dance
student named Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) who has travelled all the way to Germany
in order to attend a prestigious dance school. Subtlety is not one of Argento’s
traits since Suzy arrives at the airport literally during a dark and stormy
night. The music, both by the director and a progressive rock band called
Goblin, really drives the point that she is not going to have a smooth stay.
The plot of the movie
is fairly simple and quite obvious as events unfold. Between the strange events
going at the school, the even stranger people who populate the place, and the
fact that students are dying in very graphic ways every now and then, it
becomes painfully obvious there are witches performing dark magic after the
lights are out. One of these strange people seemingly puts a spell on Suzy that
makes her collapse during practice, and as for strange events, at one point
maggots rain from the ceiling causing pandemonium in the girls’ bedroom. If
that’s not a sign that it’s time to vacate the premises I don’t know what qualifies.
What is captivating is
how these gory details are revealed and what Suzy does with this information
once she puts the pieces together. There is an operatic way in which Argento
shot the death scenes, with one victim crashing through a building skylight,
another being attacked by an unseen force in a vast city plaza, and another
falling into a pit of razor wire. Vibrant colours are on display during those
brutal death scenes, with the colour red being prominent of course. Suzy is no
idiot and realizes something is definitely wrong, and a discussion with a
professor (German character actor Udo Kier, whose voice was dubbed) gives her
all the facts she needs to figure out what is going happening.
I like the fact that as
far as final girls go Suzy is pretty resourceful. She listens to what the
professor has to say with the just the right amount of skepticism and open-mindness
to get herself out of trouble when the time comes. She is relatively cool under
pressure and brave enough to cross doors most people would not. My problem is
that most of the other women in this movie are either evil conniving witches,
or victims who scream while they should run. There are a few times when I was
looking at the screen and thinking “will you just run already!”
That kind of portrayal
of women makes the film a bit dated, but Argento’s artful direction and Harper’s
performance as the resourceful Suzy makes this a horror classic that could
still be enjoyed by a crowd if it was played on the big screen on a Halloween
night.
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