Suspiria [R]

American ballerina in training, Susy Banyon, arrives in Germany to study at a prestigious dance academy. Upon her arrival, a frantic and murmuring student who rushes out of the school as if trying to escape startles her. The next day Susy learns that this girl was expelled from the school and discovered murdered during the night. Susy pays no more attention to the matter until strange occurrences begin to happen at the school and she realises the events might be linked. As the girl’s murmurings begin to take shape in Susy’s mind, the school’s history starts to afford clues as to what’s happening in its present, especially the fact that it was founded by an infamous witch. 

Not so much a horror movie, more of a horrific experience, Dario Argento’s Suspiria is the surreal stuff that nightmares are made of. Whilst the for the most part the ‘horror’ that Western audiences, particularly modern audiences, look for is minimal to non-existent, the film’s power stems directly from its camera direction, lighting, and terrifying soundtrack by rock group Goblin. More on that in a minute… 

American ballerina in training, Susy Banyon, arrives in Germany to study at a prestigious dance academy. Upon her arrival, a frantic and murmuring student who rushes out of the school as if trying to escape startles her. The next day Susy learns that this girl was expelled from the school and discovered murdered during the night. Susy pays no more attention to the matter until strange occurrences begin to happen at the school and she realises the events might be linked. As the girl’s murmurings begin to take shape in Susy’s mind, the school’s history starts to afford clues as to what’s happening in its present, especially the fact that it was founded by an infamous witch. 

A European film, Suspiria experiments with the compounds of cinema as a means of creating a physical experience rather than just a mere text. The gothic and almost burlesque setting of an old dance academy with a lot of artistic, surreal, and Baroque furnishings serves as a most intriguing and unnerving background against which to set a story about a coven of malignant and murderous witches. There are three things that make this movie trigger physical responses in its audience, making it a real experience. One is the use of the camera. Argento uses numerous slow-moving tracking shots that have since become a staple in the horror genre’s diet. Teemed with the lighting, the second layer that sparkles in the film, these shots are great: creating brilliant tension and suspense that make you poise your hands over your eyes and ears should disaster strike. 

The lighting elevates the film from the realms of mere horror movie to nightmarish fantasy as, when not shot in normal lighting during the day, the primary colours that occupy the screen are blue, green, and red. What’s particularly fascinating about the lighting is that you never really get a clear idea of why these colours appear and there are a number of possible meanings that can be gleaned from them. 

The final and most memorable thing about this movie is its really freaky soundtrack. Composed by Argento and his collaborators, the rock group Goblin, the three or so tracks that feature heavily within the film are a fantastic mash-up of genres, with the suspense scenes featuring a spine-tinglingly eerie piece with the high octaves of piano or glockenspiel, and the tense exploration scenes favouring a piece made up of electric guitars and synthesisers. Atop the instrumental layers of these tracks are whispers, screams, bangs, and other noises, which make the soundtrack as much of an enigma as the film itself: are these noises part of the soundtrack or are they actually in the film world? 

Starring Jessica Harper, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bose, Barbara Magnolfi, Eva Axen, Udo Kier, Alida Valli, and Joan Bennett, Suspiria is a weird, bit nevertheless nightmarishly stimulating movie that’s filled with the supernatural, murder, gore, and suspense. It’s not a movie that I could sit down and watch again, but it’s one that has its mark in cinema and for those who are interested in European horror, it’s a ripe one.