Suspiria Review
By: T.J. “I once read that names which begin with the letter “s” are the names of snakes!” Mulligan
*Note: I wrote this as an analysis piece for a World Cinema class I’m currently taking. Thus, the structure is different from my usual posts and I reveal more aspects of the plot than I regularly try to. Long story short: SPOILERS AHEAD.
In 1977, Dario Argento released the film Suspiria. The Italian-made, English language production was not the first or last horror movie created by Argento (by a long shot), but quickly gained a reputation as the best of his catalogue. The film revolves around an American ballet student named Suzy who comes to Germany to study at a prestigious dance academy. Upon her arrival, she begins to encounter strange activities and goings-on in and around the school, starting with the death of a fellow student the very same night as her arrival. As Suzy begins to investigate further, events continue to become more ominous and strange, causing Suzy to have to work harder to solve the mystery of the house and it’s tenants before it’s too late.
The musical and visual tone of the film are set right away as Suzy is leaving the airport en route to the academy. Argento himself composed the score along with the group The Goblins and what they create is a masterpiece in horror movie soundtracks. This is the type of music that a person could play in a haunted house or at a Halloween party today and still give others who had never heard it legitimate reason to fret. Rarely have pieces of non diegetic music so genuinely and richly captured the mood of each particular scene to which it accompanies. The viewers can literally feel the tension rise within themselves with each note. Not only does this work well to add anxiety to scenes of outright horror that would not need it, it also adds anxiety to scenes that don’t contain it visually, making the moments of horror all the more terrifying by proxy.
The music, from the very beginning, helps supply the tension while the visuals place the viewer into a dream-like world. Immediately upon departure from the airport Suzy finds herself outside, attempting to hail a cab in the pouring rain. After a few pass by, uninterested in her business, the last one stops and decides to pick her up. The driver does not leave the car to help her with her bags, but Suzy begrudgingly places the bags into the cab and follows in kind. Once in the cab, traveling through the rain-soaked roads of Munich, is where the audience is treated to the first of many times in which the characters are doused in vibrant, almost technicolor lights. Shining in through the cab window, these bright colors drench Suzy’s water-covered face. In unison with the music in the background, it creates a dream-like feel, displaying that whatever is about to happen to this girl in this foreign land for the next hour and a half, it will most certainly be otherworldly.
Once Suzy arrives at the house she is met at the door by another girl, frantically attempting to leave while at the same time shouting a message to someone apparently right inside the door. The girl appears frantic and her words are muffled behind the sound of the driving rain and thunder. The girl takes off running just before Suzy reaches the door. Suzy rings the doorbell and speaks to a person inside, but is not being let in. In a small way defeated, Suzy reenters the cab to stay presumably at a hotel or other location for the night. On her way away from the house Suzy spots the girl from the door, running through the woods, continuously looking back as if being chased by something unseen. At this point the camera begins to follow this new girl as she arrives at a hotel or apartment complex to stay with a friend. The girl and her friend chat for a bit before the girl goes into the bathroom to freshen up. The girl begins hearing noises at the window and the music picks up again. Her friend enters, reassuring her that it is just the wind, then leaves her to herself once more. The girl’s curiosity gets the better of her and she approaches the window, where a set of glowing green eyes greet her. Suddenly a hairy, long-nailed arm grabs her head from outside of the window, smashing her face into the glass until it breaks. What follows is the first and perhaps most gruesome death scene in the entire film. Within the first ten minutes or so of Suspiria, Argento has effectively created a soundtrack which achieves heighten levels of tension, placed the characters in a dizzying dream-like world, and given the audience a reason to gasp and be taken aback in horror by the bloody, terrifying death of a student who just came from the very school that the protagonist is about to attend and live in. This is simply masterful horror storytelling and the perfect way to grab an audience by the throat and not let them go.
The film progresses and keeps this tone throughout, adding in comedic elements and down moments in intervals that keep the tension heightened in moments where it is needed. Interestingly enough, Argento adds enough other frightening scenarios and high-stress moments that the audience remains on the edge of their seat despite the fact that the second death scene doesn’t occur until over 50 minutes into the feature. This is complimentary of the masterful way in which Argento crafted this film. Despite being over 30 years old, this film still has the ability to shock and scare audiences in a way rarely seen in horror these days: by building an overarching tension and never faltering when it comes to the horrific delivery.
I give Suspiria 5 maggot-covered ceilings out of 5.
