SUSPIRIA (1977) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Dario Argento Writers: Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Alida Valli, Miguel Bosé, Barbara Magnolfi, Flavio Bucci, Barbara Magnolfi, Sussana Javicoli, Eva Axén, Joan Bennett, Rudolf Schündler, Udo Kier
I've seen "Suspiria" thrice in my life and during the most recent viewing, I noticed there's a story there. This could easily be my main point to be made against it, but "Suspiria" is so damn-well made that it is practically forgivable. In fact, one actually wonders if the point of the film is to diss all of the so-called "qualities" of story and characterization in favor of a film that is undeniably and totally about style and very little substance. It's as if the film has dropped all concept of storytelling just so it can create pure atmosphere. This isn't always the most admirable trait, but for this film, it just really, really works.
"Suspiria" was made in 1977 and seems to be the response by Italian horror director Dario Argento to contemporary American horror films like "Rosemary's Baby," "The Exorcist," and "The Omen," three films that dealt more with ideas of horror than actual horror experiences. Those three films were extremely successful, but all forgot that part of making a horror film is shocking and scaring the audience with scenes and events that are terrifying. As a response, Argento probably couldn't have made a better film.
As I said, there's a story here, but it's almost arbitrary (and rightfully so). Something about an American dancer named Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) who comes to Austria to go to an elite Ballet school, but discovers that the school holds a dark, ancient secret. What it is has to do with is a coven of witches, I think, but to be honest, it really doesn't matter. The second-to-last thing "Suspiria" is about is story. The last thing is characterization.
The reason for anyone to watch this film is because it is absolutely and utterly terrifying. Argento, always the better director than writer, has crafted a film here that leans almost totally on the former aspect, and is thus part criticism of then-modern American horror films, but more of an excercise in terror than anything else. From the first moments, when the credits begin and the music by the Goth-band Goblin explodes onto the soundtrack, Argento creates an atmosphere of sheer nervousness. Then the redundant but nerve-wrecking signature tune from the score starts up, like a child's tune played over and over again, getting more unnerrving every time it's played, and the films really opens.
The first 15 minutes deal with introducing Suzy, who's head-strong but shy in a way that's likable, and showing us her situation. She arrives at the airport. She tries to get a taxi. She gets it and arrives there only to see a woman run out, screaming something that goes practically unheard by Suzy, then runs off into the woods. Suzy tries to get into the school, but they won't let her, so she gets back in her taxi and drives off. Then the girl who ran out is viciously murdered while resting a at a friends'. This is all done in a straight segment of pure chills, during a stormy night, with low, ominous lighting, and with the score playing thunderously throughout.
These first 15 minutes are so good at setting up the mood, tone, and general feel of the film that it almost doesn't live up to it. But we see more anyway, as Suzy finally does get into the school, meets some friends (notably one who's been there long enough that she's become a bit paranoid), and Suzy begins to feel there's something evil going on in the school. People are being murdered or disappearing mysteriously. And Suzy begins to pluckishly explore until she finds out everything she needs to know.
It'd all be rather corny and laughable if played straight, but Argento saves it by the way he crafts it. His sets are baroque and nightmarish. His cinemtography is gorgeous, especially in widescreen where you can see the vastness of what has been shot. The colors are freakish and beautiful, and his lighting could not be better. In short, this is one of the best looking films of all time, right up there with such classics as Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" and Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." I'm a supreme advocate of Black and White photography above color photography, but seeing a film like this almost makes me change my mind.
One could argue that this is all rather fake, and it is - that's the point. With "Suspiria," Argento has tried to remove all realism and create a totally artificial reality, in an effort to create a world that is so different from everything that exists now that it's creepy. "Suspiria" is a masterpiece of set design, cinematography, lighting, and musical scoring, each overwrought to the point that it's not at all real. This is a world that exists in a twisted dimension. With this in place, Argento plays on real fears we have, like not being able to negotiate our way out of a deadly situation, being alone in the dark with the unknown, and finding out so much that what we know can kill us.
He illustrates that with several incredible set pieces which feature sequences that are so drawn-out for terror that Hitchcock would have an orgasm. One scene in particular, including a man in a deserted square, is long and redundant and even anticlimactic, but when watching it is engrossing, hypnotic, and gradually frightening. These aren't cheap thrills Argento is obsessed with, but rather the experience of really being scared that he nails the way no other director has since "Psycho."
Matched with this is the shock value, where he really pushes the envelope. One scene features a woman who is attacked, stabbed repeatedly, then tossed out a glass tile and hung. Another features a woman who tumbles into a pit of barbed wire then slashed in the throat by an unseen assailant. And most disgustingly, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of maggotts are discovered in one scene to be seemingly everywhere (and with a laughable reason).
Who's the killer? What's the dark secret? These aren't totally revealed, only hinted at. And it's superfluous to answer those questions, since the entire point of making this film is being scared of what's out there but not able to be seen. But if there are any negative points to be made, it's that the film never really feels totally complete by the end. By the finale, we've learned very little, and that's all fine, but there still needs to be more. It ends as if it just ran out of ideas, and even if it does deliver what it needed to, it doesn't really feel like it should be over. Add a bit of distaste for dragging towards the middle, and you have a valid reason why this isn't the four-star film it very well could have been.
Nevertheless, "Suspiria" remains one of the most frightening films to ever be made, mostly because it has a director who isn't afraid to really overdramaticize his subject. What Argento has created here is an experience which grabs the audience from their seats, sucks them into the experience, and takes their breath away just by the way it looks and feels, as if it realizes that a film does not have to be about story and characters but rather about creating an experience. Further proof that this is a valid concept is by watching one of the films this is usually compared to, "Psycho." Is "Psycho" really about a guy who kills people dressed as his dead mom or is it about those long drawn-out sequences where we're glued to the screen by the way it pushes the envelope? If there's a difference between "Suspiria" and "Psycho," it's that "Psycho" does have a great story behind it, one that we can follow when there's not frightening shit going on. But nevertheless, "Suspiria" delivers just by the way it has been conceived, and well enough that even I, ol' jaded I, was pretty freaked out, not even though I didn't know what was going on, but rather because.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
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