(Dario Argento, 1977)
(essay by Troy)
Suzy Banyon decided to perfect her ballet studies in the most famous school of dance in Europe. She chose the celebrated academy of Freiburg. One day, at nine in the morning, she left Kennedy airport, New York, and arrived in Germany at 10:40 p.m. local time.
So the narrator intones amidst a credit sequence consisting of a cacophony of pounding tympanis, screeching guitar strings, entrancing prog synths, and eerie background vocalizations. It would have been just as appropriate for Dario Argento to insert a title card which states “Once Upon A Time…” as it soon becomes apparent that Suspiria is Argento’s stylized and lurid attempt at crafting a supernatural, gothic fairy tale (Argento has admitted to using the story and film of Snow White as an influence). Even while mixing a few of his earlier giallo tropes into the mix — the Grand Guignol setpieces and a mystery that hinges on an unresolved memory come immediately to mind — he begins moving even further away from the more literal constructs of those earlier films and into the dreamscapes that he would incorporate for his short run of intriguing films.
The opening shot shows Suzy (Jessica Harper, perfect as the naive ingénue thrust into a world where she will soon lose her innocence) leaving the airport, ominous red lighting filling the walls behind her. It’s our first display of the use of unnatural lighting that Argento will use (surely influenced by his mentor, Mario Bava). The majority of the film involves the screen being bathed in some from of brilliant primary color — reds and blues dominate, but greens and yellows make their way in as well. Argento famously chose to use the three-strip Technicolor process that films such as The Wizard of Oz used, making the base colors (red, blue, and green) luridly pop off the screen as if they were painted on the film stock. Each room and exterior are seemingly capable of being immersed in any shade of color, all changing at a moments notice from one scene to the next. There’s no rhyme or reason as to why these lush colors are imbuing the environment, they just are, a key component to the creation of an eerie and mesmerizing atmosphere.
Suzy proceeds to leave the airport, a pensive look of unfamiliarity with her surroundings on her face. Argento immediately takes the viewer out of reality and into the fantastic by juxtaposing shots of Suzy, the natural sounds of the airport filling the soundtrack, with shots from Suzy’s POV as she slowly moves closer to the exit, overlaid with Goblin’s prog-rock ethereal score. As Suzy steps outside, a monstrous thunderstorm starts up, the soundtrack hitting us from all channels with rain, thunderclaps, and bass.
The strange aura that permeates the film begins during Suzy’s taxi ride to the dance school. Bright lights ominously and fantastically fill the car, intercut with images of rushing water and passing cars with colored halos. As they arrive at the school during the storm, Suzy sees another girl leaving, yelling at someone inside. In a common narrative flourish of Argento’s, what she says is unclear to us, but deciphering it will be the key to Suzy unlocking the puzzle at film’s end.
We see the girl leaving the school run through the forest, Argento’s purposefully anamorphic camera tracking alongside her as if flying by. The evil mutterings of the soundtrack (which the band titled “Sighs”) and the movement of the camera add up to make it feel as if she is being chased by some unseen force. The girl eventually arrives at the apartment of a friend, though we get the feeling that the ominous entities she was vexed by have followed her there. In talking to her friend, she sums up the film perfectly by stating that her experience at the school seemed “so absurd, so fantastic.”
The apartment’s architecture and interiors showcase Argento’s eye for striking compositions (and his brilliant use of Technicolor). The lipstick red walls consist of diamond and circle patterns interspersed with painted on columns. The marble floor is red, white, and black checked, forming a circular and triangular geometric pattern. Two seemingly lone aqua blue doors and a magnificently multi-colored stained glass skylight fill the rest of the entry hall. The apartment bedroom has painted birds on red walls next to a drawing room of blue walls with art deco doors. Even at the very end of the opening scene, where a splattering of blood is shown on the white marble tile, Argento’s stylized use of such eye-catching colors is spectacular to behold.
Soon the woman is attacked by an unseen force that swoops in from outside. A pair of eyes is seen when she peers into the inky night and an arm smashes through the window to assault her. This all culminates with a bravura setpiece where a body smashes through the colored stained-glass ceiling, hung by a rope, and another is impaled by steel girders, face sliced in half from a shard of glass. It all takes place amidst the aforementioned vivid and symmetrical layout of the apartment complex, accompanied by the brutally discordant soundtrack by Goblin.
850 words in and I’ve done nothing more than describe the first fifteen minutes of the film. Just in this short amount of time Argento manages to create a brilliant introduction to the horror that will follow, encapsulating all of his tricks and techniques in a phantasmagoric melding of lurid colors and bizarre noises.
In gathering screencaps for the film, I found myself with over 75 individual moments that caught my interest. These screencaps can give insight into the beauty of composition and art design that Argento employs (you can go see all of them, here), yet their static nature don’t allow for the importance that camera movement plays in creating the spellbinding experience. Argento uses tracking shots throughout, a key way in relating the supernatural and fantastical events that are taking place (the aforementioned run through the forest, Suzy dizzying entrance to the dance studio and walking up the staircase, the marbles rolling along the floor). There are other sequences throughout that showcase Argento’s mastery of motion and cutting — the dog attacking its owner in an empty square, maggots raining down from above, a room filled with razor wire, shadows showing from behind a curtain, Suzy’s strange walk down the hallway, and in the finale, where Suzy eventually “follows the breadcrumbs through the rabbit hole” (in keeping with the fairy tale allusions) leading to the final confrontation.
The soundscape is equally vital to creating the mood and atmosphere in the film. Much credit must go to Goblin’s score — during the most intense scenes they provide an avant garde barrage of pounding keyboards, drums, and strings, overlaid with cacophonous voices. At quieter times we merely hear whispered voices. Conceits such as the use of footsteps or loud snoring also come into play as important cues that further the story and add to the overall feel of the film.
I’ve gone all this way with nary a nod to the story or plot. That’s due to the narrative being light, Argento stressing visual and aural style over a intricate or even fully coherent plot or recognizably realistic characters (a hallmark of all his films to come, really). It’s apt to compare it to fairy tales and nightmares, as that points to the imagery Argento wants the viewer to conger up while the narrative unfolds.
Perhaps not the most horrifying film ever, with Argento often favoring stylistic ingenuity over generating real tension, it still contains some shocking and memorably frightful scenes. Ultimately, it’s an amazing union of vision and sound that leads to a distinctly nightmarish horror classic (and a particular amazing one-two punch from Argento when paired with Deep Red).
(See more screencaps at Troy’s blog, here)
(this film appeared on Troy’s list at #12, Kevin’s at #11, Jamie’s at #67, and Robert’s at #32)
Now you guys are really talking! This is a disorienting and chilling nightmare that many films (including “The Shining”) are indepted to. Argento is a master, and this is his signature work. I agree too about the “soundscape” of the film.
Real nice essay by Troy Olson.
Sorry this is up so late in the day as I completely forgot it was my day to post 🙂 I’ll also use that as my excuse for the somewhat slipshod and rambling writing here — I didn’t take the time I usually do to refine things, so I probably end up repeating myself at several points here!
Easily my favorite of the Italian horror films and one of my top 25 ever.
This is a film of immense visual ingenuity, color and editing. Argento pulls every stop out from under us to rattle our bones and you’re left sweating by the whole thing as you exit the theatre.
I had this one on my list at no. 9
BTW-When are we going to be allowed to submit our lists for polling? Or are we not doing that with this count????
Hmm…not sure how that is going to work out or if we even intended on doing that — Jamie is the ringleader here, so I’ll let him make the call. I know we wrap up our countdown on Halloween, so it would likely be after that.
Since there isn’t a Horror countdown poll page, I was thinking all our top 25s, 50s, or 100s (how ever people feel the need to go) will be done in the comment thread below our post that concludes this countdown, the presentation of the group’s individual 4 top 100’s.
Dennis, hang on to it till then.
Or, if the group wants, I can make a post that is more or less empty (keeping the world in suspense to the 4 group top 100s), letting the comment thread get underway now, then after our poll concludes go into the post and edit it to add our 4 top 100s.
Up to the group here, I can do whatever. It may be fun to have the polling going on when the countdown is still in high gear.
It may be fun to have other people make their top 25/50’s while the countdown is going on, as was the case with the decade polls…
BTW-TROY…
If there was ever a horror film where the screencaps were most definately needed to illustrate the brilliance of a film then this, along with Kubrick’s THE SHINING, is the one of them. The visuals of this film alone could have been the whole show. Luckily, Argento is far more deep than most people think. Your review and the illustrations you set up melded perfectly…
Dennis — again, be sure to check out more screencaps here:
http://troyolson.blogspot.com/2010/10/suspiria.html#more
I limited the number I posted, but I could have done 50 more easily.
Surely Argento is as deep as DePalma! Lol.
I agree though, Argento is pretty underrated.
That comparison is pretty much dead on to me — for as much as people want to call him the Italian Hitchcock, he’s the Italian De Palma. Both show an indebtedness to the visual constructs that Hitch perfected and both tend toward the same over the top, candy colored style of bloody horror.
Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous use of color in this film – in sharp contrast to insane moments of violence and gore – the room of razor wire will be forever burned in my brain. Also that scene taking place in the school gymnasium is so unsettling thanks to the mix of the film’s soundscape and the use of lighting and color. This is just one of the all-time great horror films, hands down.
My only complaint is that I would’ve ranked it higher on the list. ; )
That’s such an amazing and surreal scene in the gym, isn’t it? Blame Jamie for it not being ranked higher 😉 (cue the weekly fiery debate on rankings and this list)
what’s strange is that I think almost everyone in our Group ordered another Argento higher… (I have trouble putting two Argento’s in a top 50, let alone 25, in horror history)
I had SUSPIRIA the highest of his films on my list (though I woefully underranked DEEP RED, one of two films I’d significantly move up if we redid our rankings). Rewatching it again makes me feel confident it’s his most accomplished film, even if just for the amazing visuals, though DEEP RED has a better story and TENEBRE is simply more fun.
Now we’re talking, this movie saved my life.
I was writing a script that I had to deliver for next friday and it was monday and I wasn’t even near a quarter of its lenght. Cue boredom, I was looking for a film to see and I saw the news that Goblin would tour again, I asked mysefl “Goblin? Who’s that?” I saw that it had made the soundtrack of many Argento films, one of them being Suspiria, a movie I wanted to see for a long time.
I said, “I might as well watch it now and then go on with my writing”, so I saw it, and it was an experience I can’t forget, it’s one of the most colourful, artistic renditions of true horror I had ever seen, I loved it all no matter how many failures it had, the visuals and the sounds/soundtrack were just splendid.
Then, I started to listen to Goblin’s soundtrack for this movie. I was hooked, since then I felt the urge to write, as the dazzling sounds went past my ears I felt entranced, a moment of pure bliss, I wrote at an amazing speed, I finished in three days, alternating the score for Suspiria with the one for Dawn of the Dead.
Now I can’t imagine my movie without Goblin’s soundtrack!!!
Anyway, one thing I found out about the movie is that the script was written for characters of no more than 12 years old. It would have been a true masterpiece, lauded by everyone, if he hadn’t been discouraged on it.
I wanna see it again!!
I remembered, a friend of mine saw this one a short time ago and said:
” This is one of the best films of all time, I’m sorry for Bergman, but this blows The Seventh Seal right off the water”.
I answered: “Yeah, classics do tend to get overshadowed by real artistic masterpieces”.
I won’t go that far Jaime! Ha! It’s not quite that good, but I can’t dispute anyone feeling that way at all.
Goblin’s music is fun — I use it for my marathon running playlists for the moments when I need an extra boost. I’m more impartial to TENEBRE and DEEP RED’s main themes, but SUSPIRIA is still awesome.
Great to read Jaime’s testament to the film here, and kudos to Troy for one of his best pieces (no matter what he says!)
This is Argento’s piece de resistence, a landmark in Italian horror that set the bar that many feel has been unequaled. So much has already been said about the Goblin score, the disjointed visual and the often electrifying atmospherics, so I won’t be redundant here, and won’t dare step on Troy, who has given us pretty much a definitive assessment. I agree that Agento is indepted to Bava for a host of reasons, and feels that this is his only film that can be compared with Bava’s greatest four or five films.
Yes, Sam, this is one of the prime examples of just how important and vital music is to the Italian horror subgenre. Essentially every Italian horror movie tried ripping off Goblin scores after DAWN OF THE DEAD and this film.
Awesome job, Troy. I’m glad somebody else decided to tackle the Italian horror subgenre in this countdown…I’m sure people were getting sick of reading my thoughts on it! Hehe.
SUSPERIA is a classic — even if I do prefer some of Argento’s other films over this one — and remains a true example of everything that is good and appealing to me about Italian horror.
I will add this little bit of controversy, though: I have to admit that even though the sequel to this film, INFERNO, is horribly uneven, there are parts of that film that make me think — during those scenes — that it’s a better film than its famous predecessor. That underwater descent in the beginning is just beautiful.
Although, Dennis and others, you’ll be shocked to know that this isn’t the “highest ranked” Italian horror film on the countdown. Stay tuned!
Again…great work, Troy. I love the screencaps, too.
Yeah, the opening and closing scenes, plus the library scene, are really the only good parts of INFERNO though. Plus, Rick Emerson is NOT Goblin!!
“Awesome job, Troy. I’m glad somebody else decided to tackle the Italian horror subgenre in this countdown…I’m sure people were getting sick of reading my thoughts on it! Hehe.”
Kevin, never.
Great essay here Troy, I went over to your blog (and urge everyone to do so every time his essays appear), and you’ve beautifully showed my favorite moment(s) of this film. I think my favorite, the initial kill, where the killer smacks her head into the glass window (by wrapping his arm around her head, as if cupping it) is shown in all its glory. The force employed by such an act, though in a film, is real and incredibly angry, its quite shaking. This is something I’ve always liked about many of the Italian masters, they are trying to be artsy, and stylish but if you watch closely to rare moments in the good films there is a real palpable anger there– something that is essential to great Horror. Many supposed great Horror films (um… say THE EXORCIST–just off the top of my head–) aren’t angry at anything and the films lack something. It’s the same violence in this ‘head through the window’ act that I spoke about earlier in the end kill in NIGHT OF THE DEMON, that demon rips that dude apart. In the 1950’s that had to be so aggressive to a carefully watching audience (instead most just want to talk about how ‘fake’ the monster looks now).
Anger, as Jon Lydon so beautifully said, is an energy. Great Horror shows it like no other.
_ _ _ _ _ _
Watch this back to back with DePalma’s DRESSED TO KILL, then thank me later.
Argento has always been a good example of someone trying to seemingly use the horror film as a conduit for his own inner demons (or whatever you want to call it). The fact that he himself always portrays the person doing the murders in his POV shots that show the killer’s hands really says all you need to know about him (oh, and he also filmed a movie where his real life daughter is repeatedly raped…lovely).
Guys, have you read this?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/board/thread/115490352
It’s completely baseless, ridiculous, angry, badly written and yet I can’t stop checking it.
this is fun, ridiculous, enlightened and interesting all in one.
it may take me a while to completely get through it, but it’s a fun read. Thanks for the heads up, I kind of wish there was a place for all this contained into one long essay.
I think he’s just a troll with a lot of free time, half the time he doesn’t make any sense and the other half he’s talking about what he’d like to do to little boys.
I just find it horribly convoluted.
You may be on to something there Jaime! Ludicrous and poorly-scribed assessment for sure!
Wow…I started in on this and had to stop due to lack of time. It’s loony and I’m wondering if it’s at all meant to even be serious, but still fascinating. I’ll have to bookmark it and read more when time allows. Thanks for pointing it out Jaime.
Don’t bother Troy I read three or four posts and it makes no sense. The guy is either trolling for attention or deeply disturbed. It’s not even clever or somewhat thought provoking. The whole thing is nonsensical. If he were a better writer he could maybe throw some false but illuminating ideas out there. The truth is that all his rants can’t add up to even some cool dream or surreal logic……
I read a few more posts and it becomes clear that he is trolling. The stories seem to get even more crazy just to keep people coming back. I love how some people compare him to William S. Burroughs!!!! Ok that was a half hour badly spent. Off to dinner and a movie!!!!
I like the self-importance of it. It’s like this serial series that he’s created and he acts like everyone is rapt with attention anxious for the next one to appear (like Dicken’s old novels) but in reality everyone is like ‘wtf?!’. I like that part of it, also all the time and effort is to be commended. It’s just absurd though.
Yeah, I just went back for more and at 8 pages in I figure this is just the ramblings of a schizophrenic. Time for him to take his meds.
This is sort of like the film-criticism version of the Unabomber Manifesto. Occasionally there’s a pearl of curious wisdom here and there, but for the most part it’s completely batshit crazy. Even so, it’s entertaining enough as far as these kinds of online conspiracy theories go.
I’m a little late to this post but wanted to praise The Goblins. Their music really heightens the tension running through this film. While I’m no Italian horror/giallo expert I have always appreciated this and Black Sunday as wonderful examples of the horror genre. The use of color is awe inspiring. I have seen a few other Argento’s and this one is my favorite.
Somewhat like a bizarre acid trip, with it’s blinding kaleidoscope of colours and it’s deafening, un-nerving music score by Goblin, it contains a spooky opening and an equally effective end scene. Of course much of the film doesn’t make sense, but that seems hardly the point now. I haven’t seen much Argento besides this and The Bird with teh Crystal Plumage, but I can see what he is indepted to Bava and some others.
I just noticed something.
Has any of you played “Clock Tower”, a 1995 point and click survival horror videogame?
As the sole game-designer here, I’m a bit ashamed to say no. The closest I’ve played to survival horror was “Resident Evil 4”, which is really more survival horror/action (and a damned good game at that, especially for the Wii).
Attention specially to the third death, but all of them are good:
Hmm, looks interesting — is it a good game? May have to grab it for play on an emulator…
It’s one of the scariest games I’ve played, everytime that scissors guy appeared I jumped.
The entire concept is silly, yet it works. I agree that the music is the most important component.