This is one of those cult classic Horror movies that every hardcore fan says you have to see to earn your stripes. I can see some of the reasons for its must-see status. I really like Jessica Harper. She's fantastic and she creates a character that is extremely likable and easy to root for. The visuals are pretty strange but I can't call them impressive. There are some very odd architectural flourishes and some interesting lighting. There's no doubt that some of the artistic decisions of "Suspiria" influenced other movies that came later. But the movie had a cheapness to it. Visually it kept reminding me of "Phantasm" and I don't have a good explanation for that.
The opening murder scene that features the repeated stabbing and then hanging of a student is very violent. It's not the brief quick or jump cut type of killing you see in most slasher movies. This is an extended attack and it is brutal. There was also a scene with a victim jumps into a room to escape an attacker only to find the room is filled with wire! Creatively gruesome to say the least.
"Suspiria" wasn't scary but it was horrific at times. As silly as this sounds, some of the snoring and grunting noises from what was ultimately the most evil character struck me as being creepy. The biggest drawback was the story which most times made little sense. It just seemed like a lot of things happened for no particular reason.
I just re-watched this, and as stunning as I think Argento's visuals and music are, I'm glad they're doing a remake. This suffers from being too disjointed and fakey, and the acting blows. I could accept it as a B movie, but it's too gorgeous for a B movie, and too dumb for a good movie. If the remake can take the best parts of Argento and bring some good writing and acting, it could really have something.
I couldn't take much of this.
Scariest things about this film:
3. The terrible acting.
2. The atrocious sound levels.
1. That people somehow rate it highly.
I watched this and the "remake" back to back, seeing how people complained about how the "remake" wasn't anything like the original (true) and how it was so awful in comparison (... I'll get to that).
All right.
First off, the composition and directing is incredible. Such neo noir vibes right from the start.
The musical score is crazy and loud. People must have complained in the theatres about three volume though. It’s so much louder than the spoken lines. This creates quite some dissonance, which I am sure is just about intended. And it seems typical Goblin.
The colours are impeccable though. That whole scene of the first deaths ... lovely. As it cuts to a blind man devoid of colours both inside and out - fantastic.
Yet already at this point I don’t see how people can actually compare the two, as they pretty much are two entirely different films. It's only that they took a general idea, and some names, and imho made a modern masterwork out of ... well, this.
The one thing I find comparable at this point, while the styles of directing are so different a comparison doesn’t seem fair, the acting is definitely better in the remake.
Yes, women screaming senselessly into the camera used to be a thing. Yes, "overacting" used to be a thing. But most of the characters in this seem like puppets rather than actual people, and that's a choice, not just "how the style is", as there's films of the same era, same genre, where it's done oh so much better.
A few points made along the way: spoilers here
- The original Blanc talks way too much and has way less charisma.
- The number of men is already disturbing and seems only be serving to distract from a plot (wait... there is one? ... Okay, sure there is one. But then cut to the new Suspiria, and there's a whole layer of plots. Come on, now.)
- I enjoy classical ballet far less than modern dance. And we get like, what, one or two scenes of them actually dancing in this one? DANCE is no part of the plot at all, while in New-Suspiria it DRIVES the plot.
- I do not appreciate how weak Susie is depicted versus that strong willed person she is from the start on the remake. Her first moments on the dance floor are basically “oh no I’m woozy I don’t think I can do this simple step” versus “I can dance this thing you’ve trained for for months and I will show you how good I am, rawr!”
- Depicting or alluding to the seemingly senseless abuse of both animals and the physically impaired is pretty bad taste.
While I can appreciate the film’s cinematography and have some minor understanding of typical horror genre shooting of the day, when it comes to the story and characters... excuse me, but no. They’re weak at best. None of the characters have any sort of strength of character, nor any personality worth speaking of, hence the happenings have no to little effect on the viewer as it’s impossible to relate to them. Other than an obvious perversity to enjoying lightly dressed female screaming in horror and flailing about helplessly, there’s little to no enjoyment to be won from this.
I can see how the original set in its own time frame could be a great? good? movie, but it wouldn’t do in our times whatsoever and as such, the “remake” has done an amazing job of retelling a similar story in a different context and make it both believable and gripping in a modern age (despite still being set in the 70s)
This one had me sit there with a raised eyebrow for the better half of the film and hope for a quick ending, while the new version had me pretty much glued the entire way.
When it comes to horror films around this era that I actually enjoyed, let's talk Phenomena. At least we have strong willed and smart characters, not annoying dimwits, in this one.
And the bad rep of witchcraft in this one to boot!
I think I need to watch the old Wicker Man to cure me of this disaster :joy:
So thanks for enlightening me of the "original Suspiria", but no thanks. There's way better classic films out there than this one.
I love horror movies but have to admit I was always confused by the love this particular movie has generated! While it is a feast for the eye and the soundtrack performed by Goblin is interesting, I never really felt like this was a very well-made film.
On the flip side, the remake is one of my favorite movies !
How such a silly 70ies horror flick like Suspiria can be hyped and mentioned in the same sentence with true Gems like "Helloween", "Nightmare on Elm's Street" or "The Exorcist" is beyond me! I would give this crappy excuse for a horror movie a wide berth!
Yeah, no. Maybe great at the time, but didn't age well at all.
After a long time, I've decided to revisit Suspiria.
It still drives me nuts over the visuals, claustrophobic on it's tensions, anxious for it's sounds. It still brings up a little itch on the back of my head - trying to fully figure out what the hell it's going on here seems quite impossible to me.
Spectacular, has aged so well.
I love this movie the score is so good probably one of my favorite scores in any movie that alone can make the movie tense or scary and sets up the movie really well with how you should feel right off the bat. The story isn't the strongest thing in this movie but the ending is amazing.
Had a chance to watch the restored version in theatres with a lighting show accompanying the images. I will spare you the usual talk about the saturated colors and how it’s more of a painting rather than a movie, but I will just add that I would gladly exchange the excruciatingly slow middle chunk for the equivalent in tracking shots of the hallways with the wind blowing the curtains.
It’s all about the set pieces: the plot doesn’t make sense, and none of the characters even have a purpose. It’s just a giant excuse to put up the haunted house show. And for some weird reason, it works.
Yeah, I know this film is dated and I felt the development is a kind of confused, but two things here deserve to be highlighted: the sounds and the cinematography.
About the sound, it's wonderful how the director got to build tension and fear with everything, the music (that remembered me some kind of childish fairy tale about witches, but with some touches of darkness), the yelling and even the steps... everything here contributes to build the perfect mood.
And about the cinematography, the use of colors in this movie is excellent and makes everything looks darker and beautiful in same time.
Arriving in Germany to perfect her craft, a promising young ballet dancer is thrust into a roiling pot of aggressive weirdness. She hasn't even passed through the school's front door before a would-be classmate runs screaming out into the woods, never to be seen (alive) again. As the week progresses, she'll have an episode with a mood-altering knife, comb live maggots out of her hair and encounter an invisible headmistress as the student body count climbs.
Director Dario Argento doesn't shy from the uncomfortable bits: each death is proudly exhibited in a line of provocative, if sometimes random, gory indulgences. After that girl stumbles into a poorly-placed pit of razor wire, for example, he'll dive in for the close-up as she thrashes and wails. The portrayals are all representative of the era, with oodles of thick, bright red paint in lieu of a more convincing blood substitute and no shortage of dated makeup effects, so Suspira's enthusiasm to show off falls rather flat in a modern light. Its ambitious knack for set design and dynamic use of color are no less bold, but they've held up better over the years. Argento seems to relish the larger-than-life, pairing his film's surreal environs and loud lighting choices with an equally harsh, chaotic musical score. These eccentricities can be downright smothering at times, though, and the slim, slow-moving plot often suffers as a result. It’s stylish enough, but wild splashes of artistry and loose morals can only carry a film so far. At some point, we're bound to want a little more meat on the bone.
Suspiria is more over the top than a precariously perched guillotine. It is a violent clash of bright colors where the sound is so brash that the noise is a character and it overacts. The film is a vicious symphony of kitsch, and gripped in it's heavy-handed style is a bloody axe.
If Suspiria were a serial killer it would be a chainsaw massacre on roller skates coming right in your face and cutting off your head with brutish precision.
Don't watch Suspiria to be frightened, watch it to be overwhelmed by the volume of its guts and the volume of its volume.
The film is no masterpiece, but sure as hell It can keep you entertained.
You can count to see some gory images even for a horror film about witchcraft, but you can rest assure, that only adds up to a fim that with the lack of character development it has and the weak dialogue between characters, at least, its beautiful for the eye, you know, if you like these sort of films.
The lightning, the colours, the camera angles, were absolutely the best things that the film had to offer, It was almost like having a psychedelic experience.
As I said, the writing could be better, the characters could have more depth, and the story could be better elaborated.
And the end was at best, mediocre, I wish they could have worked in writing a better end for a film that was very visual appealing.
This movie is pretty awesome.. It doesn't follow the usual horror movie recipe.. Plus.. The gore is amazing...
Dario Argento's "Suspiria" was this month's surprise horror film at my local arthouse cinema. And I was quite pleased about that choice, because I've hardly had any contact with Giallo films before. "Suspiria" has also been on my watchlist for a while.
Ultimately, I quite liked the movie, especially the audio-visual aspects and the surrealistic elements. However, you shouldn't spend too much time thinking about the story, dialog, and actions of the characters. In these areas, the movie often drifts off into the nonsensical.
But if you can ignore that, "Suspiria" still works pretty well today.
The eeriest soundtrack to any horror film I’ve ever seen, my first time watching this and the modern remake. This version (the original) is by far superior and an absolute classic. One of the best horror films of its time in my opinion.
80/100
...Ronald Camp, the billionaire?
Was it good? unsure
But was it a vibe? absolutely
First film seen by Dario Argento. Hard to understand whether he is underrated or overrated (as many recent critics affirm). From the technical side elements like strong light effects or high-volume background musics abound, are these appropriate, or only put there to show how good the director is? Not sure about, as these elements tend to fade over the ending (and I would have expected the opposite).
The film is however very engaging and enjoyable, which is enough to suspect the judgement on the other aspects and suggest its viewing.
I don't know why I was hesitating to watch this one, it's wonderful!
How can something so beautiful be so disturbing and unsettling...
10/10 just for the soundtrack.
The atmosphere is very good, the music creates uneasiness, that very common Argento red, but the script does not make sense what happens, we did not like it
Dodgy acting but a visual feast.
Not only is "Suspiria" a treat to the eyes with it's bright neon colors, but the most surreal movie experience ever. A twisted fairytale of nightmares with a fantastic soundtrack.
Putting aside plot and character development which are just after thought. If your looking for those two things, then you will be disappointed. The films visual style and atmosphere are what's gonna stick out the most.
No other horror movie is presented in such a interesting and unique way like this. On a technical side, it's masterful.
This film did not age well, but I think that might be one of its major merits. I could see why this became a masterpiece, the cinematography is brilliant and the score is something beyond scary, this two things set the whole environment for horror. The plot is interesting but it is because of the music, the sound and the colors that becomes an intriguing film. I liked the acting and edition like old german impressionism. And I found the end really agreeable.
After a long time, I've decided to revisit Suspiria.
It still drives me nuts over the visuals, claustrophobic on it's tensions, anxious for it's sounds. It still brings up a little itch on the back of my head - trying to fully figure out what the hell it's going on here seems quite impossible to me.
After a long time, I've decided to revisit Suspiria.
It still drives me nuts over the visuals, claustrophobic on it's tensions, anxious for it's sounds. It still brings up a little itch on the back of my head - trying to fully figure out what the hell it's going on here seems quite impossible to me.
This looks more like a B movie, I don't know why people really like it. It's really meh, there are much better b movies than this, the story is stupid and dumb, acting is poor and both Italian and English sounds like it's dubbed.
Absolutely mad!! Terrible dialogue, nutty acting, BUT for all that a visual attack on other senses, great colour, worth watching before you see the remake. Right I'm off for a stiff drink.
Gorgeous, intense, haunting. It's like a moving work of art that you experience rather than struggle to find a conventional narrative in. It's a classic that every horror fan needs to have seen at least once.
Not only is "Suspiria" a treat to the eyes with it's bright neon colors, but the most surreal movie experience ever. A twisted fairytale of nightmares with a fantastic soundtrack.
Putting aside plot and character development which are just after thought. If your looking for those two things, then you will be disappointed. The films visual style and atmosphere are what's gonna stick out the most.
No other horror movie is presented in such a interesting and unique way like this. On a technical side, it's masterful.
6.4/10 not even close to a super horror movie!
Shout by Neal MahoneyVIP 8BlockedParent2018-05-05T23:16:35Z— updated 2018-10-23T02:56:12Z
This movie is stupid gorgeous. The colors are amazing. The score is fantastic, it really sets the mood and builds tension. The story is fine, that is not the strength of this movie but the ending is really scary.
I'm super pumped for the remake so I'm watching this again. If we get something that looks and sounds half as good as this, then we are in for a treat.