Written by: Dario Argento & Daria Nicolodi
Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé, Barbara Magnolfi
Rating: [4.5/5]
Attending elite academies presents an institution for individuals who excel in a particular area where the level of talent exists to an extreme level. This, in turn, allows for some weirdness to settle as the obsession with one specific area permeates the minds of everyone at all times. In the bloody and exquisitely stylish Suspiria, we see this play out in a school of dance where what we see on the surface comes nowhere close to displaying the true terrors quietly hidden.
Making her way to Tanz Akademie, a prestigious German dance school, Suzy (Jessica Harper) notices a young woman run away upon her arrival. When that frightened girl ends up dead, she begins to notice some oddities at this school and staff, in particular, as she discovers some horrifying deeds being done at this institution driving fear into her heart.
Entering an institution hyper-focused on something specific like dance, there’s a guarantee the individuals inhabiting it will carry a level of intensity. One where not everyone will reach the zenith but they will try their best to make it above all others because everyone around you represents the competition. A place bound to have some drama but the way it figures into this feature does not necessarily occur in the relational but rather something going around and killing students for some initially unknown reason. We see this play out with the girl who ran out right as Suzy arrived and continues on in this feature.
Suzy serves as our entryway into this world as an American student in this European dance school, where she certainly encounters some cultural clashes while there. Saying some of her contemporaries did not care for her would be quite an understatement, but this feature delves right into how this experience becomes confrontational for her. This happens not only with her peers but also with the reality of something or someone going around killing students based on their actions. Therefore, much of the plot centers on Suzy trying to get some sort of answers for what’s happening around her, but the true mastery of this feature comes with what gets accomplished on a visual level.
Sitting firmly in the height of the Giallo movement in Italian filmmaking, this feature proves quite the feast for the eyes through the way it presents this narrative. While it exists as a slasher embroiled in the mystery of finding the culprit and Suzy operating as our guide through this scary situation, the cinematography and lighting on display create such a beautiful excess of color illuminating the mood of each scene to really drive the terror involved. The way red and blue factor into the movie in drenching these characters allows for no confusion in how they feel but also crafting quite the experience as it takes us right into the action with Suzy in her bout not only for survival but also trying to uncover everything going on here. This deep saturation in color also makes the obviously very red blood match the vibe of the feature as a whole in the otherworldly idea of what takes place in this feature. It all culminates as what makes this Giallo filmmaking of the 1970s so distinctly unique and why this feature fits right into its historical significance.
These visuals certainly accentuate the terrifying aspect of this feature. Giallo or slasher films genuinely derive interest in the circumstance rather than the actions as they do not necessarily scare, in my experience. However, when not using jump scares or other tactics to rise a jolt through the audience, this feature develops quite the terrifying atmosphere Suzy must traverse, which delivers in making this such a tense viewing experience. This occurs in the formation of the school in just how strange some of the individuals are compounded with who has the motive to do these murders. Certain scenes where these students run away from this murderer provide genuine thrills as it remains unclear whether this thing or person has supernatural tendencies and this feature does such a great job in disguising and muddying the waters enough to make the discovery of it something quite invigorating.
As with many slashers, they often deliver a societal message through who the killer represents and what their victims have in common. With this feature taking palace in a German dance school, these students represent something specific in this particular landscape and their presence makes whatever sets out to kill them turn quite homicidal. This proves quite important in trying to decipher who carries the responsibility for what transpires here. Each victim presents a pattern and with Suzy serving as our final girl it begs the question why we follow an American girl in her survival through a European dance school.
Completely engrossing and terrifying in equal measure, Suspiria delivers one of Dario Argento’s greatest feats. A film filled with mystery and fright to get to the bottom of who wants to kill these girls along with what motives they carry. Jessica Harper’s performance as Suzy takes us right into the horrible things going on and through her, we get to see the tremendous cinematography on display where certain shots within this feature literally made me gasp at what they managed to craft. The deep red drenched on these characters through the lighting make some elements brutally clear about the danger they face, but serves what makes this feature quite the film to experience and definitely falls into essential viewing for anyone who loves horror, and slashers in particular.
Films with Josh 
