Suspiria (1977)

Argento's Masterpiece, 8 March 2005

From IMDb: "A young American dancer travels to Europe to join a famous ballet school. As she arrives, the camera turns to another young woman, who appears to be fleeing from the school. She returns to her apartment where she is gruesomely murdered by a hideous creature. Meanwhile, the young American is trying to settle in at the ballet school, but hears strange noises and is troubled by bizarre occurrences. She eventually discovers that the school is merely a front for a much more sinister organization."

From the moment Suzy (Jessica Harper) steps out of the airport at the beginning of the movie, the power of Suspiria is evident. Suspiria is like a Technicolor nightmare. No matter how many times I've seen this movie, I never get tired of it. In fact, I seem to enjoy it more with each subsequent viewing. Very few films have a combination of visuals (each frame of film is like a painting), soundtrack (few films have a soundtrack that so perfectly compliments the action on screen), and story (I've always found the story to be one of the most compelling aspects) like Suspiria. In my opinion, this is very nearly the perfect movie.

It is very difficult to make a horror movie that actually frightens. Suspiria has moments that are to me as frightening as any I've seen. The scene that immediately pops to mind is the bathroom scene near the beginning of the movie. The girl in the bathroom hears a noise and looks out the window to investigate. As a viewer, I just knew something was going to happen. The situation and music are a clear indication that this girl is in trouble. But Argento is very patient and allows the tension to build. When nothing immediately happens, you're sure that Argento had been playing a trick on you. All of a sudden - BAM - you see two eyes staring back into the bathroom. I jump out of my seat every time I see that scene. It's really filmed very masterfully.

One complaint I've read on numerous websites concerns the acting. I tend to think a lot of people are confusing bad acting with the whole dubbing process used by Argento and other Italian directors. Suspiria was originally filmed in English with no sound actually recorded. All of the dialogue was added in post production. Why? Often, these Italian films featured actors who spoke a variety of languages - not necessarily English. During filming, these actors would do their best to phonetically sound out the dialogue. Another persons voice was then often added and matched as good as possible to the lip movements. The lip movements and dialogue are often out of sync and I think some people have a hard time getting past this.

10/10