Suspiria

Suspiria doesn't waste any time in getting started.  American ballet student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arrives in Germany to attend a prestigious dance academy.  When she arrives at the academy, she witnesses a frantic young woman screaming and fleeing from the school into the deep darkness and pouring rain.  The young woman finds refuge at a friend's place - or so it seems, until someone or something tracks her down, brutally stabs her, hangs her, and throws her body through a stained-glass ceiling window.  And all this before Suzy even arrives at school!  Things only go downhill from there, and Suzy begins to suspect that her new school may be more than just a simple dance academy.

The plot is interesting, but hardly developed.  The film plays out like a nightmarish journey in which no one - the characters, the viewer, perhaps director Dario Argento himself - knows where they're going.  Odd scenes involving maggots and bat attacks are included without explanation.  The death scenes are implausible and don't hold up well under scrutiny.  After the fact, questions like, "Why would a school have a room dedicated entirely to housing nothing but barbed wire (which looked surprisingly free of barbs anyway)?" will surely pop up, but when you're in the moment, those questions will be far from your mind.  Suspiria is more about the visual impact anyway.

Much has been said about Argento's brilliant use of color.  Many of the school's long and winding hallways and rooms are awash in bright reds, strong greens, and deep blues.  This adds a whole other dimension to the film, making it a feast for the eyes.  And ears; it's impossible to discuss Suspiria without mentioning the soundtrack by Goblin, which consists of creepy, chanted "La la la la"'s over a background of sinister bells, punctuated by growls of "Witch!" and bursts of synthesized keyboards.  It adds much to the film; I doubt it would be as effective without the music.  As for the spoken audio, I know it was the norm for films of this type, but the English dubbing is somewhat distracting.

Suspiria is very light on plot development, and the character development is pretty much nonexistent.  Instead, the film is a progressively over-the-top build-up to a somewhat rushed and tacked-on conclusion.  Suspiria is certainly not without its flaws, but the visuals and audio make for an eerily atmospheric, surreal experience, one which you surely won't be able to forget.


The DVD from Anchor Bay contains a good amount of extras, including theatrical trailers, TV and radio spots, biographies of the major players, a still gallery, and a rather entertaining Daemonia music video.  The biographies are more in-depth than the usual DVD bios, which consist of nothing more than a list of film credits, offering some interesting information; for example, Harper turned down a role in Annie Hall to star in Suspiria.