I hadn't ever seen any of Dario Argento's films until Suspiria, but I can totally understand his appeal after watching this film. It's not a perfect film, let alone a fantastic one, but it's certainly very effective and haunting. In all aspects, Suspiria assaults the senses with its unrelenting nightmarish qualities until you're on the edge of your seat in both suspense and shock. Argento doesn't pull any cheap tricks or gimmicky 'jump scares' - the film's completely built on atmosphere, slow-building terror, and a soundtrack that's both shaking and darkly beautiful. I'm unsure if I want to view more of his films, though, as many filmgoers (including Argento's biggest fans) claim that Suspiria is Argento's best work. Suspiria was a great horror film and all but, at the same time, it had some very obvious flaws in its framework. If this flawed yet atmospheric film is his best, I'm not sure if I want to be disappointed by Argento's weaker films. Regardless, though, this film's fascinating and lingering enough to definitely be worth your time.
The film follows a young American girl, Suzy, who's just arrived in Germany to study ballet at a prestigious dance academy. After a long ride on a dark and stormy night, Suzy arrives at the academy to discover a student fleeing for her life and a voice from inside telling her to leave the area and never come back. Suzy's frightened and leaves as instructed, but not before getting one last glimpse of the fleeing student in the nearby woods. The next day, Suzy returns and, surprisingly, is entered into the academy with a warm welcome from the school board. News soon breaks out that fellow student, Pat Hingle, was murdered the night before. It doesn't take Suzy too long to realize that this girl was the fleeing student from the night before. Along with her roommate, Suzy begins to investigate the mysterious academy and its apparent background with witchcraft.
The soundtrack is, without a doubt, amazing. I'm a fan of plenty of horror films, and the soundtracks in films like Psycho and The Exorcist work brilliantly, but this may be the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a horror film. It's perfect and it's one of the few soundtracks I've actually considered purchasing. It's so deathly haunting and harrowing, leading the viewer in with soft music and then just pulverizing them with this quick-paced music with horrific chanting in the background. It's like a scarier version of the soundtrack from The Exorcist! It's just so effective and creepy that I can't help but enjoy it and fear it.
Visually, the film's very stylish. Argento uses primary colors often, especially red, to give the film this horrific nightmarish quality to it. The murder of Pat Hingle, for instance, is so dream-like and brutal that it captures a feeling of dread that's found only in nightmares and grim fairy tales. I don't want to spoil the scene, as it's possibly the darkest moment of the film, but the sheer usage of color and darkness contained within that sequence is simply shocking. Along with the rest of the film, the visuals prove to be just as stylish as they are haunting.
As far as characterization goes, the film's only decent. We get to know Suzy, our leading character, but only on a limited basis. The rest of the cast simply exists to further the plot of the film; we never get to know any of them. The cook, for instance, starts out with a role and seems to lose virtually all significance by the second half of the film. Why? Because she only existed to further plot points. That's it. Still, as the film is more concerned with atmosphere, I can't say the lack of characterization is devastating. The characters serve their purpose and the concept is very fascinating. It's a big flaw, but not a terrible one...
As the film is directed by a "horror aficionado" from the 70's, you can expect to see some over-the-top moments and dated gore. The bat scene, for example, looks horrible because of the poor effects. The reason that older films like Psycho and The Exorcist work are because of their use of suspense over effects. Unless you can get something wicked onscreen, it's best to stick your monsters in the shadows.
Suspiria may flawed but it's still a great horror film. With a chilling soundtrack, nightmarish visuals, and a great sense of atmosphere, the film's an underrated work that's worth looking for.
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