"Suspiria" Review

 

by Daniel White

Maybe it's human nature or perhaps it's only my depraved, parsimonious bent, but I find it much easier to lambaste and mock an ineptly-made movie than to praise a well-done, effective film. Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) is an extremely well-made, incredibly effective fright flick, yet it has taken me close to twenty four hours to sit down and pen this laudatory piece. Not that I don't want to acknowledge his artistry, but I want to do the film justice. Which is not my concern when commenting on an ill-conceived, poorly slapped together potboiler.

Starring American actress Jessica Harper, Suspiria is the story of aspiring ballerina Suzy Bannion (Harper) and the disturbing events she encounters at a German dance academy she arrives at as a new student. Argento creates an unsettling ambience right from the get-go with ominous, at times discordant, instrumentals paired with powerful, striking colors. Suzy shows up at the school at night, in a rain storm, just as another student is leaving. Denied entrance, the film abandons Suzy briefly to follow the other young woman, who quickly meets a grisly end.

Never has horror been offered up so stylishly. The film looks amazing and each scene is a feast for the eyes. But that doesn't prevent it from being quite chilling. Suzy is granted admission the next day, where it quickly becomes apparent all is not as it should be. The students are on edge, and while head mistress Madam Blanc (Joan Bennett in her final film role) seems sympathetic, butch dance instructor Alida Valli is a demanding, cruel task master (mistress?).

What I found impressive is that Argento plays it all very straight. What easily could have been a campy Satan's School for Girls and Boys (the academy is co-ed) is in fact a legitimate, serious story about Suzy's gradual realization she is surrounded by evil. Wholly original, indebted to no one, my only quibble about the flick is a recurring musical motif that's a little too close to comfort to Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells used in The Exorcist (released four years previous). Despite that one (minor) misstep, Argento and Italian progressive rock band Goblin have provided a spooky, disturbing score.

Finally, kudos to the filmmaker and his co-scenarist, Daria Niccolodi, for offering up the possibility of a happy ending. The malevolence is so pervasive, the wickedness so powerful, that the demonic spell cast by the movie suggests the inevitably of Suzy's destruction. That that may not be the case was refreshing - to say the least.

An Italian production shot mainly in Rome (with additional on location filming in Germany), and extraordinary cinematography by Luciano Tovoli, Suspiria is currently streaming on Tubi.