SUSPIRIA

SUSPIRIA, the first chapter in Dario Argento's Three Mothers Trilogy, is, in essence, a giallo. It has all the trademarks of a giallo, from the foreigner in a strange land who lands smack dab in the middle of a murder spree to the tightly constructed set-pieces that had, by 1977, become the real attraction of the genre. It only differs from the giallo in it's revelation of the killer. Instead of a jealous husband, a conniving blackmailer or a dime-a-dozen madman, SUSPIRIA has at it's core a witch and her murderous coven. That is really the only difference between SUSPIRIA and any number of other Argento films. But it is a difference that actually makes a difference as this supernatural element allows Argento to completely leave the realm of everyday reality and dive headfirst into the nonsensical and nightmarish.


Suspiria

From it's opening minutes, SUSPIRIA establishes itself as a nightmare film. Every single event, no matter how miniscule, from the opening of an automatic door in a airport lobby to the rushing of water into a storm grate, is enhanced and malefic. The calm interior of the airport gives way to a massive rainstorm and a journey through the city gives way to a trek through a barren, forboding forest of limbless trees. When our heroine, Suzy, arrives at her destination, a German dance academy, she sees a young woman at the front door shouting something she can't quite hear - the essential clue that will drive the giallo-esque narrative of the film. As Suzy travels back to the city, we see this young woman racing through the forest, chased by an unseen pursuer who will later materialize out of thin air as a long, hairy arm and a pair of yellow eyes in what is perhaps Argento's greatest murder set-piece.


Dario Argento Suspiria

The Tanz Akademie itself is a work of nightmarish art. A hideous blasphemy of architectural and interior design, the entire building seems strangely off. Large expansive rooms give way to cramped corridors, hallways seem to go on forever, oversized bric-a-brak like flower pots and end tables are everywhere. In a nice touch reminescent of Hitchcock's REBECCA, Argento has the doors standing a bit too tall, the door handles so high off the ground that it makes Suzy seem like a child. As the film goes along, the lighting scheme begins to change. Whole rooms are flooded with bright blues or reds with key areas of interest spotted with green or yellow. We have seen this since the first moments of the film but as the level of terror increases, the color scheme becomes more and more harsh and less realistic. So does the building itself. Maggots rain down from a dusty old attic, strange sounds echo through the halls and a main character meets her fate entangled in a room full of steel wire.


Argento Suspiria

Those people who have criticized Argento as "all style, no substance" would be justified in leveling that claim here. SUSPIRIA is indeed all style. The plot of the film is so thin and wobbly that it barely registers as a plot at all. Very little happens in SUSPIRIA and the narrative moves in an incredibly slow, lazy fashion. But to focus on the story here is to miss the point of the entire film. This isn't a grand bit of storytelling but a visual tour de force, a tapestry of nightmarish and illogical events that might not add up to much in terms of narrative but overwhelm the audience's senses in the same way a great Surrealist or avant garde film might. The ultimate effect of SUSPIRIA's visuals is disorientation. It's hard to get any solid footing in this film as it slides between reality and nightmare.


Jessica Harper Suspiria

For me, SUSPIRIA is Argento's greatest achievement and a true testament to his directorial prowess. In the same way as THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE was a summation of all the various giallo trappings floating around circa 1969, SUSPIRIA acts as a kind of perfection of the Mario Bava / Riccardo Freda school of Italian horror. It is horrific in that "Old Dark House" kind of way and, though graphic in it's violence, it doesn't get bogged down in the same kind of rampant bloodshed as similar films of the time. Argento has learned the lessons of the old masters and has updated them, perfected their art and craft and has created a film that has truly stood the test of time as one of the very best and most frightening of all Italian horror films.


Essential viewing.