Suspiria (1977) review

(9/10)

This is the film that Argento seems to be most famous for, and I can see why. It's full of suspense, extreme scares, and has a compelling story.

PLOT:Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) has just moved from America to a big ballet school overseas. However, she has come at a pretty bad time. She sees a student (Eva Axen) running away from school and mumbling some nonsensical things, and later that night, that student is murdered gruesomely. Suzy thinks next to nothing of it, and even makes a friend named Sara (Stefania Cosini). As soon as she gets there, she notices things aren't right. From maggots falling from the ceiling to poison in here food, among a few other disappearances, things don't seem natural here at all. After a while, Suzy begins to learn that this may have been a meeting place for witches for a long time. It's a great plot executed quite well.



ACTING:The performances in this film are pretty great, I'd say. I've seen Jessica Harper in a few other movies after this (Phantom of the Paradise, Shock Treatment), but I have to say that she did pretty well for an early performance. She hasn't always been the best actress, but this role seems to have been written right for her. Other shiners would be Stefania Cosini as Sara, Eva Axen as Pat, Flavio Bucci as Daniel, Alida Valli as the Mistress, and Joan Bennet as Madame Blanc.

SCORE:The score was brilliantly done by Argento's choice band, Goblin. The score was very disturbing and enhanced the mood of each scene. It also let you know when something was about to happen. It was perfect for a horror and a suspense.

EFFECTS:The effects are traditionally that of Argento: bright, red blood after bizarre violence. The effects in here were used very well for scares, from the bloodflow to the eerie lighting; I loved the way he experimented with lighting in here by changing its colors frequently from red to blue to green. This one he really put his effects out there.



OTHER CONTENT:This Argento horror film was very good. The suspense builds up greatly and is released through either little, spooky scenes in which something is built further, or extreme, violent impulses which make this film all the more great. This one, unlike the past two I've reviewed, hasn't borrowed a lot plotwise. Suspiria exists within its own horror ecosystem and provides scares in its own way. This is truly a unique, horror landmark of the 70s. However, it also doesn't go as far out with its scares as the past two have. It does have a few extremely violent scenes, but it doesn't scare as bad as the past two have. Either way, it doesn't fall short from Argento's reputation any.

OVERALL,an awesome Argento horror film with a great plot, great performances, brilliant score by Goblin, Argento experimental effects, built-up suspese, extreme releases of horror, and a different plot build-up than the past two, but it wasn't as scary to me as that of Deep Red, etc.