Post by StevePulaski on Aug 20, 2010 22:51:01 GMT -5
One of my favorite scenes in Suspiria.
Rating: ★★★½
Suspiria is not only a movie with a great opening and closing, its a movie with some of the brightest colors ever in a Horror movie. Not on Blu-Ray, but on a Dvd from Anchor Bay, it has very vibrant textures and a beautiful scenery to go along. Ive never seen blood itself be so red in a movie. The opening to this movie is the highest point. Its very brutal and an intro to a highly appealing Horror flick. Being an Italian movie, and having minimal knowledge of those movies, I had no idea what I was in for. An all out mess of blood and guts? Some of the creepiest and strangest deaths to my knowledge? Or a tamer film since it was made in '77? Here's what I got.
Having only seen one Dario Argento's newer films a while back called Mother of Tears I wasn't sure if he had changed his styles from 1977 to 2008. It seems like he has a bit, but still kept the 70s and 80s blood flowing. While Suspiria is a little off balance for me as far as Horror goes, its interesting flow and unique blend of Drama and Horror is interesting, while being redundant at points. I consider it creepy, at times, but at points the dialog gets tiresome and almost dragging on. I realize in 1977 everything couldn't be just killing, stabbing, slashing, murdering, burying, action all around. But sometimes the dialog scenes last so long and it goes sometimes twenty minutes without a scare, I forget I'm watching a Horror film. The dialog is a bit too much here, but still effective.
Suzy Bannion (Jennifer Harper) is a naive girl who is now in Munich to attend a once in a lifetime opportunity at a dance academy in the town of Freiburg. Suzy is greeted the next morning after her arrival by (Joan Bennett, in her last film role) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli). Upon seeing a girl named Pat the night before, Suzy is told something by her she is unable to remember the next day. Suzy continues to meet and greet other members of the dance, but when she sees weird, beyond abnormal events occurring in the academy. She believes that witches may inhabit the place and she may not be so much in control.
The plot is pretty simplistic, but Argento bends it enough to throw some nice twists in there. Dario Argento is not a horrible director, just not my favorite. Don't get me wrong, his work here is a million times better than the remakes nowadays, but he is just not my favorite director. Different strokes for different folks applies here and I know people treat Argento with respect, which should be the case since he is one of the few classic and very well done Horror directors left. But I think since so much garbage has came out over the years Argento has been a bit overpraised, not saying he's bad, just overpraised.
While Suspiria does deliver some very vile scenes for being done in 1977, it does deliver a little too much dialog. I love dialog, Im all about it, but seeing it in a Horror movie, where the dialog is unappealing wears on me quickly. I like it in a lot of things, but not so much in Horror movies. The dialog is slow paced and droning in parts. Not that its bad, just grows tiring after a while. Especially after a huge opening scene and very cool effects and colors hit the screen, I expect a handful of more unique scenes.
The films biggest boom, is the music. The synth music by Goblin and Argento himself is beyond words outstanding. It comes at the right times and leaves at the best. The synths composed for Suspiria alone are mind-blowing and excited. I've always said that music in movies usually adds to the excitement, joy, laughter, horror, suspense, etc feeling of said project. In Suspiria, its here it at full force. If remakes/movies nowadays used synths like the ones in this project, they would all earn themselves an extra star.
A remake is confirmed and set for a 2012 release which is just a pathetic, bad idea. Suspiria in 2012 will not work. It may have the same plot as the 1977 version, but in no possible way will it have a better cast, idea, background, or music than the 1977 version. Suspiria doesn't need to be remade. Why remake what is already close to perfect, why change the already very well done? Aren't the purpose of remakes to make something better, if that was the case, every remake ever made in the history of movies has failed. No remake is better than the original, all are inferior. Remakes may have the same plot, not the same feel or suspense brought in the original.
Suspiria is the Horror gem of the 70s and while going on to achieve a rating of cult classic will now have me as a proud watched. Much thanks to user No Personality for recommending it to me. I will watch more Argento in the future, and hopefully, the sequel Inferno will impress just as equally as this.
Starring: Jessica Harper, Udo Kier, Joan Bennett, and Alida Valli. Directed by: Dario Argento.