Retro movie review: Suspiria (1977) from the perspective of a first timer

With the upcoming remake of Suspiria coming out during the Halloween season, we take a retrospective look at the classic horror film from Dario Argento.

The horror genre is tricky for some filmmakers to navigate. Depending on the vision, the result of a film in this genre can be either thrilling or just outright terrible. For myself, I’ve never been a huge fan of horror, but love when a film in this genre truly finds a voice. For example, last year’s breakout film Get Out from Jordan Peele brought a much-needed social commentary to the genre.

I’ve heard about the 1977 classic Suspiria for years, but never took the time to experience it. So when news broke that the film would finally get a remake, I figured it was time to quit wasting time and see why it has such a cult following.

Needless to say, it’s completely understandable why the original Suspiria has such a strong fanbase. Much like this year’s film Mandy, the original is rich with atmosphere that feels completely all its own. It’s one of those films where one can see the influential fingerprint on the industry but that is very difficult to duplicate. Kind of similar to how most rock bands are influenced by Jane’s Addiction or AC/DC but no one can truly sound like them.

The film centers on Suzy Bannon (Jessica Harper), an American woman who has been invited to join a German ballet academy. When the film begins, something really terrible happens to one of the dancers as she arrives. At first, this worried me because the entire scene is pretty heavy on the violence and I’m not a huge fan of films that relish on the gore. This being said, after the terror of the first sequence plays out, the film takes Suzy’s journey in the haunting ballet academy and drowns it in rich tense atmosphere.

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Once she gets adjusted to being apart of the ballet academy, a lot of unsettling things begin to occur. She becomes ill mysteriously, a barrage of maggots leak through the ceiling forcing the dancers to sleep in a different area of the academy, and another dancer goes missing.

As all these events play out, the film benefits from many technical marvels for a horror film.

The first being the use of lighting and cinematography which are outstanding. Some of the sequences use color in ways that heighten the terror. Some of it feels absolutely staged to a fault, like a scene where all the women are sleeping inside a room surrounded by hanging sheets that create haunting silhouettes. But even in these moments one can’t help but admire and appreciate the visual splendor.

The cinematography also uses cutaways to its advantage like I have not seen before. From the moment the film kicks off, cinematographer Luciano Tovoli makes even the smallest things feel threatening. For example, when Suzy is leaving the airport, we get a brief flash of the sliding door mechanisms and it feels like if she didn’t walk through the device swiftly it would slice right through her. Even something as small as pouring a liquid down a sink feels inexplicably violent.

The film does suffer from aging qualities– which are forgivable. Most of the dialogue feels very much like a product of its time and extremely stilted in places. Luckily, this is not a film full of speaking roles and more about the chilling atmosphere.

The violence has not aged well, either, with the blood appearing extremely silly and fake. It has that old school bright pink look that most films were plagued with those days, but again, this is extremely forgivable. All this said, it doesn’t take away from the vibrant and chilling experience of Dario Argento’s horror opus.

Overall Thoughts

As someone who has never experienced the works of Dario Argento, I am now a fan. For a film that is over 40 years old, Suspiria holds up as a masterclass in creating tension with sound and cinematography.

It’s a beautiful piece of horror that deserves to be seen by any fan of the genre at least once. I have no idea how they plan to remake this film, but I’m intrigued by the endless possibilities that can be done with this piece of work.