Dario Argento's "Suspiria" is routinely listed as one of the best horror movies of all time. Recently, a remake by "Call Me By Your Name" director Luca Guadagnino has brought it renewed attention more than forty years after its initial release. I haven't seen the remake so I can't compare the two but I suspect that it would be difficult to recreate the appeal of the original. Not that Argento's "Suspiria" is without its faults but it just seems to work in spite of them.
The story concerns a young American woman who enrolls at a prestigious German ballet academy and finds herself embroiled in a mystery connected with a series of grisly murders. I'm not sure if it's by design or not but the plot is generally fairly vague with only faint hints of what is actually going on and who's behind it. Sometimes the movie seems vaguely dream-like which may just be a side-effect of the script not being as tightly constructed as it could be. Whatever the case, the script by Argento and his then-girlfriend Daria Nicolodi is a serviceable enough framework for the movie.
As I see it, it seems that Argento put more emphasis on the visuals than the narrative. That's not such a bad thing, though, since the visuals are probably some of the best that you're likely to encounter in a horror movie. The movie's saturated colour palette creates images that are both beautiful and chilling. The soundtrack by Goblin (with input by Argento) is also pretty effective in establishing mood.
The acting is a bit of a mixed bag, though; some of which comes down to the dubbing. Foreign actors/actresses being shoddily overdubbed by English speakers is to be expected in a movie like this but lead actress Jessica Harper didn't have that excuse to fall back on. Most of her line deliveries seem pretty wooden, especially when compared to accomplished vets like Alida Valli and Joan Bennett. Overall, the cast is acceptable but nothing more.
In the end, though, the movie somehow works in spite of its flaws. The sumptuous visuals are clearly the major draw but even the movie's deficiencies in the script & acting departments often give the movie a somewhat surreal feel (which almost makes me wonder if it was intentional). Supposedly the story was inspired by dark fairy tales but I'm not really sure that I buy into that. Ultimately, I do think that "Suspiria" is worth watching but I would caution viewers to expect to have to take the good with the bad.
The story concerns a young American woman who enrolls at a prestigious German ballet academy and finds herself embroiled in a mystery connected with a series of grisly murders. I'm not sure if it's by design or not but the plot is generally fairly vague with only faint hints of what is actually going on and who's behind it. Sometimes the movie seems vaguely dream-like which may just be a side-effect of the script not being as tightly constructed as it could be. Whatever the case, the script by Argento and his then-girlfriend Daria Nicolodi is a serviceable enough framework for the movie.
As I see it, it seems that Argento put more emphasis on the visuals than the narrative. That's not such a bad thing, though, since the visuals are probably some of the best that you're likely to encounter in a horror movie. The movie's saturated colour palette creates images that are both beautiful and chilling. The soundtrack by Goblin (with input by Argento) is also pretty effective in establishing mood.
The acting is a bit of a mixed bag, though; some of which comes down to the dubbing. Foreign actors/actresses being shoddily overdubbed by English speakers is to be expected in a movie like this but lead actress Jessica Harper didn't have that excuse to fall back on. Most of her line deliveries seem pretty wooden, especially when compared to accomplished vets like Alida Valli and Joan Bennett. Overall, the cast is acceptable but nothing more.
In the end, though, the movie somehow works in spite of its flaws. The sumptuous visuals are clearly the major draw but even the movie's deficiencies in the script & acting departments often give the movie a somewhat surreal feel (which almost makes me wonder if it was intentional). Supposedly the story was inspired by dark fairy tales but I'm not really sure that I buy into that. Ultimately, I do think that "Suspiria" is worth watching but I would caution viewers to expect to have to take the good with the bad.