So then, Suspiria. Forty minutes into this film I must remark upon how the quality of the cinematography could stand up against films of the modern-day, and considering it was released almost fifty years ago, the constantly picturesque, luminous settings are absolutely remarkable. Aside from the dated depictions of gore and violence, it really could pass off as something released in the present – actually, no, it’s too good a horror movie.

Directed by Dario Argento, Written by: Dario Argento & Daria Nicolodi

I’ve gone easy on myself for a little while and have decided upon attempting to avoid films that induce an emotional, introspective crucifixion and I’m coming to realize I may not have made the wisest of choices.

I won’t mention it again, but the camera-work in this is great – the duality of reflections here is awesome, considering the timing of its release.

What I initially perceived as sub-par acting in this movie only adds to the absurdity of the environment (a boarding school) the American heroine finds herself in, from the moment she gets off the plane to enroll in her newfound, foreign place of education.

This is just rain, and the unrelenting sort of chic coloring must have inspired the likes of Bliss and many other films, who knows, it seems I’m only getting started on my journey into old-school cinema (yeah, right).

There’s a level of pretentiousness and overzealousness to the characters and from witnessing the opening murder, there’s more at play in Suspiria than simply a knife-wielding maniac offing teenaged girls – there’s a supernatural sort of imposition about it too.

There are too many beautiful frames and use of lighting for me to juxtapose to my writing here and I’ve made an effort to pick out some of my favored ones (that aren’t already virally renowned) here.

Jarring, sometimes overwhelming audio effects resonate from the background during scenes of transition. As always, I like to make some observations whilst ignorant to the remainder of the plot…and by the time you read this, I’ll have obviously already returned to it.

Aristocratic enclosures like these are a common trait amongst many films, both past, and present and this film maximizes the infrastructure at hand to its visual potential.

I didn’t expect to accidentally fall asleep upon taking a break from this film. I can’t even say I’m nocturnal, I have no semblance of a body clock. Anyhow, my Friday evening and beginning of my Saturday morning ended and began with Suspiria, with the latter half of it being surprisingly absent of the tropes I had a gut instinct that it was playing around with.

The helplessness of a blind man and his dog in this situation was too much – but the setting speaks for itself. Perhaps there was some breaking of the fourth wall at play here.

The calm, ironic ambivalence (to a certain degree) of the heroine to everything around her was brilliant, in my eyes, whilst of course, Susie (huh, kinda correlation between the protagonist’s name and the title of the feature) doesn’t spend the duration of the film completely calm whatsoever, there’s something charming about her and this film and it certainly went on to inspire The Witch – and a good many other things, but I’m just making assumptions.

Overall, this movie was a great exhibition of camerawork, settings, coloring, music, and likely at the time, gore. I don’t place much value on gore anyways, funnily enough, I have a low tolerance for it, unlike certain weirdos that look for real-life scenes of mutilation…

It’s inventive with its brutality, non-the-less, I could remark that these scenes are in some way similar to In A Glass Cage, however, obstacles like this were what made the goddamn Saw spin-offs…

Suspiria effectively converges all horror movie tropes into one effective display and doesn’t take itself too seriously, nor does it take itself too lightly – the occult, witchcraft, Amityville Horror (haunted house) vibes, and slasher/psychological cliches are all converged into this production and I only wish I was at more liberty to remark upon whatever impact it did have on the genre as a whole.

Again, the cavernous, affluent, and occult-related settings are dope.

In my eyes (and aching temples), it was ahead of its time by far – I can even see where Innocence derived some of its influence from here and I can see why it has such a high audience/critical score on Plex. Definitely worked to pioneer a lot of things, maybe too many to count.

Whilst I initially found the heroine to be hapless, as is a common occurrence in slasher cliches, there’s a level of intelligence (I wouldn’t say common sense though) that prevents Suspiria from falling into such a generic criterion.

The next film might be a romantic comedy, they’re more like horror movies to me these days. Appreciate the level of engagement recently, I’ve invested a little more into optimizing the blog as a whole, anyways. Thanks.

Sedlo