Dario Argento's 1977 horror flick Suspiria is considered by many a classic, stealing a spot on many critics' lists of best horror films. The film falls under a category of Italian films known as 'giallo,' meaning 'thriller.' Amongst English scholars/critics this term is used specifically to describe the Italian produced thriller and horror films, and this film serves as one of, if not the, primary examples of the genre. Suspiria is generally praised for its vivid cinematography and accompanying soundtrack (performed by Italian progressive rock band Goblin).
Taxi, I said the dance academy, not the creepy rape forest...
Indeed, Suspiria's visuals are presented quite beautifully, right from the get go. The film begins with protagonist Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) arriving in Munich, Germany to enter a ballet academy. On a stormy night, Suzy's taxi meanders through a random spooky forest, eventually reaching the dance academy. As Suzy approaches the entrance, a student is seen fleeing the building while muttering some words hysterically. Once Suzy realizes she won't be getting into the academy that night, the focus shifts to the fleeing student.
The killer always gets his victims to make funny faces before he kills them. Fact.
The student, having fled to a friend's apartment complex to spend the night, is promptly murdered by an unseen figure (surprise!). The friend managed to get caught up in the killing as well (of course). With the focus shifting back to Suzy, we follow her into the school were the headmaster and teacher are introduced. Suzy meets her fellow classmates and then manages to faint during her first dance practice. From here on, the strangeness of the academy slowly begins to reveal itself, as Suzy is quartered to her bedroom and ordered to stay in the academy until she is better.
The thing about Suspiria is that based on plot alone, it's rather dull. Not much of it makes sense, and it kind of just... happens. After the first murders occur, the film kind of trots along with a thing or two happening here or there, until it's time for the film to end. BUT, this film is not known for its plot. There's a lot of visual elements to this film that really make it a worthwhile view-- and if you know what to look out for before you watch it, you'll have a much better experience. So without further ado...
**spoilers**
Visually, Suspiria is presented as a messed up fairytale. As soon as Suzy exits the airport and jumps in the taxi, she enters this fairy tale head on. The spooky forest separates normal society from the academy, and the visuals from here on incorporate bright, saturated colors that emphasize the childish quality of fantasy stories. The apartment complex that contains the first deaths is a bright, bright red, and is filled with symmetric geometry, creating an uneasy visual that is quite appropriate for the site of a murder.
My eyes are bleeding. Argento, you win this round.
In contrast, the dance academy entrance is a deep blue, and appears quite welcoming. When Suzy is later taken to her room, we see that the narrow hallway of the girls' dorms is a deep shade of red. The doors themselves have very high doorknobs, making the women appear as young girls. This representation of infancy is further accompanied by the aforementioned hallway, which symbolizes the birth canal.
Oh, this brings back the good ol' memories, right mom?
So the students are made to appear as infants in this fairytale-- but why? Turns out the academy faculty are witches, led by the originator witch who feeds upon their youth. Oh ok, cool. The representation of infancy is taken one step further when raining maggots force the girls to retreat to a giant hall, where their beds are surrounded by a giant sheet (symbolically, the womb).
The womb, aka gossip central.
So how about that part where the dog eats the face off of his owner? Maybe the dog was bewitched, or maybe he was tired of sitting outside the academy everyday for hours on end. Either way, he picked a good spot to have his late night snack-- turns out that coliseum was the site of various Fascist party rallies back in the day.
Seriously, screw this.
Yeah, this seems like a good place to walk the dog.
About this time Suzy stops drinking the medicated wine that was actually keeping her confined to the academy. After the disappearance of her friend Sarah (who dies by jumping into a pit of barbed wire while trying to escape her killer), Suzy meets with Sarah's colleagues to make some sense of what's going on in the academy. She learns that the originator was rumored to be a witch, and that a witch's followers cannot survive without the witch herself. Suzy then remembers the words that were muttered by the first student whom she ran into (Iris, secrets, blahblah). Returning to the academy, she finds the irises painted on a wall and discovers a secret passageway.
Suzy's late for a very important death I MEAN date.
In a dream like tunnel akin to various fairytale pathways (think Alice in Wonderland), Suzy makes her way to the den that houses the academy faculty, AKA the witch's followers, who are plotting to kill Suzy. She stumbles into the den of the witch, who reanimates the bloody body of Sarah. Suzy manages to kill Sarah and the witch (thus killing the witch's underlings in doing so). As the building begins to go up in flames, Suzy makes a hasty exit to normalcy.
The servants are nothing without their undead master.
The buildup to Suzy's discovery so disturbingly creates tension and unease within the audience by using "the uncanny." The familiar concept of the fairytale is twisted and revealed to be not so kid friendly in the end and throughout. The infancy imagery pulls the viewer in, because what is considered to be infantile usually becomes nostalgic for the viewer, and gives them a sense of familiarity and comfort. Because the "fairytale" contains murders and ultimately evil, supernatural beings, the tale is more immediately rejected.
So. With these visual cues and themes in mind, watching Suspiria should be an entertaining experience. Just don't try too hard to understand the plot.
