A Review of Dario Argento's 1977 Suspiria

Technicolor backgrounds. Atypical filming. Consistent overacting.

Made in the mind of Italian horror Director Dario Argento, Suspiria is a very obvious reflection of a particular style of the period. Filmed in 1977 , the plot unfolds as Suzy Bannion, an American, travels to Italy to attend a world-famous ballet academy. Taxiing to the entrance late at night, she happens on a girl mumbling to herself and racing from the building amidst a terrible storm. And on this note the story unfolds.

Without causing a spoiler alert, I would like to focus much of the discussion on the film style and set design. The first clearly distinctive different that makes this film stand out is the color. Typical of the 1970's, it is shot in Technicolor, with incredibly bright shades and colors wallpapering every surface. This is evident not in the shape, but in the color of the abstract patterns on many buildings, both on the outside architecture and the interior. This is successful in its effective intentions by being balanced with lots of black, mostly as shadows and darkness, enhancing the eeriness of the film. The use of color and shadow to provoke a specific atmosphere is mirrored in the geometric set designs, with use of large, straight-edge diamond and triangle shapes balanced by rounded-edge dark wood accents.

While there is some gore in this film, it is more the suspense than the blood that makes it thrilling. This film does not follow the typical rules of suspense in terms of time, nor does it follow a usual storyline when expressing a coming event in the visual sense. Some things are not quite explained, but in this case, it does not seem like such a bad thing. The change in expected timing between our sense of danger and the act in the film is broken down, a positive act on Argento's part, as all too often film viewers become numb to horror because we know when it is coming.

The usual conversationalist style of viewing events and characters is thrown off-kilter, as well. In one scene, when Susie is having a conversation with another character, the camera does not shift easily back from him to her as words are passed. Instead, views change randomly, including from the chin up, so the movie-goer sees only the speaker and the clear blue sky. This would cause you to expect the foretelling of a scene interruption. Will something fall down? Is someone watching the discussion from above? You'd expect that, wouldn't you? But again, this can be seen as a good thing, as it throws us off our usual axis of film guidelines and loses our film-fed expectations.

In a film such as this it is equally, if not more important to focus on the scenes and filming as the story. The story wavers in importance when compared to the creation of the set and film style. Some scenes where plot takes place are almost laughable, but the way in which they are shot makes them ahead of their time.

In conclusion, I would recommend this film to anyone, not only horror fans. Anyone who is interested in film and looking for the unexpected, or looking to appreciate a new genre, would be intrigued by this work. It has surely peaked my interest in not only this film, but other works of Dario Argento's, for if he could create a film such as this, I believe his other works would be very much worth looking into.