A young american travels to Europe to join a dance school to find that it's run by a coven of witches.
Without a doubt my favorite of all of Dario Argentoís movies, Suspiria is a definite classic that will never fall short of itís great image itís put forth since itís release. Though the movie is a year older than I am I gotta say itís definitely on my top 5 favorite movies of all time.
Jessica Harper plays the American Suzy Bannion who flies out to Europe to start school at a prestigious dance school to perfect her ballet studies. She arrives on a dark and stormy night at the school and tries to get in but gets turned down for the night, but not until after one of the students, a girl named Pat Hingle, screams out something into the building then runs off. Drenched and tired Suzy decides to go find place to crash so she gets back in her cab and rides off, but when she looks out the side window she notices Pat running through the woods. Well poor frightened Pat ends up at her friendís place in this nice immaculate building where she asks to stay the night, but threatens to leave in the morning because sheís tired of the school, or something to that note. Anyways she goes to the restroom to dry off and gets pulled out the window and pulled on the roof of the building then stabbed repeatedly, tossed through a stained glass window in the roof of the building and hung by a cord, the glass and molding crashing down to the floor below and ironically enough, onto the friend that was putting her up for the night, killing her as well. The vibrant red blood drips from both bodies and the scene closes out.
 
The next morning back at the school Suzy is finally let in and introduces herself to the main instructor Miss Tanner and the famous, or so in the movie, Madame Blanc who ironically enough remembers Suzyís aunt from her past. Anyways all the formalities aside, she goes to the locker room and makes a few friends with a few pretty but immature fellow students and tries to make herself at home. She, at some point, has a flashback of what Pat was saying before she runs off to die which sticks in her head throughout the rest of the movie as she puts the pieces together to find out exactly what scared her off, and to find out whatís so intriguing behind the walls of the dance school. With lots of twists and turns Suzy searches for the answers that may or may not have an effect on her very life. Nothing seems normal in the dance school and Suzy is the only hope of finding out what the hell is going on.
Vibrant blood, great colorful lighting, great atmospheric sets and a great cast of colorful actresses pushes this movie in the high end of the great horror genre. I mean they even put good use to maggots and razor wire in Suspiria, which is definitely not easy to do. But I guess for me what sets this movie aside from the rest of Argentoís movies is the soundtrack, though the band Goblin did the soundtracks to quite a few of his films. For some reason the soundtrack in this movie stuck out more than all of the others, it really pushed forth this feeling of fear and torment that I havenít been able to hear in any other soundtrack to date. I think that it really sets the mood for the entire movie and along with the excellent colored lighting, the reds, blues, purples, and greens, This movie just pushes itself out a window outside the movies before and after itís release and for that I give this movie much credit and praise. If you havenít yet seen Suspiria go out and buy it, renting this movie would be an insult to horror itself, this movie is top shelf material, period.
As I said before definitely a movie to put on the top shelf of your collection, everything about this movie is great. Don't rent this movie, OWN IT!
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Dario Argento's Suspiria
MOVIE YEAR: 1977
DIRECTOR: Dario Argento
WRITING CREDITS: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
CAST: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci
COUNTRY: Italy
RUNTIME: 98 min
RATING: 10/10
Suspiria Website/IMDB Click here
Suspiria Trailer Click here
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