October 6th - Suspiria

I pondered about choosing whether to pick this film or not. Not because it's not a good film, but because I don't know how well known it is.




Suspiria remains to be one of my favourite films of all time and is the first film of the Three Mother Trilogy.

Listen to this while you read on.



It follows young Suzy Bannion, an American ballet dancer, who travels overseas to Germany to attend a well renowned dancing school. When she arrives at the school during a storm she witnesses a student leave and shout something, which gets lost in the wind. Suzy tries to get the school to let her in but is refused and told to go away. As she drives back to town, she witnesses the woman running through the woods at a frantic pace, as if she was being hunted. These are the opening scenes. From here, the film gets powerfully stronger and more beautiful as the 99 minute masterpiece plays out.

Witches. The film follows the story of a school run by witches, whose founding member was a powerful witch named Helena Markos. She is one of three mothers. More importantly, she is known as Mater Suspiriorum, the Black Queen, the wisest and oldest of the three. The other two are the focus of the other two films. Inferno, which features Mother Tenebrarum, is the Mother of Darkness and Shadows, the youngest and cruellest witch, who lives in New York city. The most beautiful and powerful mother is the Mother of Tears (Mater Lachrymarum), whose name serves as the mother and film title alike. Be forewarned, Mother Of Tears is not an enjoyable watch. However, inferno is quite good.

Firstly, the film is so incredibly lit with vibrant colors that it’s never short of breathtaking. With blue, yellow, purple and whole other array of coloured backgrounds, the film feels like a dream at times, incredibly surreal but stunning. The colors are seemingly often physical manifestation of the emotions and feelings of the characters in the scenes, but never to the point where it’s too much. At least not for me.

Panic.


Wonder.


Terror.



Not only is Suspiria Dario Argento’s greatest achievement,but it is also one of Goblin’s best works as well. Argento and Goblin collaborated on the score to create one of the most atmospheric and creepy scores in horror history. Goblin and Argento have worked together many times in films such as Profondo Rosso, Deep Red (which Justice would use years later), and Phenomena. You may know them from George Romero’s well known film, Dawn Of The Dead, which they wrote what I like to call a funeral funk score. Goblin’s progressive style and inventiveness have etched their place in horror history , and for many directors, have brought an eeriness to their films that no other musician could have created. Their banging on drums with plenty of reverb and delay, as well as exercising their skill on obscure greek instruments only makes the film better and more intense.




With visuals that make blood closer to paint than that which pours from our veins, Dario Argento’s Suspiria is combination of art, horror and atmosphere that is not restricted or forced to remain within genre boundaries. Watch it!