This week me and my squad watched Suspiria during our first ever pandemic and it helped us dissociate from reality with its technicolor german expressionism and sick prog rock score. I had seen the film only once in high school and was too scared to turn the volume higher than 10, so I had entirely missed the musical component for years! This film was considered an “essential” for art students at my school because of it’s stunning visuals, and opened a treasure chest of european films for me that seemed to follow no cinematic basis that I had ever seen before. It actually lead to me seeing Valerie’s Week of Wonders coincidentally. The concept of foreign horror films were so focused on the experimental visual-centric scenes in a completely different way than American made films, and lead to me discovering another of my favorite genres, Italian spaghetti westerns!! I digress, let’s talk about witches. 

From the very first shot right up until the closing credits, it’s brilliant visuals will take your breath away. Though he was working on a tiny budget, Argento uses colour and light with such precision. His vivid reds and searing whites contrast with sussurating blues and edgy greens; when we are watching a blind character walking alone, everything slips into luscious shades of grey. Those who doubt the artistic potential of the horror genre should be nailed down and made to watch it.

them hues tho

Argento further develops the film’s dreamlike nature by utilizing, as Peter Sobczynski, a film analyzer, calls it

“a truly go-for-baroque approach that takes all of the stylistic tricks at his disposal and pushes them to their limits and beyond. One of his key collaborators is cinematographer Luciano Tovoli, whose previous efforts, such as Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger” (1975), were marked by a down-to-earth realism. In “Suspiria,” he went as far in the other direction as possible. In this film’s unearthly visual scheme, mirrors, filters, enormous arc lights and offbeat colors are accentuated by Technicolor’s famous three-color dye transfer process.”

The vivid hues combine with a constantly moving camera to create one of the most distinct-looking films of any genre to emerge during this period. Adding to the surreal atmosphere is the thrilling score composed and performed by prog-rock group Goblin, who created rough versions of their music for Argento to play on the set while shooting scenes in which they would be featured. 

5 goblins 3 cigs

Argento’s visuals work in perfect harmony with the soundtrack he helped Goblins to compose, full of complex shifting melodies which play on the subconscious, adding to the sensation of lurking danger. The film is set in a ballet academy where young American Suzy Bannion (expertly played by Jessica Harper – cult queen and adoptee of Jim Sharman) begins to suspect that something is amiss. Fellow students are going missing and there are rumours of witchcraft. As she begins to investigate, Argento increases the tension almost unbearably. We also read that the film is almost entirely redubbed, making the audio just a bit off-putting and spooky as the characters mime the words that seem just slightly out of sync. In our reading by Andrew Cooper, he writes about the invisible power of the witches carried out throughout the film, displayed very subtly. Small things – a bat in a closet, the aggressive techniques of the teachers, the cliquishness of some of the other girls – build up into a tremendous sense of oppression, and real fear is not far behind.

lol

ALSO I love that this movie shows an early example of one of my favorite horror tropes, women laughing in the face of evil. It is later revisited in the final scenes of two of my favorite female-centric horrors – The VVitch and Midsommar. It is an excellent shot that encapsulates cathartic female rage and liberation.

You can always count on italians for some gaudy, fleshy gore to help you get through a stay-home order, and might I add that the fluffy hairstyles made the horror all the more bouncy and dramatic. I’m glad we can still continue this class online, and I can’t wait for our next viewing. I know it’s stereotypical but I probably watched Dazed and Confused upwards of 50 times in high school, and I don’t doubt it will cheer everyone up this next week.

Sobczynski, P. (n.d.). “Do You Know Anything About Witches?”: “Suspiria” at 40. Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/do-you-know-anything-about-witches-suspiria-at-40