Dario Argento’s Suspiria

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Yesterday, I watched one of my favourite horror films, Dario Argento’s masterpiece, Suspiria. The first time I saw this was at the Irish Film Centre some years ago during their annual season of horror films they hold every Halloween. The showing of Suspiria was following by the excellent Tenebre and, in the absence of the original film prints, uncut prints from American-sourced laserdiscs were used instead. Both films made an immediate impression on me but it was Suspiria that really stood out in the memory. At the time, it was really difficult to find uncut versions of Argento’s films unless you owned a laserdisc player and imported discs from America. It was a few years later when an uncut Suspiria was released domestically on DVD. I immediately bought it and watched it again and again. Repeated viewings really highlighted to me the sheer craftsmanship of the film. There was an obvious homage to Hitchcock in the way Argento physically moved the camera and how he framed his shots. The use of colour is significant in Suspiria and reminded me of Hitchcock’s use of primary colours in his masterpiece, Vertigo. Argento unfortunately also shared with Hitchcock an excessive interest in portraying women as victims of violence. There is a scene in Suspiria where a female character is attacked by a bird and the close-up of the terrified actress’s face is very reminiscent of Tippi Hedren in The Birds.

Suspiria is a very stylised film not just in its masterful use of colour but also in its use of sound. The soundtrack by the rock band, Goblin, is deployed with startling effect and creates a uniquely unsettling atmosphere. The use of close-up is also notable here. The lead actress (Jessica Harper, who was also very good in Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, but whose career unfortunately petered out as the Eighties progressed) is often observed in close-up and her very expressive eyes are used to very good effect. She can express a great deal more with her eyes than was in the script and this talent was recognised and utilised very well by Argento.

The biggest failing of Suspiria, and this is true of all of Argento’s films, is an interest in violence that borders on the exploitative. There are scenes here where the camera lingers too long and the dramatic effect is diluted. A better director would have known when to cut to the next scene or to pan the camera away to a silhouette of the action. I think of John Carpenter’s Halloween, another exceptionally well made horror film, and another director who, like Argento, was greatly influenced by Hitchcock. Halloween derives its power from its sense of suspense. It is not a violent film and creates its sense of terror in the viewer’s mind. Much of its violence is off-screen and Carpenter is much more interested in an inexorable building of tension than violent set-pieces.

However, I still rate Suspiria very highly. It is an utterly intoxicating audio-visual experience. One enterprising soul has uploaded it to YouTube and I highly recommend a viewing to anybody who has never seen this fine film:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Aezgr4D-1Uc