Skip to main content

31 Days of Horror Movies: Suspiria


There's really no easily cogent way to prep you for our 6th horror film of the month, so we're just going to dive right in....


Suspiria

I first saw this movie a few years ago, during the month of October, when the Art Theater here in Champaign was screening horror films every weekend leading-up to Halloween. This was during the same month that they screened Peter Jackson's chintzy classic Dead Alive (aka Braindead, more to come on that later in the month). Much like Jackson's quirky feature, Suspiria stood out among the month's offerings, though I'll be damned if I could make head or tail of it.

Ostensibly, Suspiria is about Suszy (Jessica Harper), a young ballet student who arrives at a ballet school in Germany, only to find out that it is run by witches. But Suspiria is so much more than its straightforward plot would suggest. It's kind of a trippy, haunted house-like experience, which much saturated color, quick scares, creeping unease, and an overall far-out vibe (no doubt helped by the soundtrack, produced by the band Goblin).

After viewing Suspiria, it made me want to seek out more films by director Dario Argento (especially the next two in his The Three Mothers trilogy). Alas, it has not yet occurred. Argento's style is definitely one you have to be in the mood for. It's not much of a pastiche of the horror movie genre. That makes it fairly unique and memorable, but also a tad inaccessible, depending on your frame of mind.



Labels:

Comments

  1. Dan JOctober 6, 2012 at 2:34 PM

    I think of the three films in Argento's "series" I prefer Inferno. His films are definitely not what the general US horror movie audience expects.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing).  It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....
Post a Comment
Read more

31 Days of Horror Movies: Thir13en Ghosts

While not a scholar or even a purist, I am somewhat of a film snob. Not a big fan of remakes, specifically when the originals don't need updating. It is therefore an unusual position I find myself in, preferring a remake to an original, and by leaps and bounds. Let's take a look at today's feature...
Post a Comment
Read more

31 Days of Horror Movies: The Woman In Black

Yesterday, we had a lady in white, and today we have.... The Woman In Black Just as Nosferatu was our oldest horror film to be reviewed this month, The Woman In Black is our most recent. Released earlier this year, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe in a more adult role than previously seen in his Harry Potter career. He plays a young lawyer whose wife died in childbirth, so he has been raising their son (mostly) on his own. With money tight, and his job on the line, the young attorney takes an assignment in a remote village, much to his dismay. The small, closed community Radcliffe's character finds himself in is apparently haunted by a woman dressed in all black. When she is seen, a child dies. She is seen quite a lot during the course of the film. The locals get edgy with the attorney, making him feel most unwelcome. And when he is doing his work, sorting through the papers of a deceased elderly woman, he discovers the secret of the woman in black. It doesn't
Post a Comment
Read more