Due to its title and reputation for being an unusual breed, I suspected “Suspiria” (1977) would be a tough watch, but it’s actually a dark fairy tale slathered with style. Like those memes of a slice of pie placed within the whipped cream container.
But not in a lazy or gaudy way. The film – considered by many to be the best of writer-director Dario Argento’s lauded career – takes all the traditional ways of presenting a horror story and turns them on their ear, ultimately reaching the same destination by a different path.
A sound foundation
Sight and sound are his two main tools. First, the sound. Instead of a classical orchestra, he uses his go-to band Goblin (called The Goblins in the credits); so we have rock instruments, plus blasts of animal sounds mixed in. This is not nails-on-a-blackboard noise, though; it’s mesmerizingly incongruous yet melodic enough that you could listen to the score album for pleasure. In fact, the main “Suspiria” theme is ethereal.
“Suspiria” (1977)
Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Thomas De Quincey
Stars: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci
Though classical orchestra – such as blasts of horn for jump scares — remains the norm in horror, Argento’s influence is felt; an example is the hellscape score of 2016’s “The VVitch.” That film also carries over Argento’s approach of having the score dominate the mix and then abruptly stop at the end of a scene, jerking us back to the normalcy (for now) of the next scene, as indicated by the absence of music.
Almost all the scenes are long, so “Suspiria” is not exactly a rollercoaster; it’s more like a bungee jump. A viewer is jerked back and forth, but in a manner we start to anticipate and even enjoy on a certain level. Rather than simply imparting information (a girl is killed), we feel the deep meaning of the information (she’s killed in a manner that was horrific for her, and it’s going to be horrific for us because we must linger on her pain, or the corpse, while the music gets wild).
Such sights to show you
Second, the sights. There might be movies more aggressively set-designed than “Suspiria,” but not many. Every room of the German ballet school attended by our American heroine Suzy (Jessica Harper) is an initially pleasant but unconsciously mood-producing primary or secondary color, and darker scenes are lit by colored lights.
I’ll leave it to color-theory analysts to break down how the specific choices create mood. But it’s clear that Argento uses traditional storytelling tricks, too. Suzy seems to be gaslit by all of Germany when she arrives, as if she’s in “Rosemary’s Baby.” Big things (a massive rainstorm) and little things (the cab driver doesn’t understand her directions, even though she is clearly enunciating) create unease.
Another big blast of weirdness hits her upon arrival at the school. Despite possessing her invitation letter, no one will let her past the locked door. Argento chooses this moment to expand the mysteriousness beyond Suzy’s uneasy situation: A student goes rushing out the door into the woods, babbling gibberish (that will later coalesce into clues).
Harper’s bizarre experience
Harper (also the best part of “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Stardust Memories”) provides perfect understatement to Suzy. She’s passive – things are happening to her – but we get the sense that she’s not dumb or weak; rather, she is soaking up information. Once she realizes her food and wine are drugging her to sleep, she’s ready to be an active protagonist.
“Suspiria” uses a language style I also observed in Polanski’s “The Tenant” (1976). I’m not sure if there’s a term for it, so I’ll call it deliberate dubbing. The action is set in Germany (where it’s filmed), but it’s an English-language production. The first audience is English speakers, then dubbing and subtitles would be used for other markets.
Suzy and her closest school friend, Sara (Stefania Casini), speak English. Some other actors appear to be speaking English, but phonetically or with a thick accent, so they are dubbed into clear English. (The dubbing work is generally excellent, but it can’t be totally hidden.) And in a few cases – notably the professor who outlines the school’s history of witchcraft to Suzy – the actor is apparently speaking German and then it’s dubbed into English.
I’m not sure if this approach to language is intentional or a logistical workaround, but – as with “The Tenant” – it creates imbalance in a good way. The professor – the character who is directly giving good, workable information to Suzy – is also the one most removed from reality, in the sense that the words don’t match his mouth movements.
Though the title “Suspiria” makes me think of emotional confusion, the story is straightforward and only 92 minutes (and for a surprisingly long stretch, Suzy and Sara are only concerned with the teachers’ weird behavior, not with solving a specific puzzle; in that sense, the story doesn’t kick in for quite a while). I wasn’t checking the time; I got wrapped up in this world. So much so that the hour-longer 2018 remake now seems somewhat appealing rather than daunting. What additional secrets and nuances of the mystery might be found in this ballet school?