Sóhajok

From the extensive film work of respected horror filmmaker Dario Argento, I have only had the opportunity to watch Inferno from the early 90s, which I only remember as having a decent atmosphere and that's about it. Thus, I approached one of Argento's most acclaimed films with certain expectations. The film cannot be denied the effort to create the aforementioned atmosphere, the director works with sound, camera, and architectural elements, and it manages to create truly oppressive feelings at times. Unfortunately, in order for it to work, it would have to maintain a feeling of unknowingness, and mystery, not revealing the essence of phenomena to the viewer, because the moment you understand what's going on, it all falls apart. In the case of Suspiria, it would actually have been enough to have the absence of any meaningful plot and focus only on the aforementioned atmosphere. Otherwise, it starts unpleasantly resembling attempts at artistic pornography from the 70s. There are many disturbing elements in the film, from heavy performances in supporting roles to the naivety of certain scenes and even the disruptive English, because the director was counting on an international audience from the beginning for commercial reasons. If this is supposed to be the showcase of Dario Argento's work, then I will gladly avoid the rest of his work. There is much more interesting stuff to be found in this genre elsewhere. Overall impression: 45%. (2018.02.11)

Suspiria is one of the best Italian horror movies you will ever get the opportunity to see. It is an amazing display of color and gore directed by Dario Argento, with the iconic haunting soundtrack by the band Goblin and a great female protagonist played by Jessica Harper. I finally saw this on the big screen this year, where it rightfully belongs. [The Shockproof Film Festival 2022] (2022.05.15)

I must apologise to Suspiria. Up until today it was harmed by my two-star rating resulting from the first unsuccessful screening, when I was probably still not ready for this Italian horror classic. Yesterday at midnight I had another go and WOW! It’s awesome; one of the most terrifying horror movies ever. A unique artistic stylisation, amazing music, and an atmosphere that you could cut with a knife… The only problem is the plot with several naive moments (the pace counting was bullshit, really). I am very surprised and very satisfied and, under the influence of this experience, in the near future I will rewatch other horror films that I didn’t like the first time around. (2008.06.02)

Pretty uncharacteristic for the late seventies in building a relationship between the film and the viewer, which makes the kind of details nobody cares about, like logic, acting, or story, completely incidental to the individual scenes. These, thanks to the aggressive lighting (which the characters don’t notice, only the viewer) and even more aggressive music, do not create a classic filmmaker's attempt to let the viewer empathize with the characters; on the contrary, they deliberately alienate them and push them into a voyeuristic position where the outcome of the subsequent development of the scene is clear, thus creating not a sense of fear, but a sense of guilt. Which is pleasantly sick. (2013.10.03)

There’s no doubt Suspiria makes imaginative use and extends the possibilities of film as an audiovisual medium of expression. The story, on the other hand, is as dumb as Paris Hilton, but the visuals and music take the film up the ranks of inspirational horror cult movies. Adapting an expressionistic setting and colour spectrum to the changing psychology and moods of the characters like this takes some serious creative balls, which Argento certainly has. It's just a pity that in 98 minutes the film manages to get very solidly boring, because building a simple witch tale with a wannabe feminist overlay solely on novel stylization may be a fine entry in the filmmaking textbooks, but as far as stimulating curiosity about the shape of the plot is concerned, Suspiria remains bland and short of the expectations. The ending is surprisingly good and the gore is traditionally juicy in the Italian way, but I won't go above average with my rating. Sorry. 70% (2018.09.01)