Suspiria (1977)

There are horror films that unsettle you through story, through character, through slow-burning dread. And then there is Suspiria, which arrives in 1977 from Italian director Dario Argento and announces itself as something else entirely. An American ballet student travels to a prestigious dance academy in Freiburg, Germany, and finds that the school conceals something far more sinister than a demanding syllabus. That is more or less the plot summary, and anyone expecting more narrative scaffolding than that is, well, in for a surprise. Argento had already made a name for himself in Italy with a string of giallo thrillers, a genre blending crime, psychological horror and a certain operatic visual flair, and Suspiria represented his move into something more overtly supernatural. It remains among the most discussed and argued-over horror films ever made, the kind of film that turns up on best-of lists and generates heated pub conversations in equal measure. For Italian horror enthusiasts, it sits alongside other landmarks of the country's genre output, films like Cemetery Man and Nightmare City, in demonstrating just how far Italian filmmakers were willing to push style as a mode of storytelling.

Produced by Seda Spettacoli and running at 99 minutes, the film was shot to take full advantage of Technicolor's three-strip dye-transfer process, a printing technique that was already being phased out at the time. Argento and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli made a deliberate choice to pursue a hyper-saturated, almost hallucinatory colour palette, one that owed more to German Expressionism and the fairytale illustrations of Walt Disney than to conventional horror filmmaking. The result is a visual language that has very few peers in the genre, or frankly in cinema more broadly. The score was composed and performed by Goblin, a progressive rock band who had already collaborated with Argento and whose work here has taken on a life of its own outside the film. The combination of Argento's visual ambition and Goblin's thunderous, synth-driven soundtrack was, by any reasonable measure, a bold and unusual thing to bring to a mainstream horror audience in 1977.

Leading the film is Jessica Harper as Suzy Bannion, the American newcomer whose wide-eyed bewilderment carries the audience through increasingly strange and violent events. Harper was relatively early in her screen career at the time, and the role requires less conventional acting than a kind of sustained, reactive presence, someone for the audience to hold onto as the world around her becomes progressively more unhinged. She is supported by Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé and Barbara Magnolfi, a cast that collectively brings a distinctly European register to proceedings. Whether that register serves the film or contributes to its notorious tonal oddness is, as you might expect, very much a matter of opinion. For a broader sense of the decade's range, it is worth noting that 1977 sat in a remarkably fertile period for world cinema, and other films from the same era reviewed here, such as Futureworld and A River Called Titas, give some sense of just how varied the landscape was. Suspiria, though, occupies its own peculiar corner of it.

Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) is the reddest film ever. It's less a film and more a sensory assault wrapped in neon nightmare logic, and visually, it might be the reddest thing ever committed to celluloid. From the very first frame, you’re drenched in crimson: blood-red lights, lurid shadows, hallways glowing like they’ve been lit from within by hell itself. The production design is surreal and expressionistic, the special effects are grotesque and impressively practical for their time, and the atmosphere is thick with dread. It’s a horror film built on mood, not sense. The story (about an American ballet student who uncovers a secret SPOILER hiding in her dance academy) is barely there. What plot exists is tangled, illogical, and often nonsensical. Characters act like mannequins, motivations vanish mid-scene, and the dubbing is gloriously bad. The dialogue so stilted and awkward it borders on comedy. You can’t help but laugh at lines like “I feel an evil force all around me!” delivered with zero inflection. And then there’s the soundtrack. The Goblins deliver one of their most iconic scores (pulsing synths, eerie chants, shrieking highs) but here, it’s too much. It doesn’t underscore the horror; it dominates it. In scene after scene, the music blasts at full volume, drowning out dialogue, action, even tension. It’s brilliant in isolation, but overwhelming in context. So yeah, considering the hype (this cult masterpiece, this pinnacle of giallo horror) I was disappointed. It’s not coherent, not scary in a traditional way, and not well-acted by any stretch. But I still liked it more than I disliked it. There’s something hypnotic about its chaos, its boldness, its sheer commitment to style over substance. Flawed, messy, and absolutely bonkers, but unforgettable for its visuals and audacity. A fever dream of a movie. Not great horror, maybe, but essential viewing for fans of the strange and the stylish. Just don’t watch it expecting logic. Watch it for the red.

And that tension between spectacle and coherence is probably what stays with me most. I've sat through horror films that are technically competent but leave nothing behind, and then there's something like this, which is a proper mess in several respects and yet lodges itself somewhere in your memory and refuses to shift. It's the kind of film you find yourself describing to people who haven't seen it, reaching for words and realising they're all inadequate. Flawed is the right word, genuinely flawed, but flawed in a way that feels earned rather than lazy. If you have any appetite for horror that prioritises atmosphere and sheer visual nerve over plotting or performance, you owe it to yourself to watch it. Just maybe keep the remote handy for the volume.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1977  | Watched: 2025-11-04

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Italy: Nightmare City (1980) · Cemetery Man (1994) · One Way or Another (1975) · Chicken for Linda! (2023)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)