Frightfilms Feature: A brief history of Suspiria

In the early 1970's, there was a massive explosion of Italian horror films known as Giallo. Building on the work of great Italian horror director's like Mario Bava, these films were a combination of horror and crime thriller that were very unique and a joy to watch. In Gialli, the visuals were more important than anything. Story was secondary. Casting was secondary. Getting good actors didn't even matter because all films were dubbed over (poorly) anyway. Gialli tried to find the most beautiful way to murder people, and the single-minded focus to that bizarre desire is what makes the films so interesting to watch today.

No film exemplified these qualities better than Dario Argento's Suspiria, which was odd because Suspiria isn't really a Giallo at all. It didn't have the mystery element that was a hallmark of the Genre.  What it did have was the extreme focus on visuals over everything else. It had the same slick style. It certainly had all of the same problem's the other gialli did, right down to a pretty poor dub job. Yet it wasn't a Giallo. In many ways, Suspiria is a hard film to classify.

This picture is also hard to classify.

The best way to describe Suspiria is a Hitchcockian Disney Horror movie. Dario Argento specifically set up the film to look like Snow White, except for all of the Dwarves being murdered. The film was the last film ever shot using Three-strip technicolor. The buildings and geography were all set up to give the film a very timeless feel. The character's all acted like fairy tale archetypes more than character's. The villains, a coven of evil witches, all feel like the same kind of corrupt authority figures you see a lot in a Walt Disney film. It is widely considered a classic because of its amazing presentation, and for absolutely no other reason.

In almost all other aspects, the film is actually quite bad. When the film was written, Dario Argento wanted the film to feature all children. The studio refused to fund a film that was just going to be banned or censored, so Dario Argento decided to just cast small-breasted female adults into all of the roles. Through careful casting, directing, and placement of props, he managed to make them all look much shorter than they are. He never seemed to bother rewriting the script, though, so all the twenty-somethings say dialogue clearly intended for children (not particularly well-written dialogue, at that.) Sound wasn't even recorded during shooting, Dario Argento had the soundtrack blaring while the Actor's lip synced their lines. The film really went all in on cultivating the right look and feel.

And the film pulled it off perfectly. The visuals are completely eye popping. The colors are extremely vivid throughout the film, it is all extremely gorgeous to look at. The architecture has this fantastic feel about it, like something you would see in a dream. Bright, Primary colors are everywhere in the film, deep blues and yellows and reds. Especially red.

And it's not just the sights that make the film so incredible. It is the soundtrack that really ramps up the tension. Created by the band Goblin, it is unlike anything I've ever heard. The music is unfamiliar and foreboding and completely pervasive. I never feel like I get a break from it. The absolutely insane soundtrack seems to play in every single scene. Having a conversation with a dear friend who's worried about you isn't that scary. Having that same conversation accompanied by the sighs and whispers and bass of the most psychotic soundtrack in history, all in surround sound to make sure that the whole thing feels completely inescapable is completely terrifying. That just makes it even worse when something bad finally does happen, since you were ready for it to happen the second the music started.

Inexplicably terrifying with the right music

The film was released in 1977, had a moderately successful run in Italy and America, and went on to become a cult classic. It went on to be put on Bravo's hundred scariest movie moment's list, as well as a slew of top 10 horror film list's over the years. The film wound up being Dario Argento's most well known film, and spawned the Three Mother's Trilogy, two of which are worth watching (Suspiria and Inferno).

When the film was released on home video, though, it quickly became apparent something was wrong. The VHS release looked vastly different from the bright vivid colors of the film in theaters. The colors were toned down. The same problems existed when the film was released on Laserdisc. Films being a bit more desaturated than they were in theaters aren't usually that big a deal, but in the case of a film whose only reason to exist is to look spectacularly gorgeous these were irredeemable flaws.

It wasn't until 2001 that the film was released on DVD, and that was when they finally got it right. The film was made from a completely new master, and looked as good as it ever did. Even more relevant, the creation of that new master meant that any future releases would look as gorgeous as the 2001 release. Unfortunately, the DVD release wasn't perfect.

People who had never seen Suspiria on home video before doted over the film's video and audio, but reviews from experienced watcher's of the film called the audio into question. It seems that the the sound had been “remastered” as well, for the worse. On the whole, it was made more traditional. The soundtrack was still there, but in some scenes it is toned down and others it is cranked up. That scene I mentioned before with the girls talking while the soundtrack was sighing and blaring? They cut out the soundtrack, and it was just girls talking in their childish dubbed voices. This, combined with several other minor quibbles, left many fans wistfully remembering the old sound.

About this time, several clever fans got an idea. They could get a hold of the old Laserdisc, rip it to their computer, and sync the audio to the DVD's video. This would allow them to show the film as it was intended for the first time since the film left theater's. The whole thing really picked up steam in 2010, when a new British Blu-Ray release had flawless audio but poor video quality (it seems that a new master was created for the DVD release, sadly). This opened it up to anyone with audiovisual expertise, rather than just the one's with access to rare, elusive, outdated video technology like a laserdisc player. There is currently at least one perfect fan restoration of Suspiria available, but It has proven nearly impossible for me to find one that is completely flawless. But I won't stop looking until I experience it the way it was intended. The film is that beautiful.