A Masterpiece of Italian Horror

I was massively impressed by the artistic vision of this film, not only does it present a chilling supernatural horror narrative it accompanies it with glorious artistic direction which incorporates elements of Cubist and Abstract art to create a perfect setting for the film. Some elements of the production of the film I found to be reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in that certain scenes of this film create the same eerie atmosphere as Kubrick does through symmetry and the uncanny to portray an unsettling atmosphere. 

The perfect scene to reference in Suspiria is the scene in which Miss Tanner, one of the school teachers, walks down a corridor. This may not seem on face value to be a scene which presents a sinister and supernatural atmosphere but the perfect symmetry of the corridor, soaked in a red hue, is broken by the foreboding and menacing figure of Miss Turner, who from the very beginning of the film has an aura of menace despite her moderately friendly demeanour.

The usage of the colour red in the film is very important to the way it presents dangers and forbearance to sinister events. In fact, one could write an entire critical analysis of this film purely discussing its use of the colour. Throughout the film our main character, Suzy, encounters many strange events whilst she is boarding at the Tanz Dance Academy. A multitude of these events seem to allude to supernatural goings-on and when we witness one of these events, the scene is often masked with a red light. This usage of red, and the film’s toying with light and dark as signifiers for safety and danger, respectively, have become common tropes in modern horror film. However, rarely have I seen a film deal with its treatment of light and shadow in such an artistic way as Suspiria does.

The last thing I’d like to talk about with this picture is it’s fantastic soundtrack by Italian experimental, prog-rock group, Goblin. The music for Suspiria is almost as necessary to its direction as the cinematography, and they work in collaboration to create suspense very effectively. The film’s title theme ‘Susperia’ weaves delicate xylophone melodies with cathartic and evil chants juxtaposing the supernatural and the comforting just as the film does so well.

All in all I was enthralled in Susperia and I’m very interested to see how the 2018 version will stand up to the original.

Find Sam on Twitter here: @c0gdon