 |
| DIRECTED BY |
| Dario Argento |
| STARRING |
| Jessica Harper |
| Stefania Casini |
| Flavio Bucci |
 |
Sometimes it's not even impressive on a trademark Dario Argento schlock level - dummies are clearly used in some shots (check out the glass-falling scene) and the camera is quite often shaky. At other times, however, it's a reasonably intelligent, creepy, and well shot horror film. Basing a horror movie upon the innocent premise of ballet is a good idea and it serves as an effective juxtaposition for the gore that Argento finds so much pleasure in depicting.
I've always hated the voice dubbing that Argento films always have - here, it appears as if Jessica Harper's voice is always in sync, whereas all of her foreign classmates appear to be simply miming their words - Argento really shouldn't have done so much ADR. I never really could get into his constant use of obtrusive technocrap music either, whereas most fans of his films love that stuff. Nonetheless, 'Suspiria' is the best Argento film that I've seen so far - I hated 'Tenebre.' With this film, Argento sometimes achieves atmospheric instead of slasher horror (the red sheets sequence is well done.)
But then Argento also deviates into mindless slasher horror as well - the dog killing sequence is completely ridiculous and seems completely irrelevant to the actual plot. And how convenient it was for those two medics to materialize there right after the murder took place! Yeah, right. This type of gore is just utterly pointless and done simply for the sake of bloodshed, which represents everything that I dislike about Argento.
For those who enjoy Argento's use of extreme close-ups on exaggerated expressions of fear cut frenetically to an overblown score in order to depict death and gore won't be disappointed - that is, if they can ignore the fact that so many of his characters are abnormally stupid (didn't that girl ever think to look down before she jumped into that pit of barbed wire?) Guess not. The story is decent by horror movie standards and the final few minutes are certainly very creepy and well orchestrated - in a schlocky sort of way.
