SUSPIRIA

Susie, do you know anything about...witches?
Ok guys I'm back with another franchise in my sights.  I'm a little gored-out after over 12 hours of Saw movies so I'm really changing gears here with my next selection.  While the Saw series is a hyper realistic, hyper edited, hyper violent franchise, the Three Mothers Trilogy is old school in all the best ways--tension builds and builds and builds, atmosphere is established, characters are developed, the set pieces are elaborate.  And the gore is incredibly shocking in these three Italian films.  Even in a flick 30 something years old, you're still seeing things on screen that you haven't seen before.  Dario Argento is one of the biggest names in all of horror.  If you haven't heard about Mr. Argento, this blog is not for you.  If you haven't seen anything from Argento, email me and I will pay for your Netflix.  Argento's quality has seriously declined in recent years, but man, watching Suspiria again, I was struck by the atmosphere and sense of WTF-ness that Argento builds.  There is something about Argento movies.  The closest thing I can compare it to is a dream.  Or maybe a hallucination brought on by serious opiates.  Logic, chronology, physics, really don't have a place in these films.  Apparently Argento got the idea for three mothers from a book called "Suspiria de Profundis by Thomas de Quicy.  de Quincy's other book?  It's called Confessions of  an English Opium Eater. Yeaah, so when your source material is the medieval equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson, your movies are going to turn out TRIPPY.  One section of the Profundis says that while there are three Fates, and three Graces, there are also three Sorrows: "Mater Lacrymarum, Our Lady of Tears," "Mater Suspiriorum, Our Lady of Sighs," and "Mater Tenebrarum, Our Lady of Darkness." Can you guess which witch we'll be talking about today?  
Suzy Banyon decided to perfect her ballet studies in the most famous school of dance in Europe. She chose the celebrated academy of Freeborge. One day, at nine in the morning, she left Kennedy airport, New York, and arrived in Germany at 10:40 p.m. local time. 
Let's get on to the plot shall we?  Those are seriously the first lines of the film, and that's about as much sense as you will get out of this movie.  When Suzy arrives to the school it's during a violent storm.  She meets a terrified woman who is babbling something at the entrance.  Suzy can't hear because of the storm. Then the woman trucks past her and Suzy is left locked outside of the dance studio.  The woman runs to a friend's apartment and confides in her that something strange is happening at the studio.  She is leaving the country the next day.  She is so clearly terrified.  Something is stalking this poor girl.  Something with with glowing yellow eyes, and hairy arms.  After the girl is dispatched, in one of the longest, most shocking ways I've seen (STILL! It's been 30 years! See this movie!) we pick back up with Suzy outside of the dance school.  She is let into the school and begins seeing and hearing things that she cannot explain.  Suzy winds up in the room of the murdered girl and begins to learn the secret history of Freeborge.  Turns out that this school was once the home of a power witch named, yup, Mater Suspiriorum.  Did the Mother of Sighs die?  Snoring, maggots, Udo Kier, invisibility spells, zombies, secret rooms, and the most badass soundtrack ever ensue. 

 Nobody simply dies in an Argento movie.  His murders wind up looking like paintings.  The color of the blood he uses reminds me of that melted crayon color from Romero's Dawn of the Dead.  And did I mention the soundtrack?  A band called Goblin, scored many of Argento's movies but this score is, in my opinion of course the best one.  Check out my playlist and there are a few samples of Goblin's work. Like I said before, this movie is like watching a dream unfold.  The colors, the noises, the way people speak even, they all evoke a dreamlike sense.  It's hard to describe, so do yourself a favor and buy this.  Skip the rental and buy this.  


What I Like 
I like how Udo Kier's accent/dub work makes him sound like someone from the Midwest.  
I like how the first murder escalates and gets worse and worse with each development. 
I like the fact that a band named Goblin exists.  
I like that witches are seriously the bad guys in these films and they are actually scary.  
I like how if you listen closely to the soundtrack, the singer pretty much tells you what's going on. 
I like how this movie has the most awesome tag-line on their poster of all time.   


One film down and two to go.  These films are awesome and a really great change of pace from the CSI like level of detail and gore we get nowadays.  Just take a look to the right.  Told you there were zombies in this flick.  See you soon guys, Mater Lacrymarum and Mater Tenabrarum await...