Suspiria (1977)
Didn’t know what to expect but I was immensely hooked right from the start. The music, the colors, the atmosphere and the whole style is unlike anything. In a weird way, reminds me of spaghetti westerns. What it may lack in acting skills and dubbing qualities, it makes up for it with pure style. The music especially has the same importance to the experience as Morricone’s music had for his westerns.
It is just shy of the absolute high mark for me, even though practical everything here is amazing. It lacks some character and with some notable exceptions (the maggots and the barbed wire) felt more cool than scary. Suzy has practically no personality and is mostly there to drive the mystery plot forward, which does keep things interesting all the way through. I also appreciated how it often surprised me by doing something completely different that what I would have expected. Like the maggots in the ceiling, that actually turned out to be real and happening in the real world, and not just some horror vision in her mind - which we have seen a thousand times before in other movies.
It is also easy to see how this movie can be very divisive, because if you are not hooked on the style from the start, there is probably no coming back and it will seem pretty ridiculous what is happening on screen.
Did I mention the score? Anyways, it deserves all the praise.
Rating: 4