"Suspiria" (77) A bloody Snow White colored in the three primary colors of light

“Suspiria” synopsis

Susie enters a prestigious German ballet school. Shortly after entering the school, strange phenomena occur frequently around her, and people are killed one after another. Susie uncovers a secret hidden in the school and discovers that a series of events are the work of a witch.

Index

• Dario Argento's first occult horror
• A witch's story told by Daria Nicolodi's grandmother
• “Big eyes” were essential for the role of Susie, the main character.
• The Goblin soundtrack wears down the audience's spirits.
• Color design inspired by “Snow White”

Dario Argento's first occult horror

I'm not good at horror. I'm very bad at it. I'm really bad at it. The reason is quite obvious. This is because when I was in middle school, I ended up watching ``Suspiria'' (1977) on late night TV. Even though the movie's catchphrase was ``Never watch it alone,'' I remember yesterday that I watched ``Suspiria'' alone in a pitch-dark room and had a chilling and frightening experience. I remember it like. This work is the author's trauma film. When I was writing this manuscript, I took the plunge and revisited it for the first time in several decades, and it was still incredibly scary.

I'll explain what specifically makes it scary later, but first let's look at the origins of the movie. The director is Dario Argento, one of Italy's leading horror film masters. I get the impression that this series only deals with black magic themes, such as witches and demons, but surprisingly, ``Suspiria'' is my first occult horror story. Until then, he had been known as a master of suspense films called giallo (also spelled giallo).

“Suspiria” preview

Giallo means ``yellow'' in Italian, and the name came into use because the covers of paperbacks that featured crime novels were yellow. Giallo movies are characterized by gory and brutal murders, mentally insane criminals, and mystery-solving elements. Yes, it's hard to notice because of the strong visuals, but the secret is that it actually has the structure of a detective novel.

Dario Argento's early works all contained the essence of mystery solving. Both his first work, `` The Poisonous Fang of Joy '' (1970), and his follow-up, `` The Four Flies '' (1971), have a structure in which the main character chases the perpetrator of a bizarre serial murder case. This is a typical "whodunnit" (who committed the crime). ``SuspiriaSuspiria 2'' (1975), which had nothing to do with ``Suspiria'' but was sold as a sequel due to the distribution company's intentions, was also pure giallo with no occult elements (there are psychics, but supernatural (no phenomenon occurs).

Giallo was a genre that was expected to be a hit and was being made explosively in Italy, but Argento was struggling to find a new direction for his film. There were plans to make a movie in the United States based on a novel by HP Lovecraft, the leading author of fantasy novels, but the plans fell through. The person who gave him a hint was Daria Nicolodi, co-writer of Suspiria and Argento's partner both in public and private life.

A witch's story told by Daria Nicolodi's grandmother