While the remake of Luca Guadagnino divides, the original had been totally unanimous. In 1977, Dario Argento (Phenomena) directed Suspiria, the first part of the triptych " The Trilogy of the Three Mothers" also composed of Inferno and Mother of Tears and dedicated to witches. The general concept of the ensemble is inspired by Thomas de Quincey's famous book, Confessions of an Opium Eater, entitled Suspiria De Profundis. The passage "Levana and our Mothers of Sorrow" evokes three sisters – similar to the three Graces and the three Moires – who are the three Sorrows: the Mother of Weeping, the Mother of Sighs and the Mother of Darkness.
A classic of Italian horror cinema
Suspiria is an amazing and confusing work. A horror film like no other that mixes genres and approaches. The feature film begins as a kind of thriller, a suspense film in which you can't necessarily find your bearings. The visual editing is sound is a nugget. Dario Argento plays with his music, giving it a much stronger intensity for a few moments to very quickly bring down the tension in calm. Very colorful, Suspiria chains the gore elements from the first moments and a murder that will remain engraved in the memories. Largely kitsch, it does not prevent that it emerges a real colorful and personal universe of the film. The sets and costumes are superb and maintain a strange feeling, out of step with reality in front of a nevertheless superb optic. Suspiria is still a visual killer today, and the kitsch side is just another weapon to give a very strong visual identity to Argento's film.
Fantasy movie or down to earth?
Dario Argento leaves doubt hanging over most of his film. Is Suspiria a fantasy film or not?Many horror films play on this sometimes blurred border between real and fantastic. Some try never to cross it and simply have fun on the viewer's nerves, like a tightrope walker between two genres that rarely mix, the time of a fragile balance. Dario Argento plays with precisely this difficult balance to achieve. Strange things may happen, but the atmosphere is heavy and disturbing, but until its grand finale Suspiria will let the viewer hesitate between the two camps. Is it simply a murder story in a music school or a higher entity dominates the characters?
Some films decide not to decide and let the viewer choose. But very often, the director ends up giving the key to the plot to the spectators who still hesitate between realism and fantasy. The remake of Luca Guadagnino does not bother and decides to take a different starting premise where the danger is directly determined. It is this balancing act that gives Suspiria all its flavor, not to have where the danger comes from, that it is immaterial and secret. The feature film becomes a thick mystery embellished with superb sequences, which cause discomfort rather than a real violent fear. Suspiria is also the allegory of the feminine place in society. Film carried by women, it highlights the solitary social condition of the latter but also their physical and sexual acceptance through the theme of dance. In this anxiety-provoking school, Suspiria demonstrates the marital domination over the youth who try to hatch. Classic among the classics we advise you to dive back to 1977 before discovering the 2018 version.
The feature film may have taken a slight beating, but Argento's imagination and inventiveness are still great, magnificent, full of grace and horror.
