Suspiria

Rating:
Summary: cmon, a title?
Review: i collect therefore i am! a classic, a must have , even if you havent seen it buy it!!!!11

Rating:
Summary: not great
Review: This movie deserves 2 1/2 stars. It is not scary. The theme song is pretty good, but overused. The sound effects are often ridiculously busy. The scenes of gore are inappropriately graphic -- a close-up shot of a throat being cut does not fill me with dread, it just makes feel a little bit uncomfortable. The suspense is forced and amateurish. The witch theme becomes intriguing, but surfaces too late in the movie. The ending is strangely obvious and straightforward, in contrast with the rest of the movie.

Suspiria is not a great movie, period. It is not very entertaining, and it is not scary in any way. Go ahead and rent it, but take it for what it is. You may really like it, but I don't see why you would.

Rating:
Summary: Suspiria.
Review: A lot of people are blasting this movie, claiming it did not live up to their expectations after reading so many stellar reviews.

One fellow gives away the real reason for his not liking SUSPIRIA: he thinks Blair Witch is scary and classic.

Sorry, Blair Witch is an awful waste of time, and SUSPIRIA is a masterpiece.

The colors...the music...the sheer lack of concern for the conventions of plot and narrative...the spellbindingly beautiful heroine (?), who in the end of the film casts a weird smile over the whole proceedings, giving a final twist to the story...is she the real "witch", the catalyst for the devastation, a rival to the aging Mother of Sighs (Mater Suspiriorum)?

Then again, if you think Texas Chainsaw is great, or Halloween Part 4567, or Freddy, or Jason, or Scream...then no, you will probably despise SUSPIRIA. You will find it boring. You will complain it is not scary.

You will, in reality, be saying more about your own intelligence than about SUSPIRIA.

Rating:
Summary: Barely Interesting
Review: I had been looking forward to seeing Suspiria for quite some time. I'll confess, the numerous reviews and word-of-mouth got to me. Specifically, the reviews posted here at Amazon. But, holy cow, what an incredibly, dramatically, amazingly OVER-RATED film this is! OK, I'll give you the cool Goblins' soundtrack. I'll grant you Argento's deft use of light and color. But that's it... nothing else.

Suspiria is not a terrible film per se, but one of the scariest, most "beautiful," most memorable horror films ever?! No way. Not even close. As has been noted elsewhere, Argento's "plot" is hardly there at all, and the acting and voice-over work is merely passable. But those are not really the reasons to watch an Argento film. You are suposed to enjoy or appreciate his ability to shock and scare you. I am easily (and happily) scared by horror flicks: really good ones (The Exorcist and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer); pretty damn good ones (28 Days Later and Blair Witch Project); even marginally OK ones (Hellraiser II comes to mind -- not great, but interesting). Suspiria ain't even in the same ballpark. Not the same league. Not the same sport. Not for one instant was I in suspense regarding who the bad guys were. Not at any point did I approach being scared. And, MAN-O-MAN, do you think you could get to anything even BEGINNING TO LOOK SCARY QUICKER THAN THE NEARLY 90 (yes, 90) MINUTES IT TOOK TO GET TO THE FRIGGIN' "SCARY" PART?!?!

The fact that Suspiria takes sooooooo long to get to the confrontation between the protagonist and the bad guys was in and of itself enough for me to recommend against this film (nearly 90 minutes, folks). So why 1 star? Because not all the acting is abyssmal, because the cinematography and camera work is interesting, and the soundtrack is genuinely cool.

But the scares are non-existant (I am honestly amazed that ANY of the reviewers here stated that they were even the tiniest bit frightened), the first (and, essentially, only) act is far too long, and there is a pitiful "resolution" to the film (bad guys all die, heroine walks away... the end).

I am not of the opinion (as has been stupidly and naively stated elsewhere, Lee) that Halloween Part 4567, or Freddy, or Jason, or Scream are "great horror films" -- I think they genuinely suck -- and I resent the idiotic implication regarding my intelligence. The fact remains that this film is over-rated. Period. It is not great nor is it a classic, though it does have some winning aspects, which I have noted. But films like Blair Witch, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original), and the first Halloween ARE terrific pieces of entertainment, and are far better representatives of the horror genre than this silly, silly film.

The thinking-man's horror flick this ain't. It is simply ridiculous to count this film among the greats of the horror genre, European or otherwise... this film simply does not work in nearly any way for me.

Did I miss anything?

Rating:
Summary: The secret I saw was behind the door!
Review: The only thing scarier than the first ninety minutes of this movie are the last ten! Suspiria is a film that I have been holding back on for some time now. The first reason is that I believed it could not live up to the hype. The second is that I have been recently disappointed by some of Dario Argento's latest works. I picked up the guts to go and watch it and this movie was sheer hell for me from start to finish. I was behind the sofa for most of it, howling. I am a grown man and I screamed and screamed! Grown men are not supposed to do that now are they?

Suspiria looks stunning and is only second best in terms of look to Lucio Fulci's The Beyond which has much better camerawork - however the set design, color and use of lighting in Suspiria are world class achievements in cinematography and motion picture strategy. The premise is a simple one. Jessica Harper plays Suzy Bannion, an American ballerina who heads to Germany to attend dance school. When she gets there she witnesses another girl running away from the school and overhears her saying something in the process. These words are important and she remembers them later in the last moments of the film. The running girl ends up staying in her friend's house and both are murdered in what has to be the most visually brutal slaughter yet committed to celluloid. That sequence alone is worth the ticket here. Back in the school more murders take place and Bannion tries to figure out what is the mystery behind the school and the deaths that are occurring there. At its bible sized hole in the heart, Suspiria is a murder mystery and you are left guessing as to what is what and who is who. There are several very scary sequences in this film and Argento manages to pull off a stunt with a blind man and his guide dog that right comes out of the blue. This film was non-stop horror entertainment from start to finish with a whooping ending to boot. My God what a finish! That was a sheer nerve-wrecking experience.

The whole film is one big payoff. The music is dead-on, one hundred percent accurate for this type of movie (and you can be damn sure that there is only ONE movie of this type!). It plays itself out like some kind of kid's fairytale-come-nightmare. Suspiria almost seems like a Tim Burton movie that is instead in the hands of raving sadistic maniac who knows how to make you jump and soil your pants twenty times over. If you watch this film with other people you will hear plenty word's around you to the gist of - "My God, I've just had ANOTHER accident."

Suspiria is NOT a gore / splatter fest like most of the other works from Argento. Yes, Suspiria does have gore and plenty of blood, but this movie is damn near the scariest films I have ever witnessed and I have seen literally hundreds in this genre.

This is a perfect horror film to "susperience™!"

Rating:
Summary: A question....
Review: WHO are these people who question this movie's status because of...acting and plot? What horror movies are they watching? Let's see...Halloween, The Shining, Texas Chainsaw...we love those for the acting and plot? Argento doesn't give a lick about either (obvious), so why not appreciate the film for the cutting, visceral experience it is? Argento is about the visual, the brilliant use of music and color, and toying with his audience. Suspend your huffy, arms-crossed, utterly unshakeable insistence on Masterpiece Theater acting and 100% plausible plots in your horror films, and try relaxing and letting a movie just envelope you, warts and all. This movie is the real deal...a true original.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: Like many others here, I bought Suspiria solely on the hype it has received as 'one of the greatest horror films of all time'. I am a huge fan of the genre and do enjoy other films by Argento, but after watching Suspiria I had no sense of it being even remotely close to one of the greatest horror films of all time.

The film is beautifully shot, as has been stated by others, the use of color is stunning and consistent throughout. The score is great as well. But the plot is fairly thin and the acting is average at best. Some of the effects were somewhat cheesy also, like the scene with dog attacking the piano player. Clearly it could be seen that this was a mannequin, and a poorly constructed one at that. The blood used looked like fingernail polish and nothing like actual blood.

With that said, Suspiria is definitely worth a look. I purchased it and am happy to have it as a part of my collection. But when you stand this movie next to classics like 'The Exorcist', 'Halloween', 'Black Christmas', or 'Carrie' it simply doesn't measure up.

Rating:
Summary: HORRIBLE AND WAY OVERATED!
Review: Wow, this movie was so bad I don't know where to begin.

I have read many rave reviews for this movie from critics and movie makers, such as John Carpenter for example. After watching the movie all I can say is, what are they talking about!!!!!!!?

There is now way you can tell em this is a classic, it is not even a good movie.

Tha acting is laughable!, the story is absurd, nothing feels real. the movie is completely unscary. It is not possible to have a movie be scary when the acting is laughable and there is no real character development.

This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen, the only reason so many people on here gave this movie a good review is because they think they are supposed to like it because critics and filmakers call it a classic.

The only way you can think this is a good movie is if you are a complete and utter moron!

Please do not buy this, don't make the same mistake I did and buy this movie based on so many good reviews. Curse all you gave this movie a good review, YOU OWE ME $20.

tHE ONLY POSITIVE IN THIS MOVIE IS THAT IT DOES HAVE A GOOD SCORE

Rating:
Summary: Suspiria - A Little Overrated
Review: For months I had been hearing about how great Suspiria was on the Internet. When planning a horror movie fest this Halloween, I decided to pick it up and give it a watch with some friends. I had been hyping the movie, and they were believing it.

The movie does look and sound excellent, hats off to Anchor Bay for making another older movie look like it was released in theaters months ago.

The movie began with the effective and famous death scene, and from there it went downhill. Silly dialogue and scenes building towards suspense are cut, seemingly in the middle. People say Argento doesn't focus too much on plot, and here it shows. Had this movie been more streamlined, with the imagery and the camerawork, this could have been what people had been calling it - a true masterpiece. But until that happens, the original Halloween stands as my all time favorite horror movie.

Rating:
Summary: rent if you can, do not buy suspiria
Review: I am compelled to write this review because this movie gets an awful lot of flowery praise. To set the record straight, the movie does LOOK fantastic,, very vibrant colors, incredible lighting and sets that are perfect for a great horror film. Such an incredible production when put together with the great sound of the film.. the surround will blow you away on this movie especially hearing the footsteps around the academy. Now, the real nail in the coffin of this movie is the absolutely sophomoric plot that you are driven to stick with, given such a great looking movie. the story is slow, insipid and completley predictable, with one of the worst hurry-up endings since the original Hellraiser. So much time of this film is devoted to making you "feel" like you're watching a great horror movie, that the climax & deneumont seem as if the creators siad "oh crap, we have to wrap this up in about 5 minutes"..
so virtually NO scares, some decent gore for the time, but very few and far between, hackneyed story, awful ending that will make you feel like you really did waste about 2hrs of your life.
but, great looking movie, that hardly looks dated at all and great sound..