Rating: 
Summary: Suspiria
Review: How can you hate this movie? It's without a doubt one of my favorite movies. If you don't like this movie then you must be too dense because it's just so much fun. No, it's not exactly scary, but not all movies have to be scary to be good. The style that the director uses is so cool. All the colors and the wierd camera angles. Plus the music is awsome! It's not the least bit boring and it keeps you guessing until the end. Joan Bennet is really creepy in this movie! Jessica Harper is also fantastic.
Rating: 
Summary: YAWN!
Review: I was fooled by the hype into believing that this was a film every true horror fan should own...don't believe it. This film is more likely to be enjoyed by "art house" cinema enthusiasts than your general Horror audience. The movie is shot with unusual colours which are supposed to add to the movies eeriness, but in my opinion, take away any sense of realism. The plot is reasonable but not enough is made of it; rather than having a climatic ending which the film appears be slowly drifting towards you are left somewhat dissapointed by a cheap effect. I would only reccommend this film to those who are interested in artistic visuals or Argento fans. Otherwise I doubt if you'll appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: Best of its ilk
Review: Produced by one Argento and directed by another, this film casts its spell by laying a very thick veil of atmosphere over a scanty, near-barren world of a plot. What makes 'Suspiria' so scary is a very clever fusion of Dario Argento's slick and innovative direction, excellent set design, a complex soundtrack and the camera's worship of the night. The plot, already complicated, is made more convoluted to the viewer's senses by Argento's myriad quirks in his filming technique. The acting is good and fills in the cracks left by the ridiculously gory killings. Jessica Harper makes for a convincing heroine and the makeup for the witch at the movie's conclusion is nothing short of superb. One skill Argento appears to have toyed with at the time of shooting was making the plot fall away in the viewer's mind, leaving behind an erratic spiralling of crazy, dreamlike sequences of action and 'psychospection'. In 'Suspiria', the first killing is unnerving in an overt manner but by the time the blind pianist's hound has ripped out his throat, the horror has become more esoteric, more symbolic and certainly more disturbing. Strangely enough, Argento was unable to repeat the success of his formula in his later pictures. In effectiveness, 'Suspiria' is his forte as well as the prime example of what the Italian horror film boom of the mid-Seventies to the early-Eighties had on offer to the discriminating fan. Even with its heavy helping of gore, 'Suspiria' is mostly composed of suggestive horror and atmospheric chills. The Goblins provide an utterly frenetic soundtrack of chimes and percussion which serves to genuinely amplify the terror. The photography is beautiful and the quiet dialogue scenes are capable of lulling the viewer into a dreamy false sense of security, making the action and horror bits all the more of a rude awakening when they crash through the ceiling. Streets ahead of 'New York Ripper' and light years beyond its sequel, 'Inferno', 'Suspiria' is easily the choice pick of the Argento collection. In fact, it is so terrifying that it could easily pass as the scariest film of the late 1970's.
Rating:
Summary: Over hyped
Review: Visually the film is quite good. The plot however is quite thin and the acting pretty unexciting. The music had an uncanny tendency to annoy. The plot has little going on, the film could have been shot in 30 mins as a short film and would probably have worked better for it! I can't honestly see why this film gets the rave reviews it does, belive me there are a lot better films of this type out there. Again this film gets a mention as a cult film frequently, but just why it falls into that classification is again a mystery, as mysterious as Argento's use of red, green and blue lighting. If this is Argento's "masterpeice" I'm afraid I won't be trying any others.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the worst films i've ever seen
Review: wow! suspira is super bad. i love horror and jessica harper and i'm surprised i bothered to watch through the end... don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: few better films in the horror genre
Review: Beatiful scoring, fantastic set pieces, lovely camera work, some of the tensest moments I've experienced in front of a tv set, some fun (and very cliched) supporting perfomances, and a very appealing (and a bit befuddled) lead. GOD, if only we could have gotten a story and some character development to boot, I would rank this as a true film landmark. This is by far one of the most well crafted horror films I've seen, and it held my interest through the whole film, making it's flaws easily forgiveable since it's SOOOO good where it's good. Afterwards though, I can think of so many ways they could have made the story more involving and so much more that could have been done with the leads, that it leaves me a bit frustrated. Sure, as just a slasher flick, it's hard to find better than this, but I think horror is a bit more broad a genre, and it's hard to find films that don't compromise and display just that, an "it's just a slasher flick" mentality, and go for the compromise. The ideas for where you can go with this are endless...the dance academy actually being a sort of "hunting grounds" for unsuspecting prospective witches, with the Olgas finding success, and the sara's and pat's paying the ultimate price for not being good enough is my favorite...I would have loved something like that. Or perhaps Suzy having known all along that some supernatural force was at work there, and was covertly working all along to find it and finish it. (that one i see as almost possible, since throughout the film, she seems a bit too wary for someone who doesn't know something's up, and yet very calm, as if she's thinking "yeah, yeah, I'm playing along, playing along, I'm the pretty dancer girl, playing along...*eyes dart* what the hell kind of place is this...okay, playing along, playing along" attitude, especially the eyes darting thing...I thought it was cute (BACK! BACK YOU BIZARRE JESSICA HARPER FETISHESTS!). That and the nice ambiguous, blow it all off ending make her look pretty suspicious there...oh there were six or seven ideas that are better plot structures for this film that I was thinking of, where are they, oh they're lost in the sea of hundreds of better ideas to pick from. It's a love/hate thing for me with Suspiria. I love it while I'm watching it, for the incredible visual and sonic ride it can give in parts, and then hating it afterwards for not having set these scenes into a story where they could make some sense, and have these scenes be propelling something. Oh well...eventually...but for now, it's gonna have to do. I will say I that with all the countless hideously bad horror flicks there are out there, Suspiria definitely gives you more than the average GOOD horror movie, and that's always a bit of sweet relief.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Typical Schlock
Review: Sure, the dubbing is off but for me it added to the movie. It's a great combination of eery and camp with arguably the most effective soundtrack I've ever heard. Turn out the lights and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Read this review.
Review: There are two versions of Suspiria and only two. (Not including television, which I do not consider a version, and not including anything Dario Argenti might have in his closet). The one on the Magnum label, perhaps out of print, is the complete film. The one sold here is a tolerable version. Essentially the following scenes are of questionable completeness: do we have the full opening scenes murder of the girls in the Tanz Akadamie? No version shows a "heart being yanked out". A knife is thrust into a beating heart...hardly the same thing. Do we have the full scene of the blind man killed in the square? Do we have the full ending? The last of the three is indeed where editing most sorely hurts. This is somewhat odd since the first two gore scenes are the more shockingly violent. The ending of edited versions feels rushed compared to the rest of the movie, whose pace is refreshingly slow. I disagree vehemently with those who attack the writing and the plot. The plot makes perfect sense. Here are some clues to its meaning: Jessica Harper's character is not entirely innocent.
Rating:
Summary: One bizarre movie!
Review: Don't look for coherent plot, great script here. Instead you will get the Mother of all Black Comedies - a series of very bizarre set pieces that is alternatiely (or simultaneously) hilarious and extremely gory. The art and music direction is outlandish in the extreme, and that alone makes it worth seeing for anyone interested in the technical aspects of cinema. I have only seen the TV version, and I understand much of the gore is cut out. There really isn't too much that is really unbearable to watch, but what there is manages to be stomach turning and hilarious at the same time. The editing is choppy and the dubbing is poor and sometimes hard to understand, which in a way adds to the weirdness of the movie. I would really like to see this movie in its original form; I'm not sure even if the video version is that. There isn't much that is unique and original these days, but this definitely qualifies!
Rating:
Summary: Artistic Nightmare
Review: It's a gruesome witch-tale set in an European ballet school told in a wild visual style and strikingly beautiful sets, and bloody explicit (and genuinely frightening) murder scenes. Jessica Harper is the most beliveable actress in the film but I think the obvious dubbing of some of the other voices ruins the performances of the other girls. I'm not sure why the dubbing was done (the lips match so they ARE speaking English) but I suspect it may have been done because the accents were too thick. The dialogue is often dumb but this film is a work of art and a real treat for those who can appreciate Argento's brilliant style. Beware of older prints that were cut for American distribution. I once attended a showing of this film at the Chicago Art Institute in which Dario Argento himself appeared in person to talk about his films. Embarrassingly, the film had been one of those butchered prints. The current video releases are intact and in wide- screen. Although I could do without the hokey narrative at the very beginning while the opening credits are rolling--it sounds really stupid and it is NOT needed. This is even present on the current prints and I wonder if it was what Dario had intended. Enjoy!
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