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Suspiria

Suspiria

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow!
Review: This movie is a feast for your eyes! The colored lighting is extremely effective and beautiful in a dark way. The soundtrack is one of, if not my favourite soundtracks. The music's creepy as hell! The atmosphere is just amazing, I am yet to see a film with an atmosphere like this one. My one beef with this movie is the story line, It builds up to a climax/ending that seems almost over simplified, and almost anti-climactic; but then I am yet to see the sequel. I'd recommend this to anyone with an open mind.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What the fuzz is about?
Review: Does all of you wrote good reviews to not regret your purchase? What a dumb director! I have seen all Argentos movies and any of them has the merit to be a good film.

Don't get me wrong: As an artist and 3 years in cinema studies I have About 200 horror DVDs in my collection and love 80% of them.

Yes the colors, lightning blah blah blah but Booooring! Sloww pace and actors dance, and speak, and walk and speak and go on... Mr Argento has forgotten something: A movie is to be seen not to be told! It's not a book it's a movie... There is just about 15 minutes in the whole thing that it worth seeing and each of these minutes are really great and that's why my 2 stars are for. Prepare a pillow for over an hour.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fairytales from hell
Review: Dario Argento chose to temporarily leave his giallo roots behind for this halucinatory and supernatural thriller.
This is easily one of the best Argento films, spawning a truely chilling and beautiful soundtrack, cowriten with the infamous band Goblin.
This films relies heavily on atmosphere and Arento never fails to deliver beautifuly dark sets and halucinatory colors. This film is truely a work of art and would set a standard for future Italian film makers.
With one of the most ruthless and chilling murder scenes that I have ever wittnesed, this film is truely in a class of its own.
Some tips about this particular DVD- I would actually recommend getting the three disc set rather than this one and also the daemonia music video is extremely cheesy and is not worth your time of day, unless you want to see a bunch goofy looking metal heads attempting to look evil and vampirical while churning out Goblin's theme.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This was dumb.
Review: That's a few hours of my life I won't get back, but I'm sure it was good for the time it was made.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A visually stunning journey of horror
Review: "Suspiria," directed by Dario Argento, tells the story of a young American woman who goes to study at a ballet school in Europe. But a gruesome murder early in the film indicates that horror lurks behind the school's elegant facade. More horrors unfold before the true nature of the school is revealed.

I must admit that while a lot of hype seems to surround this film, I didn't find it to be as shocking or horrifying as I expected--perhaps the passage of time and my experience of more shocking films made after it has blunted its impact as a work of pure horror. For me the enduring power, pleasure, and importance of "Suspiria" lie in its blend of visual and musical style. Virtually every frame of the film--including the goriest and most violent scenes--is a lovingly crafted work of art. Set design, costumes, etc. all come together to enhance Argento's brilliant use of color, shadow, shapes, and visual motifs. At his best Argento creates an enchanting poetry of sadistic violence. This visual genius is marvelously enhanced by Goblin's creepy, bold musical score--it's music that at times relentlessly assaults the listener.

"Suspiria" has been given a lavish treatment in this 3-disc DVD edition, complete with a wonderful booklet about the film. Disc 2 contains a well-made documentary that commemorates the film's 25th anniversary. It features interviews with the film's stars (Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, and the marvelous Udo Kier), director Argento, the musicians who created the unforgettable score, and other key behind-the-scenes creative talents. Disc 3 is a CD of the score. It's a total package that really enhanced my appreciation and enjoyment of this remarkable film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Strangely Beautiful, Strangely Frustrating
Review: In 1977 SUSPIRIA was considered an extremely violent film; in the wake of the slasher genre, however, the violence involved seems less horrific than you might expect. What continues to work, however, is the look with which director Argento endows the film, particularly in regard to the set designs, camera set-ups, and use of color. Visually speaking, this is an amazingly beautiful film, with Art Nouveau designs, deceptively simple cinematography, and washes of intensely artificial color that dazzle with intensity. Even in the midst of its horrors it is almost impossible to take your eyes from the film, such is its strange beauty.

The cast is equally strange. Leads Jessica Harper and Stefania Casini are very typical of 1970s ingenues, but they each have a quality that sets them slightly apart from the young actresses of the time. Barbara Magnolfi makes an impression as Olga, one of the school's students, as does Susanna Javicoli as a harsh instructor. Even Udo Kier, cult star of Andy Warhol's FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA puts in an appearance. But oddest of all is Hollywood's Joan Bennett, who gives a truly flawless turn as the seemingly lady-like and ultra-respectable Madame Blanc.

Less successful is the story itself, which is so slight as to be almost incidental. Young dancer Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) has enrolled in a famous Italian ballet school--and upon her arrival finds another student fleeing the school in hysterics, a student who is not long after murdered in a horrifically brutal way. Odd incidents follow, and when Suzy's classmate and friend Sara (Stefania Casini) goes missing, Suzy begins to piece together the truth.

Another flaw, at least to my mind, is the soundtrack. While it has been widely admired, I can think of few film soundtracks that are quite as heavy-handed in their dynamics as SUSPIRIA. That aside, and while the film has considerable creepiness, it isn't frightening per se. In the final analysis, this is a film which I think is best seen by cult connoisseurs--and even they are more likely to admire than to flatly like it. Recommended, but rent it first.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too much hype
Review: I started this movie in the hope that it would be one of the scariest I have ever seen. I was sadly disapointed! The first kill seen was good but then the middle of the movie was slow and boring. It had a "Rosemary's Baby" feel to it. This would not even rank in the top 20 of scary movies I have seen. If you are looking for a scary movie don't choose this one. If you are looking for a ok movie with a good story this might be what you are looking for. I think the problem was I did a lot of reading on this movie and got caught up in all the hype of the movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If Luis Bunuel had directed a horror film . . .
Review: . . . oh, but then, he did (*The Exterminating Angel*, *Los Olvidados*. Et cetera). Okay, if he had directed a GORY horror film, *Suspiria* would probably have been the one. Surreal in the extreme, director Dario Argento's movie eschews coherent plotting for sensorial assault. The result is a mixture of mind-blowing mastery and almost-laughable incompetence. The mind-blowing mastery part would include the entire opening sequence, with Jessica Harper's arrival in a Berlin airport radiating hallucinatory lighting and existential menace, followed by the baroquely photographed murder of a young woman who attends the ballet academy. The fate of the blind piano player at the academy, and the red-lit scene where the girls fearfully whisper to each other while a silhouetted figure behind a sheet makes beastly-sounding snoring noises, would also fall under this category. The almost-laughable incompetence parts would include stuff like the really lame episode involving a toy bat attached to a string. Generally, the bigger the scare that Argento goes for, the harder the movie falls on its face. The genius of *Suspiria* is in its dreamlike mood, largely aided and abetted by the architecture of the ballet academy itself -- surely one of the most triumphantly spooky sets in the history of horror films. And underneath it all is the classic score, enjoyable all by itself even without the film, by the Italian group Goblin. Therefore, considering the movie's overall strength while forgiving its moments of weakness, I recommend *Suspiria* without reservations, especially for the ladies out there: the movie was based, apparently, on a DREAM of Argento's then-wife, Daria Nicolodi. (This may explain why the film repeatedly comes up short in the plotting department: there's just no basis in reality, here.) It's a movie about women co-written by a woman on whose dream it's all based. Have fun, girls. [The limited-edition 3-disc set is very affordable, as far as limited-edition 3-disc sets go, so I guess I recommend that version. The 2nd disc is unnecessary -- the material on it is short enough to have fit quite comfortably onto Disc 1, especially when you consider that *Suspiria* is only a 90-minute film. The 3rd disc is a nice touch, however: the complete Goblin score. Also includes a dozen or so "lobby-card reproductions" that all non-collectors will probably put in the circular file.]

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Classic flim, bungled DVD
Review: This has been my favorite horror film for the past 15 years, and I was SO excited to get this DVD. Yes, the picture quality was the best the movie has ever looked-- Razor-sharp picture and ultra-intense colors. However, anyone who is familiar with this film knows half of "Suspiria" is the incredible soundtrack by Goblin. On the old Magnum VHS/Image LD, the music was so powerful. It really plunged you into the creeped-out atmosphere of the movie. But some fool at Anchor Bay decided to mix down the music! The opening taxicab ride through the storm originally had the main theme playing much louder, but on the DVD this music practically disappears into the background. Sound levels are inconsistant throughout- a ballet lesson by the Nazi-esque Miss Tanner is very loud, but the famous double murder at the beginning of the film is subdued to the point of losing much of it's impact! In effect, this movie has been practically castrated!
I'm glad the movie is available, I just wish that whoever did the sound mixing for the 5.1 would have done justice to the film's original sound design. I could have done without the faded and unspectacular lobby card reproductions too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Horror greatness.
Review: This is probably one of the most talked about movies in the horror community. So, I kinda felt cheated having not seen it. Therefore, I called my friend and told him to bring over his dvd version of the film. After we watched it, I immediately knew that this was one of the coolest movies ever. I knew from the first 10 minutes I was gonna love it. However, I've always read that the last 10 minutes of this were one of the most frightening parts in any movie, but I wasn't very frightened. That aside, if you're a horror fan, you must see this movie.


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