Back to School: Suspiria

We've written up Suspiria before, it's really a striking movie to watch, but's it's also about one of the worst school experiences you could POSSIBLY have...

First night: Suzy Bannion flies from America to Germany, immediately takes a cab to the campus of her new dance school only to be left standing in the pouring rain and the dead of night pounding on the school's door while being refused to be let in. While attempting to enter the building, another student flees the school, nearly knocking Suzy to the ground, and runs straight into the woods. Defeated and confused, Suzy takes her cab back into town to find a hotel for the night.

Later that night: Pat (the fleeing student) has found refuge at another student's apartment in town; but unfortunately for her, it's no sanctuary. While trying to collect herself in the bathroom, Pat hears noises outside the window, and what happens next is one of the more cinematic (but still bloody) kills in the horror genre:

The school year only get's better from there: Suzy returns to the school the next morning only to discover what she witnessed the night before were the last moments of her classmate's life. Suzy eventually teams up with her dorm-mate to investigate the increasingly suspicious reactions from the school's staff, as the students disappear/turn up dead at an increasingly alarming rate. 

Recommended for: Anyone attending art college, studying abroad, or attending school in New England... 

Suspira

If ever there was a more visually striking horror movie, we have not seen it. Enormous sets pulsate with so much vivid color they seem alive in their own rite; lights cast red and blue glows from impossible sources, a forest surrounds the school grounds seemingly plucked from someone's nightmare, and don't even get us started on the score!

The plot unfolds something like this: Suzy Bannion has been accepted to a prestigious dance school, and even before she steps foot in the building, strange things start happening. A girl disappears into the night, teachers ritualistically gather at all hours, people die left and right, and nobody seem too bothered by any of it. Suzy's dorm-mate is determined to figure out what's really happening; but then she goes missing as well. That leaves Suzy to put the pieces together herself before she's consumed by mysteriousness as well.

Reasons to watch: This is one of the last films to be shot using the Technicolor process, making it as richly beautiful as it is creatively gory. The set designs were designed with the knowledge this would be shot in Technicolor and are vibrant to the point of glowing. There's some intense gore and drawn out kills. And a twist ending that doesn't make sense, but is pretty fun anyway.



Yup, that's: Jessica Harper (Phantom of the Paradise, Pennies from Heaven), and Joan Bennett (Dark Shadows).



The soundtrack: This Goblin score strays from their signature sound making this more effectively creepy, atmospheric, and largely more haunting than most of their horror scores.

Most creative kills: One of the dancers is killed by room full of razor wire. A woman is pulled through one pain of glass, and then is pushed through another. A dog abruptly, and mortally, turns on a human...

How do we really feel about this film: This film never fails to stir up our creative juices, we can't recommend it enough!