Suspiria

I did like some of the non heavy metal music - cant remember if it was Simonetti or not


JC was the best thing about the film - but wow:eek: look at her a few years later.

Bazookas to die for!!
 
I quite liked Phenomena from what I can remember, I've got the Phenomena titled US vhs though, not the cut UK edition.

Must look at it again. I prefer it over Demons that you mentioned though.


Mike Gambit - Are you DennisSpooner or whatever the name was because that name seems to have vanished off here.
 
Phenomena is the type of film which brings back blissful nostalgia for me. Elucidating on blissful. :o :p

Then came Labyrinth and Some Girls... I don't know if you've seen that one. :D

Another few years later came The Hot Spot... Indeed. :eek:
 
Weird that Argento went from the incredibly tense likes of Suspiria and Inferno- which is now out in the UK uncut btw- to the likes of The Card Player and Giallo, both of which I enjoyed but are both impossible to take seriously.

The bbfc waived all their cuts to another of his movies, Deep Red, today, coincidently.
 
You've got to be joking.
Suspiria and Inferno are Argento at his peak but Mother of Tears is a travesty that Argento should be ashamed of .

It makes even his average movies of the last 20 years look good.

The Suspiria Bluray is excellent despite some incorrect colours here and there
 
Did anyone see this on Film4 the other night? I recorded it and watched it last night. I had never seen the film before, but had read a lot of glowing reports from film fans. I like a good horror film, and love world cinema, so I looked forward to seeing it.

I was really surprised at how pants it was. I'd read about how powerful it was, and how strong the imagery was, but it just came across as really clumsy and poorly acted. I think maybe if I'd seen it as a kid in the eighties it would be snapped in my psyche, but watching it as an adult now just revealed it as a bit naff.

I wasn't impressed with the constant splattering of colour around the place in an effort to make it seem trippy and unreal. The performances managed that on their own. I didn't much care either, for the incessant music - the riff that played over and over and over again. It wasn't even scoring the tension. It played when nothing was happening, and very quickly became irritating and distracting.

Before I saw it I was thinking what a great idea it was to make witches scary again, but this movie didn't manage that. One heavily snoring old woman does make a terrifying supernatural character.

What did you think?
 
Yep, it was pants then too. I especially remember the music that kept building up to crescendos that simply didn't happen.

I think it's worth about a 7/10 for all round weirdness, and 1/10 for horror.

RegarRAB

Mark
 
A search reveals Dennisspooner is banned.

It is against RAB rules to re-register if you are banned ,so I cant possibly be the same person.
 
The Suspiria DVD is excellent too. Picture quality is amazing, though I cannot speak for correct colours etc as I'm fairly new to the film. One thing I did notice was the inconsistency of the audio, which would be almost silent one moment, then deafening with the grunge music next. I imagine this is intended though. I'll get Inferno next. :)
 
I put this in another thread lastnight, my basic view.

In a way it is rubbish, it's a real mess of a story and really isn't a coherent piece of work, this film is truly style over substance and all aspects of the film suffer for the style, it's not hard to understand why somebody wouldn't like Suspiria or a lot of Argento's work.

Personally I love it, I find watching Suspiria almost magical and the opening is one of the most haunting and greatest openings to any film if you ask me.
 
I can relate to that, since there's a lot of strange films I love in an almost magical way too. I won't begin to criticise someone's love for a film in this way. Sometimes the strangest thing can hit a note with a person.

I guess it just didn't do it for me. I might give it another go on DVD, since the picture and sound quality on Film4 was literally of VHS standard. Both me and the missus commented on this as we watched it. Not only that, but it seemed to be a pretty poor dubbing job. Maybe the film is best watched with subs? Sometimes they appeared to be speaking English, others it clearly wasn't.

Thanks for your replies.
 
Grunge in Suspiria?

Grunge in 1977 ?

Have you found a hidden alternate audio track ?

Actually the best thing about the Bluray is that it has restored the audio back to its correct mix.

The Anchor Bay dvd's of the last 10 years had a new mix which had all the levels wrong throughout.
For a fan who's had the film on home video since 1982/83 the audio on the dvd was a real disappointment but thankfully its now as it should be

You might want to check out the US 3 disc set of Suspiria which has a 50 minute making of documentary thats never been seen in the UK.
The 3rd disc is the cd soundtrack.
I'm keeping mine even though I have the Bluray
 
I personally love Suspiria and think it's one of the best horror films ever made, yet I can completly see why people hate it. I guess it just depenRAB on your taste and what you look for in a film. Argento is known for being a director who creates very stylised films - Suspiria is a perfect example of this, Dario states he wanted the sound and colours to be more important that storyline and acting. I personally love the surreal, exaggerated feel to it and find the clunky acting style adRAB to this. Originally the storyline was supposed to feature young girls but Argento couldn't use child actors in the film so opted for young adults instead hence why the dialogue might seem strange and badly written. I think those familiar with Italian films tend to be more accepting of plot flaws and bad dubbing etc. I think sometimes people think if a films not got a water tight plot and convincing emotive acting than it's no good but sometimes a film being confusing and dream like is a good thing (in my eyes anyway).

I still think Argento is a pioneer in cinema, particularly horror cinema along with Mario Bava. Even if you dislike Suspiria and his other films you can't deny his influence - without Suspiria we probably wouldn't have seen the rise of horror cinema in the way it took off in the eighties onwarRAB(Dario was a massive influence on Carpenter etc). He has been a innovator in so many cinematic techniques we use today and has always shown creative flare.

I would say to anyone though, to give profondo rosso aka deep red a try as it's a giallo and more coherrent to his later works such as Suspiria. But basically im just making a case for a director who really made some remarkable films, and isnt just a exploitative gore hound!
 
i disagree, i thought it was creepy and i actually liked the way that it was lit and the music... i didn't find it off-putting at all... the colour imagery was quite strong, and the music created a feeling of paranoia all the way through the movie, and the sense of being watched... you can tell that its dubbed, quite badly too, but to me this just creates another layer of weirdness which almost works in the context of the movie...

i think the ending could have been done a little bit better, but otherwise i really liked the film.
 
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