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This review is for the Blu-ray edition of 'Suspiria' released by Synapse films in March, 2018.
If you are a fan of this movie then this is a must have. The picture is as good as it gets.
In my opinion this is a 5 star release.
WHAT DOES SUSPIRIA MEAN? I had no idea what this meant so I did a little digging.
The actual definition means something like 'sighs'.
The latin phrase "Suspiria de profundis" mean "sighs from the depths".
"Suspiria de profundis" is also the title of a piece of literature by a well known English essayist, Thomas De Quincey.
'Suspirara' in latin means breathing. 'Suspiria' therefore would mean something along the lines of 'taking a deep breath'.
They talk about this briefly in one of the feauturettes as having something to do with the witches but I'm still not sure if the word has something to do with witchcraft.
BLU-RAY: This is a new 4K restoration of the original uncut Italian 35mm camera negative done by Synapse films. It is a beauty. The colors are very bright and the picture has virtually no flaws. It is as clear as the day they filmed it. There are subtitles available and the movie is also dubbed in English.
EXTRA's: The extra's are top notch. You get:
-Two audio commentareis by Derek Botelho, David Del Valle and Troy Howarth.
-Featurette - 'Suzy in Germany' - This goes through the locations used in the film both then and today.
-Featurette - 'A sigh from the Depths: 40 years of SUSPIRIA - a bunch of historians reflect on the movie 40 years later.
-Featurette-'Do You Know Anything About Witches'- This is an very informative 30 minute visual essay that goes a long way toward explaining some of my questions. It answers some of the things I say in the section down below called A FEW THINGS I'M STILL UNSURE ABOUT.
PRODUCTION: This movie was made in 1977 and was released under a shell company of 20th Century Fox.
-Even though the movie is set in Germany, it was largely filmed in Rome, Italy.
-Dario Argento got his inspiration for this movie from 'Suspiria de Profundis' by Thomas De Quincey which was written in 1845.
-This is the first movie in Argento's 'Three Mothers' Trilogy. The other two movies are 'Inferno' and 'Mother of Tears'.
-Suzy Banyon's character was supposed to be based on 'Snow White'.
-Each actor/actress spoke their own language and the movie was then dubbed into Italian and English.
-The story itself was initially supposed to be a fairy tale but ended up sort of a hybrid fairy tale.
-The school was supposed to be populated with young girls but production codes at the time would have never allowed for it. Argento didn't completely give in. He had the door handles raised to make the girls appear smaller. Also he made the point of having high ceilings.
PLOT/SUMMARY: An American ballet student, Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), flies to Germany to attend a prestigious ballet school. Suzy arrives at the school late in the evening. As she gets to the front entrance, she see an angry girl leaving and can make out two words she days, 'secret' and 'iris'. When she tries to get in, the person speaking on the intercom tells her to go away, which she does. She goes to the school in the morning and meets a tough instructor, Miss Tanner, and the headmistress, Madame Blanc. She is told that she must get a rental apartment briefly and she goes to stay with one of the other students named Olga.
During one of Suzy's first classes, she gets sick and starts bleeding. The doctor keeps her at the school and orders her to be given a glass of wine every day. Suzy is given a room next to Sara. Sara reveals that she was the girl on the intercom the first night. Suzy and Sara become friends. A few disappearances occur at the school and Sara becomes suspicious. She confides with Suzy. They figure out that the school supervisors are not leaving at night but are walking to unknown parts of the school. One night while Suzy is passing out from being drugged, Sara goes in search of the hidden place that the supervisors go to. Sara is killed. Suzy is told that Sara packed her bags and abruptly left the school. Suzy, suspecting that something is wrong, calls and meets a friend of Sara's, Frank Mandel. Mandel is a psychiatrist who used to treat Sara. He introduces Suzy to another psychiatrist, Professor Milius. From these people, Suzy learns that the school was founded by an alleged witch, Helena Markos. She also learns about covens. She is told that Markos died in a fire at the school many years ago.
Armed with the knowledge about the school's history, Sara's notes and her now complete recollection of what the girl leaving the school said on the first night, Suzy goes poking around the school to find out what is really going on.
COMMENTS: I just watched this movie the night before this review and haven't spent a whole lot of time researching this movie but here is what my thoughts are.
-I liked how this movie kept me guessing about some things right to the final scene. I tend to get bored in horror movies once the mysterious killer is revealed, as the rest of the movie is usually just a game of cat and mouse and the director usually attempts to come up with some creative way to end it. I could guess some of what was going to happen but I was never really sure to what extant all the people were involved. I wasn't really sure if Helena Markos was still alive or if she just passed down her knowledge.
-I think this was a good movie. I do not think it was a great movie. There are all kinds of ways to rank movies. I look for an engaging plot. If you don't have that then you don't have a great movie. I think this movie has a good plot but by no means is it great. Atmosphere is a big thing to me also. This movie has it to some extent, just not quite what I'm looking for.
-The musical score is unusual. It seems to combine elements of different horror movies. Sometimes it reminds me of 'The Exorcist' other times it reminds me of 'The Omen' and others. Whatever it is, it is quite effective. Without it, I believe many of the scenes would have been considerably less 'creepy'.
-There are a lot of things that I didn't understand the meaning of. This is not to say that these are complicated things and that the plot lost me. I'm saying I just didn't understand why these scenes were in the movie. Here is a list of those things right below:
A FEW THINGS (NOT COMPLAINTS) I'M STILL UNSURE ABOUT: These are some things that I don't quite 'get'. Either I missed or forgot about parts of the dialogue or the meaning just went over my head.
-I didn't quite understand how the girl could be running through the black forest and be so close to the center of the city. That opening scene was a bit disconcerting. Was she running because she was scared or because she was in the rain on a stormy night? She didn't seem to be running for her life as nobody was chasing her so I'm not sure.
-What was the point of the maggots falling from the ceiling? I didn't catch the meaning of this. Was this just a way to setup the next scene, which I also don't quite understand? That scene was...
-The scene in the gymnasium. Why did the directoress come to the gymnasium to sleep? and once the girls figured out who was behind the curtain sleeping, why didn't they look? Or perhaps they did look but the movie doesn't show you?
-I completely missed out on the reason for making the dog violent and killing the blind pianist. They obviously wanted to get rid of the pianist. Why? I understand why they killed off the others. The other people that died had learned the secret of the witches. But the pianist was blind and they gave no indication that he knew anything, at least as far as I can see. Why make the dog violent?... why fire the pianist and why kill the pianist?
-What was Olga's role? She becomes Suzy's roommate and then right after that Suzy goes back to the school and we never see her again. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this storyline was. Why make her leave for such a brief time just to come right back to the school? Was this just to show her stubborness when she decided she didn't want to board at the school?
-What was the reason for the bat? It enters and Suzy dispatches it rather easily. Was the bat influenced by witchcraft? If so, what was it's purpose? It obviously wasn't all that dangerous. It couldn't have been sent by the witches to attack Suzy because you see the order given to eliminate her well after that scene. It couldn't have been sent to spy on her or be somebody's 'eyes'. It was too obvious for that.
-Was there a purpose for the setting being a ballet school? That seems like a very odd place for a coven of witches to be doing business. Could it be as simple as it's as good a cover as any?
-I'm still not sure why they were drugging Suzy. Why have her stay at the school at all if they were concerned with her? Why not let her stay with Olga so she can't figure out anything at the school? Why did they decide to kill her? Were they originally planning on making her a witch? To me, this whole main story line was unclear.
*****QUESTIONS ANSWERED*****I watched one of the featurettes and it did explain some of what I wanted to know. The girl running through the forest was supposed to mimic a scene from 'Snow White'. Olga apparently was most likely supposed to be a witch. One of her scenes ended up being not shot but that wouldn't really have changed anything. My confusion is justified as many of the scenes were in fact 'red herrings' or for whatever reason, Argento never finished some of the plot lines he was developing.
MY NITPICKS: The purpose of this section is not to 'slam' the movie. It's just to point out that no movie is perfect in my eyes and there are always things that could have been done better. Overall, I think this was a good movie.
-Ultimately, what makes this movie so memorable is the very bright colors and lighting.It is something that I did not really like. It was different. I get it... it's part of what makes this movie so memorable. I just didn't like the constant use of it. More specifically the lighting. The painted buildings and rooms are not the issue for me. The colored lighting just seemed out of place a lot of the time. I think it would have been more effective had Argento used it more strategically. For example, I see no reason for the lighting to be all red right at the beginning while she was in the airport. I think a scene like that should have been similar to the scene where Suzy meets the psychiatric doctors at the corporate park. The lighting becomes more effective when you don't see it the whole time. Think of how effective the 'Wizard of Oz' was going from black & white to color.
-The blood didn't look very much like blood other than the fact it was red. It just looked like paint, which is what it probably was. One of the problems of such beautiful restorations and watching in such high resolution is that flaws in the special effects are magnified.
-The girl who falls into the room with the razorwire doesn't actually get cut up by the razor wire. She did a lot of struggling in it and didn't appear to be cut at all. The only blood on her was from her previous wound. Perhaps it wasn't razor wire? Was it just put there to entangle her like a net? If it was razor wire what was it doing there? Was it intentionally put there? There didn't seem to be any use for it at the ballet school.
-I thought the scene where Suzy meets the psychiatrist's was out of place. On the one hand it does take some pressure
off of the tension that is prevalent throughout. But somehow it just doesn't seem to belong in the movie. You go from almost surreal to the real world. I don't like it for just one scene. If going back and forth between realities was part of the movie then it would be OK but in this case it happens just once.
-Finally, the final scene. Two things here...
1) I didn't like Suzy's reaction at the very end. Her smile was just wrong. Instead of looking like she was relieved, like she should have been, she had a big smile, almost as if somebody just told her a joke... The reaction doesn't seem to be the proper reaction for what she just went through especially since the school was on fire and crumbling and people were dying.
2 ) I didn't like how Argento ended the movie. It just didn't seem right. The music with the direct jump to the credits just seemed out of place to me.
CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS: I'm giving this release 5 stars. The picture is 4 1/2 to 5 stars. The extra's are 5 stars and the movie... let's call it 4 stars. But overall this is a 5 star release.
This is about as good as a release as you can get for this particular movie. If you are a fan, it is worth the upgrade.
Recommended for fans of Italian horror and/or 'Giallo' films and obviously Dario Argento fans.
Recommended for fans of 70's horror films.
Recommended for fans of any good horror movie, anytime, anywhere.
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From the manufacturer
SUSPIRIA - 2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition
Dario Argento’s Masterpiece in a Spectacular 4K Restoration!
Jessica Harper (PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN) stars in this horrific tale of a young student who uncovers dark and horrific secrets within the walls of a famous German dance academy.
Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA comes to home video from Synapse Films in an exclusive new 4K restoration from the original uncut, uncensored 35mm Italian camera negative with the original 4.0 English surround sound mix, for the first time EVER! Painstakingly restored over the past three years, Synapse Films has created the ultimate special edition of this horror classic with the supervision and approval of the film's Director of Photography, Luciano Tovoli.
"Dario Argento's Suspiria is a cult horror masterpiece from one of the best-known names in the genre. The highly-stylized Italian film is ultimately an experiment with sound, lighting and setting where the suspense and fear arise more from working these three elements together than through the story alone. The Blu-ray edition courtesy of Synapse Films arrives with a phenomenally gorgeous high-def presentation that will simply astound and amaze the most loyal fans, and the brand-new lossless mix is also the best one could possibly imagine or have hoped for… the definitive version of the cult giallo classic and highly-recommended for devoted followers." - High-Def Digest
Special Features:
- A new 4K restoration of the original uncut, uncensored Italian 35mm camera negative exclusively done by Synapse Films, with color correction supervised and approved by SUSPIRIA Director of Photography, Luciano Tovoli.
- Original 4.0 1977 English language LCRS sound mix not heard since the theatrical release in 1977, presented in high-resolution DTS-HD MA 96kHz/24-bit audio, with newly-translated removable English SDH subtitles.
- Italian 5.1 surround mix, with removable English subtitle translation.
- Two audio commentaries by authors and Argento scholars, Derek Botelho, David Del Valle and Troy Howarth
- Do You Know Anything About Witches? - 30 minute SUSPIRIA visual essay written, edited and narrated by Michael Mackenzie.
- Suzy in Nazi Germany – Featurette on the German locations from SUSPIRIA.
- A Sigh from the Depths: 40 Years of SUSPIRIA – All-new anniversary retrospective on the making of the film and its influence on cinema.
- Olga’s Story – Interview with star Barbara Magnolfi.
- Original theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots.
- “International Classics” English “Breathing Letters” opening credit sequence from U.S. release.
- Alternate All-English opening and closing credits sequences, playable via seamless branching.
- Reversible Cover Art created by Joel Robinson.
Dario Argento’s Undisputed Psychedelic Masterpiece!
Jessica Harper (Suzy) is terrorized by pure evil, as she tries to escape the clutches of a witch’s coven in Dario Argento's classic, SUSPIRIA.
What terrors lurk behind the front door of the mysterious Dance Academy? See this ultimate horror classic in the definitive 4K restoration from Synapse Films and find out!
The evils of Helena Markos are revealed in the stunning new 4K restoration of one of the greatest horror films of all time.
The beautiful cinematography of camera maestro Luciano Tovoli is finally presented as he originally intended in the luscious 4K remaster of SUSPIRIA by Synapse Films.
What do YOU know about Witches?
Found this here on Amazon and thought that $23 for a sick Blu-ray with an absolute STUNNING 4K restoration and 4.0 English Surround Sound (which has NOT been heard since it's theatrical 1977 release) was too good to be true!! This product is SO COOL! It even features an interchangeable cover artwork so you can either enjoy the original artwork used to promote the film back in the 70s OR you can flip the cover and have the newly commissioned updated artwork as the front for your Blu-ray case! I chose the original artwork as the photos show. But this is a seriously cool item for any film lover or horror admirer! This is easily one of the most visually stunning and beautiful horror films I've ever seen and I'm proud to have this as a part of my collection! Dario Argento is a horror genius and I absolutely love his vision for these kinds of films! The lighting was also something that visually pleased - yet - unsettled me in this movie. I LOVED the ominous neon color schemes Argento went for with this one! Synapse Films absolutely NAILED this release and if you're a Dario Argento fan, a regular film collector/admirer, or just really love horror movies hardcore - DO NOT HESITATE to snag this Blu-ray and add it to your collection! Item also came in super great condition for me in case anyone on here is wondering about that, item was left at my door but I've never had an issue with purchasing Blu-rays or DVDs from here and they ALWAYS show up in the condition they were shipped in! Hope this review and film insight helps you make a cemented decision on grabbing this film!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2018
- Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2024
Found this here on Amazon and thought that $23 for a sick Blu-ray with an absolute STUNNING 4K restoration and 4.0 English Surround Sound (which has NOT been heard since it's theatrical 1977 release) was too good to be true!! This product is SO COOL! It even features an interchangeable cover artwork so you can either enjoy the original artwork used to promote the film back in the 70s OR you can flip the cover and have the newly commissioned updated artwork as the front for your Blu-ray case! I chose the original artwork as the photos show. But this is a seriously cool item for any film lover or horror admirer! This is easily one of the most visually stunning and beautiful horror films I've ever seen and I'm proud to have this as a part of my collection! Dario Argento is a horror genius and I absolutely love his vision for these kinds of films! The lighting was also something that visually pleased - yet - unsettled me in this movie. I LOVED the ominous neon color schemes Argento went for with this one! Synapse Films absolutely NAILED this release and if you're a Dario Argento fan, a regular film collector/admirer, or just really love horror movies hardcore - DO NOT HESITATE to snag this Blu-ray and add it to your collection! Item also came in super great condition for me in case anyone on here is wondering about that, item was left at my door but I've never had an issue with purchasing Blu-rays or DVDs from here and they ALWAYS show up in the condition they were shipped in! Hope this review and film insight helps you make a cemented decision on grabbing this film!
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017
Top reviews from other countries
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CinerizReviewed in Italy on September 25, 2023
Blu-Ray "Suspiria" (edizione Cult Films ) restauro 4k e lingua italiana , sottotitoli escludibili.
Edizione Blu-Ray della Cult Films ben fatta, completa .Ottimo il restauro in 4k che viene spiegato dettagliatamente . Gli extra sono interessanti e numerosi, comprendono uno speciale sul restauro per i 40 anni del film della durata di oltre 50 minuti , in inglese senza sottotitoli. Intervista a Dario Argento di circa 27 minuti in italiano , con sottotitoli . Sono presenti due speciali sul film ma solo in inglese. Per tutta la durata del film si può ascoltare il commento solo, però, in inglese e non sottotitolato. Precede il film una brevissima introduzione di pochi secondi di Dario Argento. Meravigliosi i colori , video definito e lingua italiana presente con sottotitoli in inglese REMOVIBILI . Peccato che lo speciale sul restauro sia solo in inglese, come il commento per tutto il film, due extra interessanti ! Comunque edizione completa che consiglio vivamente.CinerizBlu-Ray "Suspiria" (edizione Cult Films ) restauro 4k e lingua italiana , sottotitoli escludibili.
Reviewed in Italy on September 25, 2023
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