Review: Suspiria 4K Blu-Ray
Cult Films 4K Suspiria restoration is now available on Amazon. Click here to pick up your copy.
British company Cult Films released it's stunning 4K restoration of Dario Argento's nightmarish Suspiria. Scanned from the original 35mm negatives and sourced from both Italian and English prints, this is the most complete and polished Argento's film has ever been.
It's been such a pleasure rediscovering this film in the years since I first saw it. With a film as highly regarded as this, the problem with a first time viewing of a classic is you're watching with enormous expectation, almost watching to see any flaws. But upon second viewing, the critical mind can relax and soak up the Italian maestro's lucid dream of blood-soaked ballet and black magic.
For those that haven't seen the film, Suspiria tells the story of Suzy (Jessica Harper), a dance student who travels from New York to Germany to enroll in a prolific dance academy. Arriving one stormy night, Suzy immediately realizes something is amiss in the school. That same night across town, a recently expelled dance student is butchered by an unseen killer. As the bodies begin to pile up, Suzy must figure out what's going on in the school and put an end to it before more girls are attacked.
Suspiria is arguably Argento's masterpiece (I still give Deep Red the #1 spot), full of imagery so beautiful and horrible at the same time. From the very first scene with Suzy arriving in the airport, the Goblin performed soundtrack produces a sense of impending doom, the closer we get to the academy, the louder the music gets, the more unsettling the film becomes. And the film wastes absolutely no fucking time in getting to a tremendously violent scene, where Pat, the recently expelled student, is stabbed repeatedly before being hung from the apartment ceiling. The scene is quick and totally brutal; the camera lingers nice and close, getting nauseatingly close to the crime, but climaxing in two corpses, draped in blood and smashed glass, like some macabre mosaic.
I don't want to spoil any plot beyond that, as that's essentially just the setup to the movie, but the sustained dread is feat that only a few filmmakers ever mastered. Like Hitchcock before him, Argento is a master storyteller, using bold colour, compositions and twisting narrative to milk every ounce of suspense out of a scene.
I kind of want to take the time to use this review too as a recommendation to anyone whose been wanting to check out Argento's work. Arrow Video have some superb limited edition Blu-Rays of The Bird With Crystal Plumage, Phenomena, Deep Red and most recently, The Cat O' Nine Tails. All of which are fascinating, terrifying giallo films. But before that, get on Cult Films' 4K restoration of Suspiria. It's truly one of the greatest horror/suspense films ever made, its got some great special features on the remastering process as well as an introduction from the director himself and much more.