Suspiria (1977)

Director: Dario Argento
Stars: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci
Runtime: 92 minutes

Synopsis: A young dancer joins a German ballet academy where sinister things start happening.

• Performances: 8/10

Why? From Jessica Parker's naive portrayal to Alida Valli's threatening and menacing portrayal, every single performance was memorable and unique for different reasons. The only problem I had with them, and I don't think  the actors are to blame for it, was the kind of obvious and at times distracting Italian dubbing. 

• Screenplay: 8/10

Why? "Suspiria" had all the ingredients of a well-written horror movie. From interesting characters to unsettling and even disturbing events, the classic will leave you on the edge of your seat for its entire runtime. Argento does a great job setting the atmosphere and emerging the audience into his story, despite some minor flaws here and there that affected my enjoyment of a few scenes, but not the film in general.    

• Costumes/Makeup: 6/10

Why? The costumes were great, but the makeup looked incredibly dated. "Suspiria" looks at time like a B horror flick which is a shame when almost everything around it works almost perfectly. 

• Editing: 6/10

Why? Also feels dated. The scary scenes may have worked at the time of the release of the film, but the way they're edited takes away a lot of their efficiency to scare the more modern audience.

• Cinematography: 9/10

Why? Absolutely gorgeous. The use of symmetry, the constant recurrence and focus on the color red, the wide shots, and the way the camera is used to tell the story is one of the main reasons I enjoyed the movie as much as I did. The cinematography, unlike the editing, is timeless despite some zoom-ins I found a bit cheesy. 

• Score/Soundtrack: 7/10

Why? Unnerving, but also repetitive. It's efficient but not as memorable as some other scores written for horror movies. 

FINAL GRADE: 8/10

Notes: "Suspiria" is close to being a horror masterpiece and once belonged in the same category as some of the genre's heavyweights such as "The Exorcist" or "Rosemary's Baby" but, unfortunately, it fell victim to its time and doesn't hold up as much as it used to today. For this reason, I believe that Luca Guadagnino's decision to revive it is a brilliant one, and now I'm more excited than ever to check his version of it.