WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Suspiria is a film by Italian director Dario Argento. It is hailed as one of the great masterpiece films of the horror genre, and today we will try and dig into why that is. What makes this such an effective horror film?
Fundamentally I think several factors contribute to this. The first and most striking is the way in which the film absolutely worships colour and light. Most horror films are dark; dark to the point of not being able to fully make out what exactly is going on. This is supposed to add to a sense of terror, of things unknown in the dark, however, I usually find it just leaves you wondering what the hell is actually going on. Suspiria is brightly light at all times – there is scarcely a moment of darkness, and yet, it continues to build tension and terror despite everything being in the open. The use of light reminds me of Vermeer, and what Ayn Rand says about him in her Romantic Manifesto “The greatest of all artists, Vermeer, devoted his paintings to a single theme: light itself”. Most horror films, owing to their total darkness, do not pay much attention to colour schemes. Suspiria is not like that at all. Every scene is beautifully awash with colour, often pinks and blues, but sometimes bright whites and deep blacks to contrast. This makes the film gorgeous, and a visual masterpiece. A real masterwork on how to make every single scene just beautiful and striking. It goes so far as to be unbelievable – no colour schemes of buildings are so well coordinated in real life, but this only adds to the artistic flare of the film as a whole.
Secondly, the use of music and sound in the film is highly effective. I think this must have been said a thousand times about this film so I will say it again: the soundtrack is out of this world good. The haunting, wailing vocal tones over the creepy, distorted instruments simply booms the sense of tension right into the viewer’s bones.
Finally, the film builds tension effectively even when “nothing” is happening. It does this by not relying on jump scares. The music is also a significant contributing factor to this building of tension.
Even in the opening scene at the airport, “nothing” happens but it sets perfectly the mood of the entire work. There is a hard pink light as soon as we see Suzy – while this only lasts a couple of seconds everything appears pink in that time. Walking down the corridor of the airport, the pink light is softer now adding a faint glow to the whole scene. Several other women are wearing bright pink outfits, and there are many incidentally pink objects in the scene – backlight panels, posters and lights. I notice a pink poster with the word ballet written on it – almost certainly an advertisement for the school Suzy is heading. The use of music is very subtle here. When leaving the airport the music is barley audible at first but grows in intensity as Suzy approaches the exit. When the door opens as another passenger leaves, it grows louder – dimming once more as the doors close. When Suzy walks through the doors the camera snaps to the automatic piston of the doors and the music increases in volume. When the doors shut we are outside and the music comes in full blast. It is as though the music really is playing outside the airport – as though the airport was a last refuge of relative safety and now Suzy has left there is almost no going back.
When we first see Suzy outside the airport the rain is coming down hard. She is soaked to the bone as it pours down in sheets. As she drives to the school we see constantly cuts to drains and pipes and rivers gushing with water, overflowing beyond capacity. Rain and water will become a constantly reappearing feature in this film. Bright lights of yellow, green, blue, pink stain the rain as it beats down on the world below. When riding in the taxi to the school there are periods and flashes of bright light – to such a degree the shot is almost overexposed. The music is blaring. Tension is already made during these opening scenes through all of these techniques, and to say the least, the taxi ride is a gorgeous masterwork of colour and light and a true visual marvel.
There is a strange coordination in the film. The apartments that Pat goes to after fleeing the school are the very same pink as the school itself. As Pat herself notes it’s “all so absurd, so fantastic”. This kind of meta-commentary on the film itself is a fascinating technique. Already at 8 minutes into the film, before any real horror has kicked off, we have received enough visual and audio cues to know the film will take itself seriously yet be intensely artistic – almost animated. The first murder takes place in such intense colour also. There are lights being shone so intensely on the stabbings, which themselves take place on a glass mosaic featuring the main colours yet again. In the light the blood looks bright, vibrant, pink. During the first murder, as Pat’s body falls and the rope tightens around her neck the music contains a motif of a whistle dropping in tone. Not subtle, but effective.
The interior of the school is just so different to the exterior. The first time we see Suzy inside it is not bright pink but rather a regal blue. A splash of pink pokes through in one shot from another room. We just can not escape that colour. Also, in the scene where Suzy, Miss Tanner and Madame Blanc are talking, the background characters are so dynamic. A girl speaks on the phone, deliberately trying to extenuate her figure. She almost sneaks off set. A little boy is sat so squarely he sticks out in the scene, and his posture and dress are so unusual, although I can not put my finger on exactly what or why. I’m not sure if anything is particularly meant by all this, but Dario Argento never fails to add visual interest thought the course of the film.
When we get to the apartment of Olga we are greeted by a close up shot of Olga painting her nails bright red. Now as the camera pans out Olga is wearing an all white netted dress. The whole scene screams of contrast – the wallpaper is a complex black and white floral pattern. Almost the only colour in the scene comes from Olga with red lipstick and red nails. Some green pokes in from plants in the scene too, complimenting the floral pattern of the wallpaper. Once more we see Olga on the phone – the discussion is almost suspicious. I’m not sure if anything comes of this conversation but I think it adds slightly to the tension.
When going to dance class, Suzy sees the nephew of Madame Blanc, Albert, and the cook sitting on a chair. The cook is polishing glass and they gaze at Suzy intensely. A bright light flashes off the glass onto Suzy’s face. If you look carefully, you can see Albert smiling menacingly while the light is flashing. Suzy grabs her head and looks dizzy. It isn’t entirely clear what has happened here – the the scene accomplishes adding mystery. While we eventually learn the film is about witches, it isn’t until the last few minutes do we learn the magic is real. At this point it simply isn’t obvious what is going on. The scene, also noting, takes place in another pink corridor. This scene also accomplishes a set up – Suzy feels weak and will collapse in her ballet practice. A doctor will prescribe her a diet as recovery, which will become important later on. Speaking of the doctor, while he examines her, pink can be seen in the corridor., but inside the medical room, the wallpaper is white and a sickly green light casts on Suzy. The film is effective at communicating exactly what it needs to through colour and light.
The first time we see Madame Blanc’s office, it is mostly white, with a similar black-and-white motif to Olga’s room. Perhaps here the director is hinting that Olga and Madame Blanc are in league? At any rate, the film is actually very tame when it comes to the use of real horror. The number of murders is surprisingly low, but tension is often built in smaller, creepier ways. For example, when the maggots fall from the ceilings. This turns out to be nothing more than rotting food but the impact on the characters and viewers is real – tension. The film slowly builds these layers of tension which makes it that much more satisfying when they are released at logical moments. Compare this to random jump-scares that add more or less nothing to a film. I’ll move on before this becomes a total tirade against the jump-scare. At any rate, moving to the make-shift dormitory, the scene is terrific at building tension and horror without anything happening per se. Yet with an intense pink light, close up shots and the music so intense cutting the dialogue, whispering about the unknown snoring woman and the accusations of the school lying. We do not yet know what the significance of this all is, and that adds tension – we want to find out what this means, and hope the film will answer these questions.
As I mentioned previously, the film is able to use lighting to enhance horror, rather than detract from it. I think audiences are used to horror movies being dark as to obscure most of the action, yet here that is not the case. As one example Daniel, the blind man, is on the very open plaza and it is well light when his dog begins to bark furiously, before tuning and mauling him to death. The terror of being on this huge open space, flanked by impressive marble column buildings, somewhere where seeing your would-be assailant should be an easy task but being unable to because you are blind is nauseating. The fact that the lethal blow comes from his trusted mans-best-friend is sickening.
Another technique the film uses for terror is being very open and honest about the threats. It does this very well when Sarah is being chased. The razor poking through the door to lift the latch when she is trapped in the small, claustrophobic room struggling for escape is powerful. Especially just a moment later when she escapes through a small window and becomes trapped in the coils of wire. That scene was very compelling and genuinely terrifying, we can imagine the hopelessness of being trapped in such a situation. All of this happens though in well light conditions.
It’s also no coincidence that as the film draws to a close and Suzy comes closer to solving the mystery the rain begins to hammer once more. The use of pathetic fallacy is intense. When we see the convent Madame Blanc is given a wafer to eat, and a lightning strike turns the now, rare, golden lighting pink while she drinks from a chalice. The Catholic reference is not subtle. Moreover, the synchronisation between the weather and the witches’ actions again makes us question if their power is real or if this is simply a cult. Suzy enters a room and there sees a silhouette of a woman sitting on the bed, behind curtains. Pulling back the curtains reveals nothing, and a voice states the living dead will come to kill Suzy – Sarah’s corpse comes to attack her. It is only in this moment is it revealed that the witches and their power is real. Suzy stabs into the invisible Helena Markos – Markos becomes visible. Her flesh is burned and rotting; as she dies the school itself begins to die. It begins to collapse and burn as though she was totally intermingled with the school itself. The school – all of it – is evil. It is telling that nobody else seems to escape it along with Suzy.
Finally, on fleeing the burning school Suzy leaves as she came – a victim to the pouring rain.