DARIO ARGENTO'S SUSPIRIA - DARIO ARGENTO'S SUSPIRIA (1 DVD)

Suspiria is one of the undisputed classics of horror cinema, and certainly one of the very best horror movies ever to come out of Europe. Argento will probably always be a divisive figure. For all of his talents as a stylist, all of his movies (as much as I love them) are let down by tired pacing, ludicrous plots, hackneyed dialogue and pathetic characterisations. In short, if you're looking for cerebral, rather than purely visceral, look elsewhere.The main reason Suspiria was and still is able to stand out from the rest of Argento’s oeuvre is that, for the first time, his focus was on the supernatural, rather than on some implausible and clumsily conceived murder mystery. The dialogue is still hammy and the characters – especially the woeful lead, Jessica Harper, who has about as much charisma as my grandmother’s socks – are all pretty slender (pun intended), but the plot actually moves along well and the supernatural undercurrent gives Argento completely free reign to indulge his visualistic flair like never before (or since). Subtle it is not, but it sure is effective. The colour palette is gorgeous and the production design (note the height of the door handles) is eerily effective in setting the demented fairy-tale-gone-wrong tone. The death set pieces are among the best Argento devised (I cannot look at razor wire without wincing), their strength, as with all Argento deaths, being the fact that they’re so connectible to the type of pain we can all imagine and we all dread. And, of course, there’s the now-classic Goblin score which, however bombastically it is sometimes deployed, takes the tension up ten-fold.So what of the Nouveaux Pictures / Cine Excess blu ray itself? Most of the reviews I have read have been extremely positive about both the picture and audio quality. The PQ is stunning. This is a movie which begs to be seen in uncompressed hi-def, and this disc delivers. Sadly, the audio is a huge let down. Firstly, the mix is all over the place. Parts of the dialogue are barely audible, and had me thumbing the volume-up button on my remote, only to have my hair blown off my head moments later when the music and/or screaming kicked back in at ferocious volume. Yes, I get it, I know this is the whole idea. As we're all aware, Argento is not known for his delicacy. I am also aware that the benefit of uncompressed blu ray audio makes it possible to heighten this effect but, in my humble opinion, they have over-egged the omelette a little on this disc. At one stage I was genuinely afraid that my neighbours might have thought I was actually murdering my wife. The overbearing mix aside, I was also very disappointed with the quality of the remastered sound, especially the music itself which, to this audiophile’s ears, sounds horribly muddy, over-compressed and tinny (there is very little bottom end).The special features are a little flaccid, but the retrospective documentary (created by Cine Excess for this disc) adds a little insight for those new to the movie.Minor gripes aside, this blu ray is the definitive version of Suspiria out there, and it seriously belongs in every collection, Argento fan or not. We can only hope that the long-circulated rumours of a remake remain unfounded.

This review is for the Suspiria Blu-ray by Nouveaux Pictures.Suspiria (1976) was made by Italian horror director Dario Argento. I had no idea who Argento was before I saw Suspiria. This is a very powerful film experience, especially in the department of looks and sound. I is also very original, I haven't seen another movie like this. The plot is simple enough: an American Girl, Susie Banyon (played by a young Jessica Harper), arrives to Germany to join a dance academy. The academy is run by witches. The story feels closer to fairy-tales, like Grimm brothers, than usual gore/horror.The strength of Suspiria is how it looks and sounds: the colors (vivid red, blue and green) are fantastic and create a very fairytale-like effect (similar in style to Argentos sequel: Inferno). Very important is also the soundtrack by Goblin, incredibly well fitted into the movie and creating a scary atmosphere. The settings are also fantastic: the house with it's huge doors and extreme wallpaper designs, the lightning effects etc. All in all, Suspiria looks incredible and should really be seen on a large screen. I watched the Blu-ray on a projector (100") and it looks excellent. There are some flaws here and there in the picture, some unfocused moments etc, but this doesn't seem to be a fault in the transfer but rather problems with the film itself. But the major part looks incredibly sharp and with rich colors. (I have the DVD-version as well, and it looks almost as good as the Blu-ray).There is a commentary track with Argento/horror film experts Alan Jones and Kim Newman. This is excellent and the two gentlemen have a really good time. They drop so many interesting observations about every aspect of the film: the looks, the music, the actors, the director, references to other movies (there are two or three references to Psycho) etc. Very informative and well worth listening to again.This is a horror movie, and if your'e very sensitive to blood you should of course be aware of that. But: the effects, blood and violence is not very realistic (the blood ususally looks like bright red paint, and probably is!). As the commentators say: Suspiria is not about fright and gore as much as about style! Actually, I think the "18"-label is a little exaggerated.Highly recommended to anyone interested in cinema!