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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!
10/10
