Suspiria (1977)

... aka: Alarido
... aka: Chok House (Shock House)
... aka: Dario Argento's Suspiria
... aka: Flykten från helvetet (Escape from Hell)

Directed by:
Dario Argento

I've always had a love / like relationship with this film. Had you asked me a decade ago to list my favorite horror films of all time, Suspiria would quite likely get a quick mention. But then I went through a period where some of the film's flaws just kept jumping out at me and it went down a little in my estimation. Now I never outright disliked this film. On the contrary, I've enjoyed watching it occasionally ever since I was a kid. It was one of the first films I owned on video, one of the first films I bought on DVD and the film that helped get me into Argento films at a young age. I was so fond of it and Creepers that I was lured onto ebay back in the dial-up days and shelling out a lot of money trying to get my hands on any film Argento I could. You know, back when finding something like the heavily-cut copy of Tenebre called Unsane was the best one could hope for. But then we get a bit older and our tastes tend to change...

Over time and many viewings, I just got to the point where I wondered if Suspiria was truly worthy of the acclaim and a high placement on nearly every critic's top horror film lists. I mean, there's absolutely no denying its visual merits, but is it really so stylish that it manages to overcome its many narrative shortcomings? And the poor dubbing / dialogue? And some numbskull character actions? And the hokey stuffed bat attack? And that painfully bad scene where our heroine goes to a psychiatry convention to find out about witches and Udo Kier, bizarrely shot from the ground up, appears to be reading his lines off of cue cards? Now having taken a long hiatus and armed with a copy of the 40th Anniversary Synapse 4K restoration Blu-ray, I'm interested in seeing how I feel about this one now.

Upon receiving her acceptance letter, American ballerina Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) travels to Freiburg, Germany to start training at the esteemed and exclusive Tanz Akademie. It's late at night when she arrives and she's given a chilly reception right at the front door, with a frantic young woman muttering something inaudible before fleeing the building and another girl coming over the intercom telling her to "Go away!" And that she does, right to a hotel for the night. The fleeing girl - Pat (Eva Axén) - ends up at her friend Sonia's (Susanna Javicoli) apartment, but someone, or something, has followed her there. Whatever it is manages to float outside a third story window, busts its hand through the window and grabs her. Next thing we know she's being stabbed repeatedly. She's tied up, falls through a stained glass window and is hung by the rope, while Sonia gets impaled by the falling debris (glass and a metal pole).

The following day, Suzy returns to the academy to begin her training. She's introduced to vice directress Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett), once a very famous ballerina herself, and is shown around by the stern Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), who acts more like a prison warden than a teacher and constantly has a red face from screaming so much. Most of the dancers there prove to be immature, snobby and / or money-obsessed, though Suzy is befriended by fellow student Sarah (Stefania Casini), who doesn't quite fit in herself. And then Suzy begins picking up various signs that something sinister is afoot.

For starters, the staff can't seem to make up their mind about Suzy's accommodations. She's initially told that instead of boarding at the school, she's to live off campus in an apartment with third year student Olga (Barbara Magnolfi). But after she tells investigating detectives that she saw Pat on the night of her murder, they then try to coerce her into moving to the school... almost as if they want to keep a close eye on her. When she resists, she's briefly blinded by a crystal the cleaning lady shines at her and passes out. When she comes to, all of her belongings have been moved to the school; pretty much forcing her to stay there. A quack doctor puts her on a strange diet of bland food and thick red wine, even though Suzy's fainting spell seems to have been an isolated incident and she feels fine. But it does help her sleep well at night. Almost too well.

Suzy's first few days there, she's greeted by a maggot infestation (blamed on spoiled meat in the attic) and the death of blind pianist Daniel (Flavio Bucci), which occurs after his usually well-behaved seeing eye dog bites the cook's young son and, later, chews out his own throat. She learns a bit more about the strange occurrences at the academy from Sarah, who was Pat's friend and is in possession of some notes Pat was keeping that point in the direction that the school is run by a (gulp!) coven of actual witches. After relaying just a bit of information, Sarah promptly disappears and her room is completely cleaned out, with Miss Tanner claiming she must have run away in the night.

As for Tanner and the rest of the staff, they claim to live in town, but their footsteps late at night tell a different story; one where they're not even leaving the building at all. There's also the issue of the mysterious primary school director that no student has ever met and the staff keeps well hidden. She may be somehow linked to a Greek emigre named Helena Markos. Known as "The Black Queen," Markos had previously been expelled from several European countries for practicing witchcraft until she permanently found a home in Freiburg and established the Tanz Akademie. She supposedly died in a fire back in 1905. Supposedly.

Suspiria is quintessential "style over substance." While the screenplay (by Argento and his then-partner Daria Nicolodi) holds little of interest, the dialogue is often clunky and the post sync dub is sometimes distracting (though there's certainly a lot worse), the film is so visually captivating, imaginative, well-crafted and gorgeous to look at, that it frequently transcends the narrative altogether. Great care has gone into the look of virtually every shot. Giuseppe Bassan's production design, Luciano Tovoli's cinematography, the lighting and vibrant colors overlaid with a bombastic, chilling and unique score from prog rock group Goblin (with assist from Argento himself) all combine to create some of the most effective and mesmerizing sequences in horror film history. The opening ten minutes and Sarah's death scene are the standout set pieces here, but virtually every frame at least holds something of aesthetic interest. So, I'm happy to report that Suspiria has managed to cast its spell over me once again all these years later, perhaps most especially now that it's looking and sounding better than ever.

This is the first in the "Three Mothers" trilogy that also includes the New York City-set INFERNO (1980) and the Rome-set Mother of Tears (2007); all of which involve witches spreading evil from three distinct locations. Since the third entry took so long to make, Luigi Cozzi made his own unofficial pseudo sequel in the interim titled Il gatto nero / The Black Cat (1989). A remake, which uses the basic plot of the original but has a bunch of added subplots and a completely different visual style, was released in 2018. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, who'd previously made the popular (and Oscar nominated) gay coming of age film Call Me By Your Name (2017), the two-and-a-half hour film polarized both audiences and critics.

★★★1/2

Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält (1970)

... aka: Austria 1700
... aka: Brenn, Hexe, brenn
... aka: Burn, Witch, Burn
... aka: Hexen
... aka: Satan
... aka: Witches Are Tortured to Death

Directed by:
Michael Armstrong
Adrian Hoven (uncredited)

Shortly after its 1970 premiere in West Germany, Mark of the Devil (originally Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält or "Witches Are Tortured to Death") was banned in its country of origin; a ban that would last until 2008! It also had issues with censorship in the UK and the very first public screening of the uncut version wouldn't occur until 2013 (!!) However, most of the film's true infamy was created by an effectively crude American advertising campaign in 1972. Distributor Hallmark Releasing Corp. whipped up a memorable poster which boasted that it was "Positively the most horrifying film ever made," claimed it was "the first film rated V for violence" and even promised it was "Guaranteed to upset your stomach." Not content to rest on just those self-implied lowbrow laurels, they then went a step further: "Due to the horrifying scenes no one is admitted without a vomit bag." And that's exactly what patrons received upon entrance to see this one. Morbid curiosity meant audiences just couldn't keep away and they turned this into a money-maker. Clearly made in response to the hit WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968) starring Vincent Price, Mark actually managed to out-gross that film by a considerable margin due to the effective marketing. Witchfinder director Michael Reeves was originally even lined up to direct this one, too, but was replaced by British director Michael Armstrong after his untimely death.

In recent interviews, Armstrong revealed he was first given a script by his agent called "The Witch Hunter Doctor Dracula," written by the film's producer, Adrian Hoven. Armstrong hated it and got permission to re-write the whole thing. Only keeping the witch hunting theme, he decided to highlight the religious hypocrisy, crass violence and corrupt political state of the era. The finished script ended up being credited to the pseudonyms "Sergio Casstner" (Armstrong) and "Percy Parker" (Hoven). Hoven apparently wasn't pleased by any of this and there was a lot of tension on-set between the two men. At one point, Hoven even went behind the director's back to film many scenes not in the new screenplay (featuring himself and two of his children) that ended up in the finished product much to Armstrong's chagrin.

Sensationalism is all over ever frame of the opening sequences as we bear witness to all of the expected things that occur when religion isn't kept in check. You know, things like a caravan of nuns being hijacked so that they can be raped and murdered. That's followed by some good Christian tortures that involve a man having his hand chopped off before being stripped, tarred and feathered and sent into a crowd of laughing, leering townsfolk who are instructed to chase him through the streets until he keels over. Next up, two young women are hung up by their wrists and slowly lowered into a fire, making sure to curse their executioners before being engulfed in flames. A title card then informs us that "In Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries, it is estimated that nearly eight million people were convicted of heresy and executed by fanatical witch hunters, in order to save their souls." [Later scholarly estimates based on available data are MUCH lower, usually placing the actual death toll somewhere between 35 and 70 thousand.]

Heading over all this torture, rape and murder of innocents is a nasty, sniveling, self-serving witch-finder named Albino (Reggie Nalder), who's involved in these bogus convictions, torture sessions and executions strictly for his own benefit and uses his position of power for money, sex and to satiate his own sadistic desires. Unfortunately for him, he's only a "local authority" and royalty has sent out a notorious state-appointed witch-hunter named Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom) to clean up the countryside. Arriving in the small Austrian village prior to Cumberland is his naive, well-meaning apprentice Count Christian von Meruh (handsome young Udo Kier) and chief executioner Jeff Wilkens (Herbert Fux), who's "the most famous head-chopper in all of Europe." Fearing his position is being threatened, especially considering he's been bypassing official trials and heading straight to the torture fun, Albino coerces an advocate (Johannes Buzalski) to forge papers and up the amount of convictions and executions prior to the Lord's arrival.

Getting caught up in all this are a number of people, most notably feisty barmaid Vanessa Benedikt (Olivera "Vuco" / Katarina), who falls in love with Christian but finds herself high up on Albino's shit list after slicing up his face when he attempts to rape her. Vanessa is whipped, convicted of having "illicit intercourse with the Devil" and thrown into a cell to await her fate as a succession of others wrongly convicted come to join her. Expelled nun Deirdre von Bergenstein (Gaby Fuchs) is raped and impregnated by a high-ranking bishop and thus convicted of carrying the devil's child. Young Baron Daumer (Michael Maien), who's just inherited a great deal of money from his deceased father, is accused of being possessed but only because the church wants their hands on his fortune. A nobleman / puppeteer (Hoven) and his wife (Ingeborg Schöner) are accused of crafting "human dolls that speak" and are thrown into the slammer along with their two young children. In between all of the torture scenes, Christian starts to see the light about how diseased and corrupt his mentor and others claiming to do God's work really are.

Since this same exact story had just been told, and told better, the previous year by the aforementioned Witchfinder General, this depends almost entirely on exploitation elements to differentiate itself from the pack. The good news is that if you're into screaming, torture, blood and misery, this has plenty of that to go around. There are many whippings, bloody lashings and slashings, fingers crushed in vices, bodies stretched out on racks, severed arms, legs and heads and a man driven mad by a water drip. Some of the more interesting torture techniques include feet burned with a hot iron, a tongue getting ripped out and ass torture where a man is forced to sit on spikes and then a hot seat where a fire is lit right under his bum. During an eye gouging, a bizarre cartoon effect has been added. This also includes a dash on nudity courtesy of Fuchs (who went on to play the female lead in THE WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN) and Dorothea Carrera as a young woman surprised in bed with her lover. Some of that and some of the grislier violence (as much as ten minutes) were censored in many countries over the years. The full uncut run time is 97 minutes.

Mark is fairly well-produced, with solid production values, sets, costumes and locations, and benefits from a strong cast, with especially good contributions from Lom, Nalder and Fux. It also deserves a bonus credit for being an early exploitation shocker hit with a cleaver and successful marketing campaign. However, it's also dreary, slow-moving and just not as compelling or well-made or artful as some of the other movies it shares company with and thus pretty forgettable on the whole. The fact the director and producer weren't seeing eye to eye is also evident whenever this sidesteps into unnecessary subplots that add nothing to the film.

After the film proved successful, Hoven quickly churned out an official, now-hard-to-find sequel: Mark of the Devil Part II (1973), which brought back Nalder and a few of the other actors for more of the same. Other bogus "sequels" later popped up on home video here in America but all of these were simply re-titled European horrors that had nothing to do with the original. Mark of the Devil 3 was actually the Mexican shocker Alucarda (1977), Mark of the Devil 4 was the Paul Naschy film HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB (1973) and Mark of the Devil Part V was used for the original "Blind Dead" film Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972).

★★1/2