The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2022: Suspiria (1977), directed by Dario Argento

 

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: 'Suspiria (Main Theme)' by Goblin

       There’s probably a hard limit for how many times Dario Argento will keep showing up on this list. Not that we’re almost out of his films to cover, but despite giallo not being the most diverse subgenre in the world it still feels like a disservice to devote 90 percent of the attention towards only one artist. I’d feel the same way if the only westerns I covered were Sergio Leone or the only animated films I watched were Hayao Miyazaki, a man cannot survive on bread alone you understand. Fate willing we will eventually get through the entirety of his ‘classic’ period, but to use the vernacular of this blog Argento is not a Lynch or a Carpenter level director. And that’s fine, the opinion of this blog means jack shit anyway.

       Released in 1977, Suspiria was directed by Dario Argento, written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi and produced by Claudio Argento through Seda Spettacoli, based on the novel “Suspiria de Profundis” by Thomas De Quincey. Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American girl invited to join the prestigious Tam Academy in German, a ballet dancer’s paradise. Unfortunately she arrived at the peak of plot convenience season, as the night Suzy arrives is also the night when a former student of the school is horrifically murdered. She tries to go about her day in peace, only more and more strange things start to happen. Maggots falling from the ceiling, bizarre noises at night, a slight bleeding from every orifice in the face. What is going on at the Tam Academy and what happened to the murdered girl that passed by Suzy in the night when she arrived? Are the faculty oblivious, or do they know more than they seem? Against her better judgment, Suzy decides to investigate.

       Mysterious though it may seem don’t be fooled, as with the other Argento films we’ve covered on this blog the mystery is simply a smokescreen used to hide the juicy giallo core within. Gruesome, overwrought deaths, malicious, psychotic villains, virginal maidens, the works. Burgeoning cinephiles might be led into thinking that because these are foreign language films that they are more refined or thought-provoking, but that’s not really the case. Giallo scratches the same itch as a Texas Chainsaw Massacre or a Friday the 13th: pretty girls screaming while being murdered or trying to avoid being murdered. In the case of Suspiria it might even scratch harder; Argento sees a scene of a girl being stabbed to death and says ‘what if we had a part where the audience sees her heart beating in her mutilated chest cavity and then we see the killer stabbing the heart?’ It is the penny dreadful and the pulp novel set to motion, base entertainment that was later supplanted by the Jerry Springer Show and twitter drama wrapped up in a blanket of cinematography. Sometimes we want a steak, sometimes we want a burger, and in that case Suspiria is like one of those A-1 steak burgers.

       Suspiria is also the film that firmly established Argento’s reputation as a visual storytelling. The first comparison that came to mind was Corman’s Masque of the Red Death with it’s technicolor rooms (Suspiria was also filmed in technicolor), but if you ran that film through a Stanley Kubrick filter. Good lord does this film look good, the lighting, the use of color and location, it’s rare to find a movie where almost every scene looks like it could be its own painting. Argento has given the Zack Snyder’s Watchmen treatment to a comic book that doesn’t actually exist, and all without blue CGI penises.

       Music for Suspiria is provided by the band Goblin, which to me is a double-edged sword. I like Goblin, and I think at the right time their music combined with Argento’s visuals is a sensory overload akin to a bad acid trip, in a good way. Trouble is there are a lot of moments in this film where it’s not the right time. The soundtrack will make it sound like we’re in the middle of a chase scene, our protagonist only inches away from the killer, and yet on the screen it’s just a character walking slowly down a hallway. Which isn’t the band’s fault, fault lies with the filmmakers, and the filmmakers are very lucky they didn’t completely kill off the atmosphere they were trying to build by having Goblin full bore every five minutes or so.

       Suspiria gets an easy recommendation. While it doesn’t do much to stretch the borders of giallo, it is a master class on shot composition that is worth it to watch for the technique of it as much as for the entertainment aspect. If the endless reboots of Halloween and Hellraiser looked like this then their franchises might have never gone on life support. Burn a witch, toast some marshmallows, and sit down with Suspiria this Halloween.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2018: Phenomena (1985), directed by Dario Argento

And another one Bites Za Dusto. You know this blog has been around for 5 years now and every year I think that this is going to be the time when I close up shop for good, and yet I keep pressing on. I don't know if it's determination or a paralyzing fear of what I would do with my time without it, but whatever the case it does give me an excuse to try out new things, and that's a crux of the human experience, right? I dunno. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the list this year, I hope that I gave you an excuse to try out something new as well, and I hope you join me again next year for another 31 days of scares and spoops. See ya then!

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "Flash of the Blade" by Iron Maiden

       The last time we saw a film by Dario Argento on the Marathon (Tenebrae, back in Marathon ‘14), I started off the article by dedicating entire first paragraph to insulting the country of Italy. In retrospect this was probably not the best foot to start off on, but I suppose I did it because I feel a kinship with that Mediterranean boot. Both Italy and my country of of origin are nation stitched together by bloody conflict, after all. Both have an issues between the northern and southern halves. Both are plagued by fascists. Both love cheese. When I pointed a finger at Italy I was really pointing a finger at myself, as a first student psychology major would say. So to make it up to Italians everywhere it seems only right that 4 years after the first proper Long Dark Marathon of the Soul, 4 years after Tenebrae, that we return to the works of Mr. Agento with an older, potentially wiser eye. And yeah I could have done that with everyone on the ‘14 list but I didn’t feel like it.

       It’s once upon a time, as these stories go, and Ms. Clocktower herself Jennifer Corvino (played by Rocketeer actress Jennifer Connelly), daughter of the actor Paul Corvino, is being shipped to the Richard Wagner International School for Girls located near Zurich. This place, colloquially known as the ‘Swiss Transylvania’ for the eerie winds that come down from the Alps, has been terrorized by a mysterious serial killer who seems to only target teenage girls. Which doesn’t really bother Jennifer all that much, until during a strange sleepwalking session she happens to stumble across a murder taking place. She’s also not sure if the murderer, whoever they are, ended up seeing her that night, which isn’t the best position you want to be in when it comes to serial killers. But what can she, a young girl in a foreign land, possibly do? And where does her bizarre affinity with insects fit into it?

       Phenomena, is a giallo film, a term which in this neck of woods (ie wikipedia) refers to a particular type of thriller (with elements of horror and eroticism to taste) film that evolved out of cheap pulp magazines popular in Italy in the post-war period, much in the same way as film noir in the U.S. has its origins in the stories of Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler. Jumping onto the film scene as far back as 1963, giallo could be considered to be an ancestor of the slasher genre, and much like slasher movies dominated the 70s and 80s before collapsing. Much in the same way as the arc of Dario Argento’s career if we’re being brutally honest, which began in the 60s, exploded in the 70s (1970 was the year of his directorial debut, to be precise), and in modern times is commonly associated with poorly made dreck.

       By 1985 Argento was around the tail end of his Golden Age, but in Phenomena you can see the elements of what made him popular. The bizarre and grotesque imagery, clear and concise editing, the beautiful scenery, expert shots and of course all of that over-the-top violence. While not as visually impressive as his film Suspiria (from what I’ve seen of Suspiria anyway), you still see in Phenomena a film that’s a cut above many of its peers in terms of cinematography. Which may not seem all that impressive on paper, but we’ve all seen movies, especially horror movies, where much of the time is spent trying to figure out what the hell is happening on screen. Simple and clean.

       As I said Jennifer Connelly is the star, her first starring role in only her second film. She does a pretty okay job for a 15 year old, although she does seem a bit wooden at times, whether from the direction, the language barrier or her inexperience it’s hard to tell. We’ve also got Donald Pleasence to take a break from doing Halloween movies to do some stuff here. He puts on a good performance as you’d expect, although ultimately doesn’t really get to do much, which seems a bit of waste. Everyone else I can’t really speak much about, although we do have longtime Argento actress/girlfriend Daria Nicolodi as the teacher Frau Bruckner, who does so little for so long in the film that I’m almost certain you don’t actually hear her name spoken aloud until the last 25 minutes, and even then only once. When she actually gets a chance to speak she’s one of the more expressive members of the cast, and that includes the ones being stabbed by a javelin.

       The problem I arrive at, however, is the same one I faced when it came to Tenebrae: it’s too silly. Giallo, from what little I’ve been exposed to is a film style built on big emotions, but Argento here seems to have taken melodrama and pushed it into the realms of absurdity. What starts out as a relatively normal mystery-thriller with slight supernatural elements and then gets increasingly more bizarre and chaotic, to the point where the climax of the film seems feels so random that it feels like it’s from another movie. No to mention all the odd character behavior, the assistant chimpanzees, the out-of-nowhere claim that insects have ESP, it’s such an overload that a sense of drama is lost. I mean if things are just going to happen with no explanation then you can’t really invest yourself in it, you’re just kind of stuck on a haunted house ride that doesn’t quite have enough material to last the time it takes to experience. Not that I could really empathize with a 15 year old rich daughter of a movie star with psychic bug powers anyway, but you get the idea.

       The eclecticism seems to have affected the music as well. We of course have Goblin, mainstays of film soundtracks, as well as cameos by Iron Maiden and Motorhead, and despite it being good heavy stuff it also lacks nuance. That pulse-pounding, heavy prog rock is perfect during the scenes where the killer is tracking their victims, but then they also have scenes where they’ve got a blazing Iron Maiden playing over Jennifer fiddling over a doorknob. Constantly. Compare it to the soundtrack work of people like John Carpenter, subtle and yet often iconic, and Phenomena feels like the audio equivalent of a drunk bull in a china shop. Heavy, but lacks nuance.

       Generally speaking though, Phenomena does its job of keeping you more or less entertained the entire way through, so I’m going it the thumbs-up for recommendation. It’s weird and silly, but weird and silly is what 80’s horror movies were built on, and at the very least Phenomena looks good while doing it. So if you were a fan of The Believers or Sleepaway Camp that we covered previously on this list then there is probably going to be something you like here. Grab some friends, grab some snacks and the movie and have yourself a fun time.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2014: Tenebrae (1982), directed by Dario Argento

  The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "Tenebrae", by Goblin   

     Italy is a country with a lot of problems. The government is rife with political corruption, organized crime has a stranglehold on the economy and key business leaders, their army has only been occasionally successful in their short history (not successful enough to prevent several invasions on their own soil, regional attitudes have been consistently poor since the country’s rather haphazard creation, and they kind of invented fascism. Not what you might call the best track record, but as bad as Italy can and has been, the numerous contributions to the arts and sciences that have come from that region is undeniable. In the past it was artists like Michelangelo and Da Vinci, and in the modern age it is directors like Federico Fellini and Sergio Leone, with a fine collection of artists, musicians, authors and actors in between. I don’t know what it is about shitty places to live, but they always seem to produce the most interesting stuff. Look at New York in the 70s, or San Francisco at any point in history. The shittier your living conditions, the more people will like your art.

      Italy is no stranger to the horror genre, whether in film or otherwise. In fact the horror subgenre of giallo in Italian film was originally a literary genre, sort of like the pulp fiction novels of the American past, characterized by spicing up your normal mystery story with sex and horror. There have been many great giallo directors over the years, like Lucio Fulci (Zombie, The Black Cat) and Mario Bava (Black Sunday, Baron Blood), but for the purposes of the marathon I’ve decided to go with one of the most popular Italian horror directors, Dario Argento. Although his success in American theaters has been spotty at best, Argento forged a cult following through his frequent use of explosive violence and explicit sexuality in films that blurred the line between camp and horror. Plus he packed his soundtracks with Italian prog rock, which should be enough to get any music hipster at least marginally interested. You’d never see Cronenberg putting YYZ in one of his movies.

      A plane touches down in Rome. On it is Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa), a popular mystery novelist, whose latest book Tenebre was released a fews weeks previous and has been quite successful. The plan, according to his agent (John Saxon) and his personal assistant, is to do the talk show circuit as is expected and generally try to get some rest & relaxation in a foreign land. However, when a series of murders start occuring that fit the murders in Tenebre, every victim a young woman, throat slashed with a straight razor, Peter Neal is the first suspect. While a vicious killer stalks the streets of Rome for fresh victims, Peter Neal decides to start his own investigation to find out the answers on his own. Sometimes though, you’re better off in ignorance…

      Tenebre kind of feels like the Stephen King story that never was (although I guess there is a King book turned movie called The Dark Half which is sort of like this, so whatever), it’s suspenseful but still feels a bit too cheesy to take seriously at the same time.  That being said, Argento still managed to hold my attention throughout by crafting a mystery just bizarre enough that you wonder where’s he going next. The nudity and ultraviolence doesn’t hurt either. If you’re looking for a reason to avoid traveling to Rome this Halloween, why not try out some of Tenebre?