Suspiria | Through the Shattered Lens

While the goth ballerina side of me will always have a special place in my heart for Suspiria and its two sequels, I think that 1982’s Tenebrae may very well be director Dario Argento’s best film. Certainly, it was (to date) his last truly great film before he entered the current, frustratingly uneven stage of his career.

Tenebrae was a return to Argento’s giallo roots after the supernatural-themed horror of Suspiria, Zombi, and Inferno. It was also the work of an audaciously confident director. That confidence is fully on display in the scene below in which the film’s killer menaces a journalist and her lover. Featuring a truly impressive tracking shot in which the camera appears to literally swoop in, out, and over a journalists house without a single cut, the scene ends with one of Argento’s more memorable murders.

The music, by the way, is from Goblin.

Inferno is Dario Argento’s 1980 sequel to Suspiria. Inferno seems to bring out the extreme reactions in Argentonians — it’s either loved or hated. I happen to love it.

Below is one of the film’s best known sequences, the one where Irene Miracle ends up taking a surreal swim through a basement. To me, this sequence is almost Fulciesque in it’s dream-like approach (punctuated, of course, by one sudden grotesque shock at the end). Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, which is often compared to Inferno, featured a similarly flooded basement.

Words of warning: This scene lasts 6 and a half minutes. Also, the first few minutes are nearly ruined by Keith Emerson’s bombastic score. Fortunately, once Miracle takes her fateful dive, Mr. Emerson is silenced.