Movie #9 - Suspiria

I never thought I would be able to say this, but I might've actually seen the worst movie in my whole life. And lets just say, I don't know the exact figure of how many movies I have watched, but I would assume that I have seen at least more than 1000+ movies.

During Halloween 2007, I happened upon a list of Top 10 horror movies of all time published by MSN.com. Knowing that these articles are usually biased, I decided to give the list a chance and read on through.

I discovered that the list included 6 movies that I have seen before, including 2 of my top 3 favourite films of all time: Psycho and The Exorcist. However, the other 4 movies baffled me, not because they were odd inclusions, but because I had never been exposed to any of them before.

At #4 on that list included the Dario Argento film from 1977, Suspiria. Claiming to be one of the most wonderfully, stylistic horror movies of its era, potentially of all time. I recently picked up a copy of this movie from a trip to Stratford, and I was excited to watch this movie. 1977 was a year of great movies, so my expectations were quite high.

The movie started off somewhat expected... creative death scene, quite graphic by 1977 standards with the stabbing of the exposed beating heart and the full out hanging of the woman in the scene. However, I believe the use of colour (technicolour) hurt this film. The colours in many of the scenes were too bright and vibrant... maybe that was the point. However, I could look beyond this movie if there was a decent script or even a point to the whole thing,

The final solution of this movie... witches and the haunting of the school... was tacked on in the final 20 mins of the movie... something that is billed to be the scariest part of the whole thing... according to the tag line, the last 12 minutes are scarier than the first 92 mins.

Well, it totally flopped. This movie is highly regarded in many film circles, yet I believe it is overrated. What makes this worse is that the film is a remastered version of the original, which includes every scene that was meant for theatrical release.

There are some positives... I got to spend a nice night with my wife. I did in fact like the score of the film, however, I felt it was misused throughout different scenes in the movie. Also, the set chosen for this film and the lighting were cool at times, but still did not overcome a lack of plot, script or even decent scares, thrills, or chills.

Put this movie up against my 3 favourites any day - The Shining, Psycho, and The Exorcist and you will see how bad this movie truly is.

Here's the top 10 list that I found... I am saddened for I no longer want to watch the other 3 movies that I haven't seen yet - Eraserhead, Don't Look Now, and Repulsion.

10. Eraserhead

9. The Exorcist

8. Halloween

7. Don't Look Now

6.Texas Chainsaw Massacre

5. Nightmare on Elm Street

4. Suspiria

3. Night of the Living Dead

2. Repulsion

1. Psycho

At least he got the #1 movie right. I'll give him that.