DEVILS ADVOCATES
DEVILS ADVOCATES is a series of books devoted to exploring the classics of horror cinema. Contributors to the series come from the fields of teaching, academia, journalism and fiction, but all have one thing in common: a passion for the horror film and a desire to share it with the widest possible audience.
The admirable Devils Advocates series is not only essential and fun reading for the serious horror fan but should be set texts on any genre course.
Dr Ian Hunter, Reader in Film Studies, De Montfort University, Leicester
Auteur Publishings new Devils Advocates critiques on individual titlesoffer bracingly fresh perspectives from passionate writers. The series will perfectly complement the BFI archive volumes. Christopher Fowler, Independent on Sunday
Devils Advocates has proven itself more than capable of producing impassioned, intelligent analyses of genre cinemaquickly becoming the go-to guys for intelligent, easily digestible film criticism. HorrorTalk.com
Auteur Publishing continue the good work of giving serious critical attention to significant horror films. Black Static
DevilsAdvocatesbooks
DevilsAdBooksALSO AVAILABLE IN THIS SERIES
Antichrist Amy Simmonds
Black Sunday Martyn Conterio
Carrie Neil Mitchell
The Curse of Frankenstein Marcus K. Harmes
Dead of Night Jez Conolly & David Bates
The Descent James Marriot
Halloween Murray Leeder
Let the Right One In Anne Billson
Nosferatu Cristina Massaccesi
Saw Benjamin Poole
The Silence of the Lambs Barry Forshaw
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre James Rose
The Thing Jez Conolly
Witchfinder General Ian Cooper
FORTHCOMING
Cannibal Holocaust Calum Waddell
Frenzy Ian Cooper
Near Dark John Berra
Psychomania I.Q. Hunter & Jamie Sherry
DEVILS ADVOCATES
SUSPIRIA
ALEXANDRA HELLER-NICHOLAS
Acknowledgments
This book is indebted to two people: Dario Argento for obvious reasons; and John Atkinson from Auteur for kindly allowing me the opportunity to join the fantastic Devils Advocates series. My gratitude to fellow DA author Neil Mitchell for his ongoing support, and thanks to a number of others: Dean Brandum, Shaun Cola, Michael Delsol, Fiona Drury, Rachel Fensham, Lee Gambin, Ian Gouldstone, James Gracey, Jade Henshaw, Stacy Livitsanis, Anne Marsh, Angela Ndalianis, Eloise Roberts, David Surman, Yuka Takashima, Mark Tansley and Valentina Maxwell Tansley, Banana Yoshimoto, and Matias Viegener. Thanks also for my co-hosts at Triple R radio in Melbourne on the Platos Cave film criticism programme (Cerise Howard, Josh Nelson and Thomas Caldwell), and to my fellow editors at SensesOfCinema.com. I particularly wish to thank cinematographer Luciano Tovoli who spent a great deal of time talking to me about his work on the film. And finally, thanks of course to my family, especially my husband Christian.
This book is dedicated to Casper, my very own work of art.
First published in 2015 by
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Copyright Auteur 2015
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E-ISBN 978-0-993-23848-2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN paperback: 978-09932384-7-5
ISBN ebook: 978-09932384-8-2
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CONTENTS
Suspiria poster painted by Shaun Cola
As one of the most globally recognisable instances of twentieth-century Eurohorror, Dario Argentos Suspiria is poetic, chaotic, and intriguing. Intoxicating visuals collide with its unrelenting prog-rock soundtrack to sweep the audience into the same frenzied sensory vortex as the films protagonist, American ballet student Suzy Bannion. The cult reputation of Argentos baroque nightmare is reflected in the critical praise it continues to receive almost 40 years after its original release. For the majority of critics, Suspiria is not only the directors masterpiece, but also the zenith of Italian horror full stop: as Joe Bob Briggs put it, it is the Gone With the Wind of Eyetalian horror. If there was any doubt of his status as one of the great horror auteurs, Argentos international reputation was solidified well beyond the realms of cult fandom in the 1990s with retrospectives at both the American Museum of the Moving Image and the British Film Institute.
For fans and critics alike, Suspiria is as mesmerising as it is impenetrable: the film itself even explicitly tells us its story is so absurd, so fantastic.The films bare commitment to aspects such as plot and characterisation combines with an aggressive stylistic hyperactivity, making Suspiria a film that needs to be experienced through the body as much as through the intellect. That Suspiria is so heavily loaded towards the senses, however, does not deny its fundamental artistry, but rather is integral to it. The absence of a complex storyline does not mean the one it has is anything less than wholly effective: the simplicity of its plot granted Argento the perfect loom upon which to weave his elaborate audiovisual tapestry. By refusing to privilege narrative and to reduce sound into the service of its visuals,
