I did a double feature this Halloween, and this one was a treat.

Suspiria is a film I’ve had my eye on for a while. And it’s not just because of Dario Argento’s directing, or the dark fantasy element, or the influence it had on the giallo genre of Italian horror. It was all of those elements and more that drew me closer to this story of witchcraft at a German dance academy.

Suzy Bannion is an American dance prodigy who goes to a European dance academy to continue her training, only to find that maggots are falling from the ceiling and students around her keep dropping like flies. When we first see her, she’s lugging up her suitcases through the pouring rain, arriving at the institute like a destitute medieval traveler asking for permission to enter a gothic castle. When we see the institute, it’s a startling red building. It feels otherwordly, yet so enticing. When you enter it, who knows what could await?

A girl leaves in a hurry just as Suzy is about to enter, and she heads off in a huff. She’s to be found graphically murdered in a friend’s apartment building not long after, the scene itself setting the tone for the film going forward. The characters might not be the most complex, but this isn’t Night of the Living Dead–this is a fairy tale.

A dark, dark fairy tale.

The colors in this film are delicious. It’s not just the vibrant colors that give this film a sense of displacement and general terror–it’s the lighting and the shadows that make this film as though Dorothy landed in a nightmare version of Oz. When Suzy traipses her way through the hallways of the institute, she is not a student, but an actor in a play she didn’t sign up for. Even when you step out of the institute, the lingering effects of these lights will stick with you and infiltrate every space. When you see a highly saturated light, you know something’s up. It creates a delirious effect that will make you want to stay in this nightmarish world forever.

No color is put to better use than the color red. When someone dies in Suspiria, the blood is clearly fake, but it’s almost candy-colored. It paints the character’s faces like they were sculpted that way. When it drips down a dying character’s face, it becomes another part of the mise-en-scene, adding to the film’s generous color palette. When the girls are asleep in the gym after maggots are found in their quarters, the red light creates this feeling that even though they are supposed to be safe, they’re technically in the viper’s nest. The snoring figure next to them could be a teacher–or something far worse.

Normally, “style over substance” is a death note for any film. But I think for Suspiria, that could be considered a compliment. Sure, I didn’t resonate with any of the characters, but the way everything moved, the film felt like a bad dream you remember having when you were a kid. Spoiled food is turned into a living biohazard. The old matriarchal figures in your life turn into these beings you no longer recognize. And the hallways you wonder around at night aren’t just hallways, but death traps. The more you navigate the institute, the less you sure you are where you think you are.

Although this film wasn’t it for me, I will admit sometimes it’s better to create a film with dazzling images than it is to create a film with intricate plot points and rules that lead nowhere. If you’re going to confuse audience members, at least make it memorable. The worst crime you can commit to an audience is to bore them. With Suspiria, I was never bored.

FURTHER THOUGHTS

• Only in Europe will they prescribe red wine as a cure to weakness.
• Goblin did not have to do all that with the score.
• Okay, I know the institution is a death trap, but that swimming pool? Sign me up.