Rish Outfield's reviews
Tyranist and I both admired Dario Argento's tangible style and were very excited about this, his highest-praised film. I had heard such great things about Suspiria that I had lofty expectations and was disappointed to be . . . disappointed. For the most part, I just didn't get it. Filled with odd sounds, unexplained narrative shifts, and messed-up colors, I found this one tooooooo stylized, alienatingly so. I felt lost. I didn't know who was who, I didn't know when was when, I didn't know what was what. In the end, disturbing as some parts were, I was unsatisfied, and left wondering if I had only seen a work print with vital scenes left out.
Best Scare: The only movie I've seen with more maggots than this one was Argento's later work, Creepers. I'd Recommend It To: You're welcome to check it out. A lot of other people like it, including critics. You may even have already seen it. In fact, I realized, about partway through, that I had seen it (either on TV or another life) and completely forgotten about it. I don't know what that means.

The tyranist's thoughts
In horror film circles, when people talk about Dario Argento this is the film that comes up the most often. It seems to be held in great regard by many horror afficianados and as the best Argento movie out there. Rish and I both like Dario Argento's work quite a bit, but neither of us had seen this (or at least all of it) until we watched it for this review. Unfortunately, all of the above built my expectations much too high.
Suspiria is a very stylized horror film that kind of grates on my 90's American nerves. You will notice the colors most of all. The music is also very evil, but grating. That said, the story is still mostly entertaining even when the plot seems very, very thin. I don't think that this is even close to Argento's best work, but it is still better than a lot of horror films.