Review: Suspiria (1977), directed by Dario Argento

Suspiria is the first of a trilogy about “The Three Mothers,” a trio of witch sisters who each have taken over a great house in different parts of the world. The Mother of Sighs, the oldest sister, has a dance academy in Germany.

Now, these are old-school fairy-tale witches, not to be confused with crystal-rubbing Wiccans of today. Their aim is to corrupt, to do evil, and to confuse and manipulate. And murder, of course. Otherwise, what would Argento do with all of that Da-Glo red blood?

Jessica Harper, whom you may remember from Shock Treatment, plays American dancer Suzy, who has traveled all the way to Freiburg, Germany to be part of this prestigious academy. Very soon, she sees that something strange is going on, and the more she learns, the more bizarre and frightening the story gets.

Soon, the witch and her coven decide she is too damned nosy for her own good. It gets bad. As in Rosemary’s Baby, she finds no one believes her, and the witches are trying to control her, and everybody seems in on it — or dead.

Argento’s use of color is fascinating to me. The whole set is so decorative and vibrant, and the horror scenes are brightly-lit with red and green colored lights. The air of the place is mystery and menace, and even when the horrible deaths occur, it is disturbing in large part because of the incongruity with the setting, not to mention the casual way the Academy covers them up.

Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy — like Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy” and Luhrman’s “Red Curtain Trilogy,” is not precisely a linear collection of sequels. This movie features the first mother, Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs. The second, in Inferno, is Mater Tenebrarum, Mother of Darkness. The third, Mater Lachrymarum, is, of course, Mother of Tears. The making of the trilogy spans 30 years (“The Apartment Trilogy” took 11 years, Luhrman’s trilogy spanned 9 years).

The meta-tale of the three titular witches* is fascinating. They interweave, and by the end quit a vivid history is uncovered.

*Titular Witches coming to the Vagasil Amphitheater tonight!

Suspiria (1977), directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi, starring Jessica Harper, Alida Valli, Udo Kier and Joan Bennett. Suspiria is the first of the trilogy Argento refers to as “The Three Mothers”, followed by Inferno and The Mother of Tears.
Mater Suspiria: Mother of Sighs

Review: Shock Treatment (1981)

Fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show are bugnuts crazy. I know, I’ve seen it over 500 times, and performed in shadowcasts for well over half of those. I own gold lamé swim trunks.

So when word came out there was going to be a sequel in 1981, there was furor. Well, a quiet furor, because outside the theaters, these people tended to keep to themselves. But nonetheless.

Richard O’Brien created Shock Treatment, described cagily on the DVD commentary track as “Not a sequel, not a prequel, but an equal.”

It’s a parallel universe where Denton, USA, home of happy, square Brad and Janet Majors, has been turned into the world’s first reality TV show.

Remember, this was 1981. Reality TV didn’t really start until the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, and such worthy artworks as COPS. In Shock Treatment, the whole town lives in the studio, and your personal cachet is based entirely on whether you’re in a show or not. Prizes include sponsored merchandise and being on other shows. The hospital, in fact, is a medical drama show called Dentonvale, and baffled, square Brad winds up on the show after winning/losing on the game show Marriage Maze, hosted by Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) in drag, playing the blind, Teutonic Bert Shnick.

The DTV network has its own Charles Foster Kane, in the form of the shadowy, manipulative and alliterative Farley Flavors. It was he that got Brad and Janet onto Marriage Maze, it was he that got Brad committed to Dentonvale hospital, it was he that caused dreary, square Janet Majors to become a star, the “It” girl of his new Faith Factory Show.

Janet, for her part, is babmoozled by fame, and soon forgets Brad, gets hooked on pills, and goes egomaniacal. Meanwhile all the relatively-level-headed townsfolk are getting their shows canceled. The toadlike Judge Oliver Wright (played by Charles “The Criminologist with no neck” Gray from Rocky Horror) and the simpering Betty Hapschatt (“Just a day ago she was palin old Betty Monroe!”) do some backstage sleuthing and discover Flavors’s secret: he and Brad are long-lost identical twins. Then they stage a daring escape and coup.

So, you know, it’s your typical story, as old as time: Boy wants Girl, Boy frames Girl’s husband, Boy has Husband committed, Girl becomes famous, Girl becomes an egomaniac, Husband discovers Boy is long-lost twin brother, Boy and Husband have a musical showdown…

…Boy loses, and Girl and Husband escape — along with punk band, a newscaster and a judge.

All with ridiculous costumes, plot twists, and the silliest songs you can imagine.

Not The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but fun nonetheless. It’s got many nods to Rocky, and some of the songs were originally written for an unproduced sequel (Look up Revenge of the Old Queen some time), so some of the lyrics may seem confusing, as far as the story goes, and some costumes, actors and characters will be familiar to Rocky fans.

Incidentally, there is exactly one actor in both movies who portrays the same role: Jeremy Newson plays Ralph Hapschatt, a man who has one or two lines in Rocky, comes back to Denton as the smarmiest man alive.

Jessica “Phantom of the Paradise” Harper pulls off a surprisingly complex Janet, and Cliff DeYoung as Brad and Farley is actually quite genius. It took me a while to recognize them as the same actor, so clearly did he differentiate the two characters’ voices, styles, postures … and hairstyles.

It’s a bit of a critique of the TV-ifying of the world, and it predicted Big Brother and The Truman Show quite presciently, but it’s never preachy. With O’Brien, as with David Lynch and John Waters, he loves his weirdos.

“You need a bit of, Ooh! Shock Treatment!”

Watch it with a friend. And a drink. Or two.

Scott “Scix” Maddix

written for Film Pipe.

Shock Treatment (1981), a follow-up to the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show — “Not a sequel, not a prequel, but an equal.” Written by Richard O’Brien, directed by Jim Sharman,  and starring Jessica Harper, Cliff De Young as Brad Majors, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, and Barry Humphries as Bert Schnick.