" psycho meets the exorcist with no holds barred " . a blurb like that sounds like desperate publicity for some low budget , third rate rip-off . but no , this tacky plug comes from the poster for suspiria , perhaps italian horror director dario argento's most consistently successful film . what impresses most in re-watching this surrealistic , supernatural thriller is that argento's directorial flair and stylish visuals are matched by a near-fully coherent narrative . screenplays have always been his achilles heel ; confusing subplots , gaping holes , totally illogical incidents and reactions . no question : argento has always been a better director than a writer . fortunately , he gets the plotting pretty well right with suspiria , taking his cue from a book by thomas de quincey called " suspiria de profundis " . the film's storyline suffers from no major lapses in logic , provided one can accept the premise of a ballet school being a front for a coven of witches . jessica harper plays an american who travels to germany to further her studies in dance . arriving at the school late at night in driving rain , she sees a girl leave and run into the storm in a clearly distressed state . what happens next - and i don't make the comparison lightly - is a murder sequence that for intensity , shock value and sheer directorial flair ranks alongside alfred hitchcock's infamous shower scene in psycho . it's quite possibly a homage to hitchcock , but with its baroque sets , graphic gore and brilliantly chaotic musical accompaniment by the gothic rock group goblin , this stunning sequence remains very much argento's own . though nothing else quite equals the intensity of suspiria's opening 15 minutes , the film continues to be never anything less than engrossing as harper begins her own investigations and slowly comes to realise this is no ordinary ballet school . we meet an assortment of slightly sinister characters , most notably the head ballet teacher played by alida valli in another one of those delicious sour-old-matriarch-from-hell roles she does so well . several more violent murders ensue , including a startling scene in a deserted square where a blind man is . . . well , i wouldn't want to spoil things now , would i ? and the film's climax , staged amid secret corridors and hidden rooms , has a gothic ghoulishness that's most impressive . the english language versions of most argento movies usually suffer trimming , and not just for the violence - deep red and phenomena , for example , have been appallingly hacked about . fortunately , the cuts to suspiria ( about 7 minutes in this version ) have not adversely affected the film . the dubbing of the italian actors into english is quite competently done , too , excepting one appalling and unintentionally hilarious effort with a conversation between harper and a professor about the history of witchcraft in the region . and the soundtrack ? it is interesting to imagine what power the film would have lost if it had been scored by someone else . as it stands , the use of goblin's music in suspiria is outstanding . apparently , argento played the soundtrack on location while filming so the actors could hear the music as they acted out their parts . a stereo video player adds greatly to the viewer's overall experience . even better , see suspiria in a cinema , where you'll get the added bonus of widescreen . and the colours ! deep reds , eerie blues , a superb use of shadow and contrast . the cinematography of luciano tovoli , whose more recent credits include reversal of fortune and single white female , is uniformly superb . a nod also must go to production designer giuseppe bassan for his wonderful baroque interiors . these kinds of settings are crucial to the atmosphere of argento's more surreal excursions , the other most notable example being inferno ( 1980 ) on which bassan also worked . suspiria is the film that broke dario argento into the major league of european directors , and it is fully deserving of its cult status . the gore is at times a little excessive and overstated - that's always been one of argento's shortcomings - but overall this is a fascinating , compelling example of italian horror . 
