History Film / Suspiria

* The [[Film/Suspiria2018 2018 remake]] of Argento's film by Creator/LucaGuadagnino.

''Suspiria' is:

[[redirect:Film/Suspiria1977]]

[[quoteright:318:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suspiriaposter_2562.jpg]]

->''"The only thing more terrifying than the last 12 minutes of'' Suspiria ''are the first 92."''[[note]]Which is technically true, since most of the film is psychological horror/mystery, while the last twelve minutes are more of an action film with far less gore involved.[[/note]]
-->-- Tagline

Suzy Bannion, an American ballet student, goes to perfect her art at an academy in Freiburg, West Germany. Of course, as she arrives, young female students begin being horribly murdered, and this turns out to be a bad idea.

Probably the most famous Creator/DarioArgento film, ''Suspiria'' is a movie that doesn't play by ''any'' rules. It's the first part of the Three Mothers trilogy by Director Dario Argento which also includes ''Film/{{Inferno}}'' (1980) and ''Film/MotherOfTears'' (2007).

Fans of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' will find quite a bit of value in this film, as the game and series take very heavy inspiration from it. The anime series ''Anime/YuriKumaArashi'' was also heavily inspired by the film.

A [[Film/Suspiria2018 remake]] is slated for fall 2018, with Creator/DakotaJohnson as Suzy (now Susie) and Creator/TildaSwinton as Madame Blanc, and Creator/LucaGuadagnino in the director's chair, who has stated it will not be a straight remake but more of a reimagining of the basic concept (specifically a "homage" to the feelings he had watching the original).
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!! "Broken Tropes, Broken Minds":

* AllThereInTheManual: The significance of hangings, throat-slittings, the Directoress' distinctive snoring, and [[spoiler: the coven's deaths by asphyxiation]] only make sense if you know that the Directoress is [[spoiler: the Mother of Sighs.]] This is important in the inspiration and the sequels, but makes less sense here. Even the film's title is drawn from the word "suspire", which means to take a deep breath or a sigh.
* AnimalsHateHim: Daniel's guide dog attacks Albert, Madame Blanc's nephew.
* AnyoneCanDie: It's an Argento movie. What did you expect?
* ArcWords: [[spoiler:"Secret irises."]]
** Although it turns out that these were actually the only words that Suzy heard [[spoiler:of a longer set of instructions, which she eventually remembers at the end of the film.]]
* BalletEpisode: For both Creator/DarioArgento and his ''Three Mothers Trilogy''.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Helena Markos ]] Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs.
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Understandable, since Argento is a fan of Creator/AlfredHitchcock.
* BlindMusician: In one scene, where there's ballet practice, the music is played by Daniel, a blind man with a guide dog.
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Which Argento used again in ''Film/{{Phenomena}}''.
* BookcasePassage: [[spoiler: Helena Markos, the Directoress and Mother of Sighs]] is in a hidden room that can be accessed by turning the [[spoiler: blue iris]] on the wall in Madame Blanc's office.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: When the killer attacks.
* ColorWash: Red. Everything is red.
** Or [[UnnaturallyBlueLighting blue]].
** Or green.
** Or yellow, and believe us when we say that bright, saturated colors like these have never looked ''less'' cheerful than they do in this film.
* ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding: [[spoiler:Were it not for the field trip to the theatre, the witches wouldn't have been the only casualties of the coven's destruction.]]
* CreepyChild: Albert, the nephew of Miss Tanner. It doesnt help that he's dressed in very outdated victorian era childrens clothes. Modern viewers may even see a visual similarity between him and [[ClockTower Bobby Barrows]] sans mask and giant scissors. [[spoiler: He's also a member of the coven]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The deaths of Pat, her friend, and [[spoiler: Sara]] are examples.
* CurbStompBattle: The final confrontation with the BigBad is...surprisingly easy.
* TheDarknessGazesBack: The first murder. Eek.
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Albert is killed along with the rest of the coven once Helena Markos dies]].
* DeathTrap: While following the teachers at night, Sara gets chased [[spoiler:by an unseen killer and jumps out of a window into a room full of razor wire.]]
* DingDongTheWitchIsDead: Once the BigBad is killed, the threat is neutralized because the other members of the [[spoiler: coven]] are powerless without the leader and die.
* EmpathicEnvironment: The storm at the end mirrors [[spoiler: the destruction of the school]].
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:Miss Tanner]] is furious about Daniel's dog attacking [[spoiler:Albert. This may have had a hand in his death at the teeth of said dog.]]
* EvilOldFolks: The BigBad of the film [[spoiler:is an old woman.]]
* EvilDetectingDog: Done with a twist. [[spoiler:The evil in question manages to possess it into attacking its owner.]] Prior to that is a more straightforward example: [[spoiler:Seeing how Albert was part of the coven, it's likely that the dog recognized him as evil, which is what provoked him to attack.]]
* ExcusePlot: It's all about the colors, music, and gore.
* ExpansionPackPast: The story is heavily fleshed out in the sequels, such as the background for the school, [[spoiler: Helena Markos]] and the reason for her current state.
* FacelessEye: The eyes that stare at Pat through the window.
* {{Fainting}}: Suzy faints during ballet practice supposedly because of anemia. [[spoiler: It's actually because of an enchantment a witch put on her.]]
* FairyTaleMotifs: Argento has said that the story was inspired by ''Snow White'' ({{Wicked Witch}}es targeting helpless young girls) and it also has a lot in common with ''Hansel & Gretel''.
* FemmeFatalons: [[spoiler:Helena Markos fingernails are noticeably long and sharp.]]
* FinalGirl: Suzy has elements of this before the trope had been popularized by Laurie Strode of ''{{Film/Halloween 1978}}'' - as a responsible, studious brunette who outwits the bad guys.
* {{Gorn}}: During Pat's murder, [[spoiler: the killer stabs so deeply you can actually see her heart being punctured, but that's only the beginning]]. The Magnum release is the only American release with every frame of footage (even the recent DVD releases are missing anywhere from a few frames to a few seconds of footage), and the R-rated cut is only available in a pan-and-scan release, while the uncut version is available in both pan-and-scan and letterboxed releases.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Surprisingly, when [[spoiler: Sara's]] throat is being slashed, we barely see the knife slicing and then we get a closeup of her eyes. Surprising, considered [[{{Gorn}} what we saw during Pat's murder]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: The reason why Pat is murdered by Markos.]]
** Also presumably the reason [[spoiler:the witches make Suzy ill, move her into the school, and drug her food in the first place; she saw Pat flee, and might know something. And when she lets it slip that Pat was taking to someone else, they target Sara too]].
* HumanPincushion: Pat's friend is impaled by falling glass when Pat's dead body falls through the sky light.
* HumanoidAbomination:[[spoiler: The BigBad is barely recognisable as a human being thanks to her being "the Black Queen."]]
* ImprobablyFemaleCast: The main characters are all female. The male character with the most dialogue in the film is the psychiatrist, and he has only one scene at the end.
* {{Invisibility}}: One of the special abilities of the Mother of Sighs, [[spoiler: Helena Markos]]. She tries to trick the protagonist with this ability, [[spoiler: but it doesn't work]].
* LargeHam: Helena Markos in the American dub, [[{{Narm}} ad nauseam]].
* {{Leitmotif}}: There are a few, but the 14-note motif used at the very beginning (entitled "Suspiria", natch) re-appears eight additional times.
* LoadBearingBoss: [[spoiler:Helena Markos.]]
* MauveShirt: Pat, her friend, and Daniel.
%%* MindScrew
* MusicalSpoiler: In this case, ''literally'', as the Goblin score will sometimes have a loud whispered ''[[spoiler: WITCH!]]''. Nothing in the film indicates the presence of [[spoiler: witches]] til late in the film.
* NaiveNewcomer: Suzy is a new student at the school and doesn't get the weird goings on.
* NoOntologicalInertia: When Suzy [[spoiler: kills the Mother of Sighs]], the reanimated corpse pursuing her instantly disappears and soon after that the entire school burns down. This is explained by the eradication of the black magic present there [[spoiler:which was accumulated and structured in the form of a coven by Helena Markos]].
* NothingIsScarier: Not a lot actually ''happens'' for most of the movie, but the lurid colors and strange sets create an unsettling atmosphere that's gotten under your skin long before any deaths beyond the first two occur.
* OneWordTitle
* RedRightHand: The incredibly ugly porter.
* ScarsAreForever: After Suzy kills [[spoiler: Helena Markos, the Directoress]] she becomes visible and you can see her burn scars from the fire that nearly killed her.
* SceneryPorn: This is probably one of the prettiest horror movies ever filmed. Take note of the gaudy interior design of Pat's friend's apartment complex.
* ShoutOut: The school is apparently situated on a street called [[Creator/MCEscher Escherstrasse]]. Not coincidentally, several rooms in the film (including one ''outside'' the school, in a murder victim's apartment) feature Escher or Escher-esque motifs on the walls.
* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler: Sara]], Suzy's friend, has her throat slashed with a straight razor while trapped in a room full of razor wire.
* SlippingAMickey: The witches-in-disguise slip a drug in Suzy's wine that comes complimentary with her meals.
* SoleSurvivor: Once the main heroine kills [[spoiler:the head witch (Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs)]], the building starts to collapse, and the moment she leaves, it bursts into flames, supposedly killing every single person within the building except for the main heroine. Luckily, that includes none of the student body as they were on a field trip to the theatre.
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:Were it not for one of the teachers bringing many of the students on an unexpected field trip, the death toll from the destruction of the school after Suzy defeats Helena Markos would've been much higher. The witches were on to Suzy and set up the field trip to ensure there would be no witnesses to her death. Ironically, that just ended up saving more lives when Suzy came out on top.]]
* SurrealHorror
* ThematicSeries: Along with ''Inferno'' and ''Mother of Tears'' in the Three Mothers Trilogy.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The first murder in particular is astoundingly brutal, often earning a place on lists of the most grisly murders in cinema.
* TokenGoodTeammate: The teacher that took the students to see a play [[spoiler:and in the process quite possibly saved their lives when the school went down with Helena Markos]].
* TrashTheSet: The Academy's [[spoiler: self-imploding]].
* UnresolvedSexualTension: It's pretty obvious Suzy and Mark like each other, but it never gets past the flirting stage.
* VaderBreath: While sleeping in the dance studio due to the school being fumigated for maggots, Sara knows that Helena Markos, the founder of the dance school and [[spoiler: The Mother of Sighs]], is in the room with them because of her loud, wheezy breathing.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The story was inspired to co-scriptwriter Daria Nicolodi by a story about her grandmother having run away from a music academy in which they also taught evil witchcraft. Dario Argento later admitted that this was purely fabricated.
* WhiteShirtOfDeath: Pat, her friend and [[spoiler: Sarah]] all wear white as they're brutally murdered.
* WickedWitch: [[spoiler: Helena Markos]], the Big Bad, she's ancient, she cackles, and curses people.
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Suzy Bannion, an American ballet student goes to perfect her art in a Freiburg Academy. Of course, as young female students are being murdered, this is a bad idea.

A [[Film/Suspiria2018 remake]] is slated for fall 2018, with Creator/DakotaJohnson in the lead role, and Creator/LucaGuadagnino in the director's chair, who has stated it will not be a straight remake but more of a reimagining of the basic concept (specifically a "homage" to the feelings he had watching the original).

* AllThereInTheManual: The significance of hangings, throat-slittings, the Directoress' distinctive snoring, and [[spoiler: the coven's deaths by asphyxiation]] only make sense if you know that the Directoress is [[spoiler: the Mother of Sighs.]] This is important in the inspiration and the sequels, but makes less sense here.

A [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspiria_(upcoming_film) remake]] is slated for fall 2018, with Creator/DakotaJohnson in the lead role, and Creator/LucaGuadagnino in the director's chair, who has stated it will not be a straight remake but more of a reimagining of the basic concept (specifically a "homage" to the feelings he had watching the original).

A [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspiria_(upcoming_film) remake]] is slated for fall 2018, with Creator/DakotaJohnson in the lead role, and [[Film/CallMeByYourName Luca Guadagnino]] in the director's chair, who has stated it will not be a straight remake but more of a reimagining of the basic concept (specifically a "homage" to the feelings he had watching the original).