Suspiria (3 Disc Limited Edition)

Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Outside of devoted cult audiences, many Americans have yet to discover the extremely stylish, relentlessly terrifying Italian horror genre, or the films of its talented virtuoso, Dario Argento. Suspiria, part one of a still-uncompleted trilogy (the luminously empty Inferno was the second), is considered his masterpiece by Argento devotees but also doubles as a perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with the director or his genre. The convoluted plot follows an American dancer (Jessica Harper) from her arrival at a European ballet school to her discovery that it's actually a witches coven; but, really, don't worry about that too much. Argento makes narrative subservient to technique, preferring instead to assault the senses and nervous system with mood, atmosphere, illusory gore, garish set production, a menacing camera, and perhaps the creepiest score ever created for a movie. It's essentially a series of effectively unsettling set pieces--a raging storm that Harper should have taken for an omen, and a blind man attacked by his own dog are just two examples--strung together on a skeleton structure. But once you've seen it, you'll never forget it. --Dave McCoy
Description
The Definitive Version of Dario Argento's Horror Masterpiece...Uncut, Uncensored And Remastered From The Original Negative!

Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Banyon, a young American ballet dancer who arrives at a prestigious European dance academy run by the mysterious Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli). But when a series of bizarre incidents and horrific crimes (including what Entertainment Weekly calls "the most vicious murder scene ever filmed") turn the school into a waking nightmare of the damned, Suzy must escape the academy's unspeakable secret of supernatural evil.

Experience the most shocking and hallucinatory horror movie in history as you've never seen or heard it before, now featuring the fully remastered landmark score by Goblin and a heart-stopping new film transfer supervised by director Dario Argento and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. This is the definitive version of SUSPIRIA, an aria of terror beyond imagination and one of the most extraordinary horror films ever made.

This is a Limited Edition 3 Disc Set (60,000 Only) that contains an exclusive 52 Minute Documentary with all new cast & crew interviews, and the Original CD Soundtrack by Goblin.

Amazon.com

Outside of devoted cult audiences, many Americans have yet to discover the extremely stylish, relentlessly terrifying Italian horror genre, or the films of its talented virtuoso, Dario Argento. Suspiria, part one of a still-uncompleted trilogy (the luminously empty Inferno was the second), is considered his masterpiece by Argento devotees but also doubles as a perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with the director or his genre. The convoluted plot follows an American dancer (Jessica Harper) from her arrival at a European ballet school to her discovery that it's actually a witches coven; but, really, don't worry about that too much. Argento makes narrative subservient to technique, preferring instead to assault the senses and nervous system with mood, atmosphere, illusory gore, garish set production, a menacing camera, and perhaps the creepiest score ever created for a movie. It's essentially a series of effectively unsettling set pieces--a raging storm that Harper should have taken for an omen, and a blind man attacked by his own dog are just two examples--strung together on a skeleton structure. But once you've seen it, you'll never forget it. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews:

Yuck!!.......2007-06-28

Too much blood and guts for me...plus the acting left little to be desired. A waste.

Suspiria.......2007-06-28

I must not be a fan of the old Italian thrillers. I read reviews from others about this movie, and thought it was just what I was looking for. Boy was I wrong. You can't hear the characters whispering unless you crank up the volume, then the music comes blaring in. You never see the murderous beast in the first attack, just a hairy arm with long talon-like fingernails, yet when the beast kills the female victim, it repeatedly stabs her with a knife.?? Then there's the scene where the seeing-eye dog attacks it's master. It knocks him down and supposedly tears his throat out, but when you see a close up of the dog ripping at flesh, the flesh is attached to something below the letterbox frame of the film. You never see a body with the live dog. Not to mention the stuffed dog's head that the blind guy is wrestling with on the ground. Too fake for my liking. The girls spend a lot of time staring into nothingness, and listening to haunting sounds that you cannot hear, and you are left staring at them until something else happens. Sometimes for several minutes. They have one bikini scene that's not really worth mentioning. Not sexy, not thrilling, not scary, not horrifying. Someone wrote, "The only thing scarier than the last 17 minutes of this film, are the first 80 minutes". Unless you are really into weak thrillers, and cheesy effects, don't waste your time on this movie.

Fearing Fear Itself.......2007-04-12

"Suspiria" is a well-guarded secret among the intelligentsia of horror fans. If you aren't part of the Algonquin Round Table of literate fright freaks or clued in to the subtle genius of its palette, then you will probably be one of those people who watch it, scratch your head, and then say, "I thought this was supposed to be one of the greatest horror films of all time."

It's not, let's be clear. It exists, now, as a relic of what may once have been frightening (I have the impulse to debate that, but we'll skip it), a fossilized remnant of a time when sheer style and technique were enough to sow, grow, and harvest goosebumps by the bushel. Fans of this film point at the subtle interplays of the editing, the almost painfully raw use of color, the "greatest horror movie score of all time," provided by "Goblin." Although there's a lot of room for interpretation in the term "horrific," it is clear to see the eye of a maestro at work in "Suspiria." The directing, cinematography, and editing are indeed eloquent. The primal color scheme -- while over-the-top -- denotes an eye for craftsmanship, its unrealistic and powerfully savage primacy as tangible in the movie as any character or prop. But there are problems here, too. Lots of them. Not the least of which being the story.

Suzy Bannion (played by Jessica Harper, a woman whose fine features and big, beautiful eyes make her look like a Japanime character) travels to Germany to start her schooling at one of the most celebrated ballet academies in Europe. Before she's even walked in the door, strange things occur, and it is up to Suzy to figure out what is going on ... before it's too late! The elements that are intended to multiply the movie's horror tend (at best) to confuse and (at worst) to bring the pace of the film to a withered crawl. Statues disappear, animals become strangely aggressive, footsteps clack off to rooms unknown, and eyes hover in the dark. Meanwhile, there's stilted dialogue to be endured, and long, trawling shots of people walking...very...slowly.

I consider myself a patient man, especially with things like movies. And the opening murder sequence leads one to expect from the rest of the film a slow, hissing reveal (it also sets the tone for a fever dreamish reality; the building in which it takes place looks like it was designed by a post-mortem Erno Rubik, and all of the blood involved appears to be sherbert-colored poster paint). But by the time maggots and strange bats begin to haunt the school, it was clear that not nearly as much effort had been put into the story as had gone into its well-lit props.

Still, I can appreciate serious stabs at serious art, and I was sorely tempted to give the film a four star pat on the back (a round up from the C+ I feel it deserves), if it weren't for one thing: the score. That's right. In every glowing recommendation I ever read, in every Top Ten Scariest Movies Of All Time list in which "Suspiria" is listed, I heard about this supposedly powerful and unparalleled musical soundtrack to horror. Call me uncultured. Call me short-sighted. But all I heard was an obtrusive, inconsistently employed, and unnecessarily shrill series of screeches and moans. Normally music to movies is like salt to soup. "Suspiria"s soundtrack is so grating and weirdly wielded that it seems like it's trying to be its own story altogether, forget highlighting or intensifying the movie to which its attached. There are moments when it works (the opening driving sequence and the final "battle"), but many more when it doesn't.

Fear is a sticky wicket; there's no accounting for tastes. One thing I do know: if you are a buff of the horror movie genre (or a film student) and you haven't seen "Suspiria," I recommend you watch it, if for no other reason than to see the trippy tricks that are possible when a director gives the screen his undivided attention. But don't expect to be scared or disturbed. And to the rest of you, I'd say steer clear. It's true that there's a lot of visual art to this movie, but much like the art you hang on your wall, this flick goes nowhere.

Classic Horror Flick.......2007-04-04

I hadn't seen this classic horror movie since it was in the theatres in the 70s. Still a classic! "So you think you can kill Elaina Marcos?"

Interesting But Not Great.......2007-03-08

Yes, the lighting and photography are different from other films though I kept imagining the colored lights off camera. The acting and script are pretty good as is the general production design but as a classic horror film, Suspiria rates rather low in my opinion because the blood just doesn't look at all real and if the blood in a horror movie doesn't look real, the film has failed. That's a shame too since I loved the surround soundtrack.

Average customer rating:

Yuck!!
Suspiria
Fearing Fear Itself
Classic Horror Flick
Interesting But Not Great

Suspiria (3 Disc Limited Edition)

Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Deep Red
Inferno
Phantasm
Black Christmas (Special Edition)
Zombi 2 (25th Anniversary Special Edition 2-Disc Set)

ASIN: B00005LQ04
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Amazon.com

Description

The Definitive Version of Dario Argento's Horror Masterpiece...Uncut, Uncensored And Remastered From The Original Negative!

This is a Limited Edition 3 Disc Set (60,000 Only) that contains an exclusive 52 Minute Documentary with all new cast & crew interviews, and the Original CD Soundtrack by Goblin.

Includes a 32 Page Booklet with photos and an interview with star Jessica Harper, and nine 5x7 lobby card reproductions.

Customer Reviews:

Yuck!!.......2007-06-28

Too much blood and guts for me...plus the acting left little to be desired. A waste.

Suspiria.......2007-06-28

Fearing Fear Itself.......2007-04-12

Classic Horror Flick.......2007-04-04

I hadn't seen this classic horror movie since it was in the theatres in the 70s. Still a classic! "So you think you can kill Elaina Marcos?"

Interesting But Not Great.......2007-03-08

Average customer rating:

Suspiria
Starring: Stefania Casini
Director: Dario Argento
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Deep Red (Unrated)
KILL BABY KILL
The Cat o' Nine Tails
Deep Red
The Card Player

ASIN: B000E3ZLWK

Product Description

This tale of witchcraft at a German dance academy is one of the most beautiful, dream-like horror films ever conceived, and quite simply the crowning achievement of a stylistic master, director Dario Argento. Suzy Banyon is the films protagonist, played with wide-eyed naivety by Jessica Harper. Suzy is in Germany beginning to attend a premiere European dance academy. The first death scene admired in classic horror films as the victims initial curiosity and resulting terror are exchanged directly to viewers. In summary, a woman is stabbed, dropped though a skylight and hung as resulting glass claims a second. What happens is not as important as how it is depicted in lighting, framing, manic editing and score. The result is one of the most technically impressive death scenes in film. The musical score by synth-rock group Goblin may be the loudest ever devised, and Argentos baroque visuals overwhelm the viewer in nearly every frame.

Tenebrae (Full Uncut Version) [Region 2 Import]

Average customer rating:

Tenebrae (Full Uncut Version) [Region 2 Import]
Director: Dario Argento
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Alternative Ending Credits
Making Of Feature
Theatrical Trailer
Commentary
Dario Argento Interview

ASIN: B000IOAM0Q

Suspiria [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]

Average customer rating:

Suspiria [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]
Director: Dario Argento
Manufacturer: A-Film
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Netherlands released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Dutch (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: A young American dancer travels to Europe to join a famous ballet school. As she arrives, the camera turns to another young woman, who appears to be fleeing from the school. She returns to her apartment where she is gruesomely murdered by a hideous creature. Meanwhile, the young American is trying to settle in at the ballet school, but hears strange noises and is troubled by bizarre occurrences. She eventually discovers that the school is merely a front for a much more sinister organisation.

Average customer rating:

Suspiria
Starring: Suspiria
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Average customer rating:

Yuck!!
Suspiria
Fearing Fear Itself
Classic Horror Flick
Interesting But Not Great

Suspiria [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Deep Red
Inferno
Phantasm
Black Christmas (Special Edition)
Zombi 2 (25th Anniversary Special Edition 2-Disc Set)

ASIN: B00004CZSQ

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Yuck!!.......2007-06-28

Too much blood and guts for me...plus the acting left little to be desired. A waste.

Suspiria.......2007-06-28

Fearing Fear Itself.......2007-04-12

Classic Horror Flick.......2007-04-04

I hadn't seen this classic horror movie since it was in the theatres in the 70s. Still a classic! "So you think you can kill Elaina Marcos?"

Interesting But Not Great.......2007-03-08

Dario Argento's Phenomena (The Giallo Collection) [Region 2 PAL Import]

Average customer rating:

Force yourself to sit through the slow stuff to get to Argento's endgame

Dario Argento's Phenomena (The Giallo Collection) [Region 2 PAL Import]

Manufacturer: Platinum Media Corporation
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Product Features:

Interview with Dario Argento: Behind the Scenes
Original Music Video
Interview with Claudio Simonetti from the Goblims
Language: English

ASIN: B000MP4ELY

Product Description

Phenomena. Someone is decapitating pupils at an exclusive girls' finishing school in a secluded alpine tourist spot known as the Swiss Transylvania. Can schizophrenic sleepwalker Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) use her strange telepatic power over insects to unmask the hideous assassin before he's compelled to kill... and kill again?

Customer Reviews:

Force yourself to sit through the slow stuff to get to Argento's endgame.......2007-03-30

I checked out Dario Argento's "Phenomena" as Volume 1 of the "Dario Argento Collection." This is the original 110-minute version of the 1985 film that was eventually edited down to the 82-minute edited version known in the U.S. as "Creepers". I will have to check that out some time because less might actually be more in the case of this particular film. I say that because I was ready to give up on this movie because halfway through the DVD kept coming to a stop. I kept taking it out, cleaning it and blowing into the player, over and over again in an attending to get the offending dust mote or whatever. Just before I decided to send the DVD back because I had no compelling reason to watch the rest of the film, I tried it on a different DVD player and found out that this horror film has an ending that you have to see in order to believe.

"Phenomena" begins with a young girl (the director's daughter Fiore) getting off of a bus somewhere in the Swiss Alps and getting killed. Fans of Argento knows he likes heads to break glass when people are getting killed and that happens for the first of two times in this film. Eight months later Inspector Geiger (Patrick Bauchau) is still working the case, one of a string of murders, and consulting with Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasance), a wheelchair-bound insect specialist who knows all about what insects do to human corpses. Then we meet 13-year-old Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly in her first lead role), who has been sent by her parents to a private girls academy. Having an American movie star for a parent cuts no slack with the other girls, who ridicule Jennifer for being a sleepwalker who likes bugs. The headmistress of the school denounces Jennifer as a "Lady of the Flies" while the local doctor is worried that Jennifer's sleepwalking is the first step towards developing a split personality (really, this is their diagnosis). When the girls torment Jennifer she calls all of the insects around the school to her aid and you are thinking that what Argento is doing here is a variation of "Carrie," where the tormented girl with the strange powers turns the table of her tormenters. But there is still that unknown killer running around and Argento has no intention of taking full advantage of this strange little power.

After getting the necessary explanations and exposition from Prof. McGregor, Jennifer actually uses one of her insect friends to find the spot along the bus route where the first girl was killed, which is rather original. This is where the DVD I was watching started giving me headaches and I was ready to just give up on the film, because the only part that had really caught my attention was the chimpanzee that keeps Prof. McGregor company and who was stealing the movie from the human cast. But I am certainly glad I watched the rest of "Phenomena" because that chimp has two of the better scenes in the entire movie and Argento pulls out all of the stops for the big finish. The endgame of this film really erupts given how relatively tame the rest of the film has been up to this point. There is a little bit of everything here in the effort to totally turn your stomach (I have to wonder if the makers of "Saw III" happened to catch this movie because of what Inspector Gieger does).

The result is not even close to being a great film because the weaving together of the science fiction and horror elements is quite uneven, but then there comes a scene like the one where the chimp goes after a Japanese carp kite stuck in a tree on a moonlight night and suddenly I am really pay attention. By the time Jennifer is following that phone cord the gloves are off. I do not know if this is the one Dario Argento film you should see if you only see one of his macabre little films, but at the very least the last act of this film will definitely give you something to talk about. I decided to round up on "Phenomena," but it could well be that whoever edited it down to "Creepers" helped the slow first half of this film so it could well be that the butchered American version ends up being a solid four. If and when I check it out I will remember to come back here and render a verdict on that score.