Connect with us
100 Best Horror Movies 100 Best Horror Movies

Home Video

[Blu-ray Review] CultFilms Delivers the Ultimate ‘Suspiria’ Blu-ray

Published

on

In 1977, just two years after wowing horror fans with the masterpiece that is Deep Red, iconic Italian director Dario Argento somehow managed to raise the bar once more with the stunning Suspiria. More than forty years later the film still manages to impress and delight genre fans the world over. And with a pending remake merely months away, the legend of Suspiria will only continue to grow.

Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) is a young ballet student from New York that travels to a prestigious dance academy in Germany. As soon as she arrives things get to a rather awkward start. She shows up the academy late in the middle of a torrential downpour. As she heads for the entrance another young woman comes running out of the school screaming. Confused, but not deterred, Suzy knocks on the door. When someone on the inside answers, they claim to not know Suzy and refuse to open the door, telling her to head away. Suzy is forced to find a hotel and attempt to come back in the morning.

The next morning things seem fairly normal and Suzy has no issue getting into the school. In fact, she’s welcomed by Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), both of whom say they’ve been expecting her. As she’s receiving a quick tour of the school she’s informed that the girl she saw run off the night before was mysteriously killed. And from that point on things start to get a little…weird.

Suspiria is one of those movies that sweeps you away with its beauty. You can’t spend too much time focusing on the specifics of the plot because that’s not the point. Once you go down that path you’ll get lost trying to make sense of it all and miss out on what is a truly stunning visual feast. That’s not to say there isn’t story, because there is, but it’s not the center of attention. This is a film about color and in that context it cannot be topped.

The film is primarily confined to one location, the dance academy. But that academy is a big, dramatic set piece made with exquisite detail. And it’s within this set that Argento paints a breathtaking picture. Suspiria is the type of film that if you broke it down frame by frame and then released just the individual frames they would be world-renowned pieces of high-end art reserved for only the most privileged art museums across the world. Argento and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli came together and created something grand that words are unable to describe it.

The bold, vivid colors are without question the biggest draw when it comes to Suspiria, but coming in a close second is the knockout score from Italian prog-rockers, Goblin. Over the years Goblin has done a number of scores, including many more with Argento, but none have had the legacy or lasting impact quite like this one. The music is just as powerful as the visuals and that’s a mighty impressive feat. The music of Suspiria has gone on to be sampled and re-used by many others with the likes of Ghostface Killah and Raekwon citing it as a major influence in their work.

Suspiria is one of the greatest films ever made. It’s a big, bold film that isn’t afraid to go over-the-top. From the opening frame through the closing credits, this is a movie that sets out to make an impression and that’s exactly what it does. If you’re looking for something more nuanced, more subtle, this probably isn’t what you want. But if you want something that is going to light up your senses and leave your jaw firmly planted on the floor, then yeah, that’s Suspiria.

Special Features

Horror fans often talk about the days of VHS and how they miss that lo-fi quality we used to get when watching our favorite films. Personally, I get the nostalgia aspect of that and definitely miss the video stores, but I always want films to be presented in the highest quality possible. I understand many of us may have seen them on VHS first and so that poor quality is what we know, but that’s not how we were meant to see them. That was just the best format of the time. Thankfully I don’t hear anyone says this about Suspiria. This is a film that absolutely should be seen in the best quality possible and for years we waited to get the film on Blu-ray. It seemed like that time would never come and then bam, in the last year we got multiple Blu-ray releases.

I’ve seen three of the releases, and they’re all great, but my favorite is the region B release from the UK’s CultFilms. Germany’s TLE Films did a brand-new 4K scan that just looks incredible. Part of why the film has such a deep, and rich color palette is the way Argento struck the original prints use a Technicolor Dye Transfer process that was already obsolete in the early 70’s. This meant that prints beyond that original one weren’t treated the same way and Argento’s original look altered. TLE has done their best, putting in massive amounts of effort, to recreate that look. In addition, they were able to restore and reinsert frames that had become lost over the years. So not only is this the best-looking version of Suspiria out there, it’s the most complete.

CultFilms also loaded this bad boy up with plenty of special features. A trio of bonus features are of the archival variety. Two documentaries — Suspiria Perspectives and Fear at 400 Degrees: The Cine-Excess of Suspiria — both of which come from a previous UK Blu-ray release of the film. The first doc feature film theorist Dr. Patricia McCormack and she not only discusses Suspiria but also gives a quick rundown on the history and evolution of Italian cinema. This 40-minute doc is a must-see for fans of Italian cinema. The second documentary is all about the ground-breaking visuals of the film. The final archival entry is an audio commentary with Kim Newman and Alan Jones.

The two new bonus entries are in the form of The Restoration Process and Argento Presents His Suspiria. The first takes a look at the TLE restoration. This showcases all the work that goes into restoring films. The second is an interview of Argento by Variety writer Nick Vivarelli. Anytime you can listen to Argento talk film it’s always great and here he specifically talks about how the film came to be and the cult status it has gained over the years.

The CultFilms region B release of Suspiria is out now and it’s one you’ll want to add to your collection.

Chris Coffel is originally from Phoenix, AZ and now resides in Portland, OR. He once scored 26 goals in a game of FIFA. He likes the Phoenix Suns, Paul Simon and 'The 'Burbs.' Oh and cats. He also likes cats.

Home Video

‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

Published

on

Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

Continue Reading