![]() ![]() That was a job for subsequent admirers and imitators, such as Darren Aronofsky, whose Oscar-winning “ Black Swan” owes “Suspiria” a heavy debt. But once you become attuned to the garish unsubtlety of Argento’s work, “Suspiria” is undeniably creepy and evocative, tuning in to burgeoning female sexuailty as a metaphor for a quasi-mystical transformation process that is unknowable but also oddly beautiful without ever trying to transcend its exploitation / b-movie basis. Retrospectively and despite coming a little after the giallo explosion of the early ’70s, this film has become the entry-level key to unlocking the whole genre, featuring its trademark lush, hyperstylized, color-saturated visuals, lashings of gore, an undercurrent of lurid female eroticism and a magnificent score -in this case provided by prog rockers Goblin who made it onto our list of Best Horror Scores of all time for this and Argento’s “ Tenebre.” The film concerns an American ballerina ( Jessica Harper) who transfers to a sinister German Dance Academy covertly run by a satanic coven of witches, including “ Dark Shadows” star Joan Bennett. The mish-mash of languages and accents from the English, American, German and Italian cast didn’t matter much as the whole thing was post-dubbed anyway, which adds to the film’s uncanny cronkiness today. While he can have hardly known it at the time, with “Suspiria” Dario Argento made probably the artistic apex of the giallo movement he pioneered along with fellow Italians Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci. So take the phone off the hook, sever all ties with your families (who don’t really love you anyway, not like we do) and abandon yourself to our selection of 13 (of course it’s 13) cult films about cults. A lot of name-brand auteurs have gotten in on the game, but seeing as we’ve written about those examples a great deal already (“ Eyes Wide Shut,” “ Rosemary’s Baby,” “ The Master,” “ The Village,” “ The Ninth Gate” and so on) we thought we’d dedicate this feature to a few more obscure picks. “Faults” has many different tones and textures and is overall perhaps best described as black comedy/drama hybrid, but the subject matter has lent itself to many genres over the years, from melodrama to coming-of-age tale to thriller to psychodrama to most frequently horror. ![]() Oscars 2023: Best Visual Effects Predictions ![]() Streaming Services Strike Big on the Shortlist for Best Documentary Short 'Dual' Review: Karen Gillan Tries to Kill Her Own Clone in Riley Stearns' Ultra-Deadpan Survival Comedy Riley Stearns: The Indie Filmmaker Who Wants a Bigger Audience but Knows He's Not Meant for Marvel ![]()
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