Oct. 7, 2026

Suspiria (1977): Dario Argento’s Technicolor Nightmare

Show Notes
Transcript

This week on Cinematic Flashback, Chuck is joined by guests Jeff Johnson and Amanda Janik to step inside Dario Argento’s visually unforgettable 1977 horror classic, Suspiria.

Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Banion, an American dancer who arrives at a prestigious German dance academy and quickly discovers that something is very wrong. From its saturated Technicolor imagery and hypnotic Goblin score to its fairy-tale atmosphere, shocking violence, and increasingly bizarre mystery, Suspiria remains one of the most distinctive horror films of the 1970s.

We talk about Argento’s influences, the film’s connection to Giallo, its unforgettable opening sequence, those colors, that music, the maggots, the razor wire, and whether Suspiria is actually frightening—or simply deeply unsettling.

More than forty years later, does Suspiria still groove through the decades, or does it skip a beat?

Hop into the Wayback Machine and find out.

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WEBVTT

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This is the only thing I got left. And that's

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because it kept it on me.

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Look. Look.

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What's the matter with you?

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Don't you remember?

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What's going on?

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This is the key that'll get us wherever the teachers

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go every night.

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I wrote it out yesterday evening while I was sitting.

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Here next to you.

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Susie, do you know anything about witchcraft? Welcome to the

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Cinematic Flashback Podcast. Get ready to hop into the Wayback

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Machine as we journey through the wild, bold, and unforgettable

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films of the 1970s. Each episode, we break down a

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classic movie or a forgotten gem, seeing how it performed

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then and now, and wrapping things up by asking, did

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it groove through the decades or did it lose its feet?

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I am your host, Chuck Bryan, and today we are

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reviewing Dario Argento's 1977 film Suspiria, starring Jessica Harper, Stephanie Cassini,

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and Joan Bennett in her final role. Matt is off tonight,

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but never fear. We have two excellent guests joining us today. First,

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I want to welcome back to the Wayback Machine a

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very good friend of the show. He previously joined us

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for Westworld, Jaws, and The Deep. He hosts several podcasts

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of his own, including a film by and phaser set

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to stun. Over the summer, Matt and I joined him

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to talk about the great Gene Hackman in Heist. Welcome

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back to the podcast, Jeff Johnson.

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Chuck, let me just say thank you because every time

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I get the call from the Cinematic Flashback podcast, it

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is a classic, awesome film. And I feel like we're

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three for three, about to be four for four.

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I was fully prepared for you to come in like

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you did on Westworld with a made-up scenario of like,

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I just got back from this dance school in Germany

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where you're not going to believe what was going on

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over there.

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Hey, anyone that has seen me at a club or

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a wedding knows I cannot dance at all. I am

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Willard from Footloose, Chuck. So I'm coming in. I'm coming

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in honest.

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Nice. Nice.

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And I first met our next guest nearly two years

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ago on your show, Jeff.

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Yeah.

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A film buck. We got together to discuss some really

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obscure Wes Craven film called Deadly Friend. You know, you

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apparently thought that that went well enough that you invited

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us both back last year to talk about an even

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lesser known Wes Craven film called Deadly Blessing. Yes. Our

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next guest loves all things Jason Voorhees, and it has

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earned her the nickname Slasher Girl twice. But to me,

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she will always be my deadly friend. Welcome to the

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Wayback Machine, Amanda Janik.

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Oh, thanks for having me. It's been a long day.

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I just got back from a trip to Germany. I

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was at a ballet school.

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Saw some things. I saw some things. Yeah.

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The thing is, Amanda, I mean, look at her. I

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can believe it. You believe it. If you don't know

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Amanda Janik, you're like.

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Oh, yeah, she's, yeah, I get it. She's a dancer, right?

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She's got the look. Yep.

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No, no, no, no, no, no. The only things I

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do on my tiptoes is get midnight snacks.

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So I hope you didn't kill any bats while you

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were over there.

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No, no, no, no. Saw some maggots, but that's about it.

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Okay. We're going to talk about maggots. But before we

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get there, I really wanted to ask you about your

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connection with tonight's movie, Suspiria. Amanda, where does Suspiria fit

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into your heroine?

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This is just one of those weird movies that's always

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been there. Like, I can't pinpoint the beginning. I can't

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pinpoint the first time I saw it. It's not a

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movie that I revisited a lot. So watching it for

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the show, it was, I don't want to say new

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to me, but watching it through a different lens, that's

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for sure. But it's just one of those things that's

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always been in the pantheon of you know, horror movies,

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the VHS cover at Blockbuster or your local video store

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showing a lot late at night on Saturday nights and stuff.

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And one of those movies, you just make fun of

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the dubbing with your friends.

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And, you know, I think that was the most off-putting

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thing to me was the dubbing.

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And it's not even that bad.

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It's not.

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I mean, when you think about the fact that they're

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filming with no sound, like there's no audio going on.

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Some of the actors, they've talked about this in interviews.

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It's just weird. You're trying to deliver your dialogue. And

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then there's like a carpenter banging away with a hammer

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on a set like next door in the other soundstage.

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And how is this possible?

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I mean, it's weird, but it works.

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You know, what I heard is that they bring all

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the actors in. And I don't think it's necessarily particular

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to Suspiria, but maybe the way in which Italian films

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were being made. So you could be a German actor.

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You could be an American actor. You could be a

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French actor. You all get together. And you're going to

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say your lines in your native language. And they're just

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going to redub everything over. Sometimes I would have rather

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had the original person maybe speak their lines and dub them.

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Seeing Udokir talk, but not hearing Udokir was unsettling.

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It's very weird. It's just weird, you know? Jeff, was

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this your first time watching Suspiria?

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Oh, absolutely not, Chuck. If I could kind of answer

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the question you gave Amanda, for any horror fan watching,

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This is one of those movies that's just like it's

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required reading because it's fantastic. I don't have it in

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my collection and there's not like Suspiria six, seven, eight, nine.

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And it didn't spawn a franchise, but it has its

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place in the hallowed halls of horror. If you're a

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horror fan and you've never seen this film, you are

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missing out on some incredible cinematography and some incredible storytelling.

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Well, it is part of the trilogy, though.

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It is, yeah.

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It is part of the, what is it, the Three

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Mothers trilogy?

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The Mother trilogy, yeah.

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Yeah.

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But it was just recently that they tried to do

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a remake. Yeah, 2018.

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Yeah, it didn't go that well, but that says something.

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This viewing was my first viewing. I had absolutely no

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idea what to expect. Everything was completely new to me,

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and I have to be honest, I had to watch

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it twice.

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You know, the funny thing here, Chuck, is that This

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is Amanda's first time on the Cinematic Flashback podcast. We're

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talking about a scary film that deals very much with witches.

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Fun fact.

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The very first time she shows up on a Film

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By podcast happened to be a film from 1996 called

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The Craft talking about witches.

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Really?

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So it's not her niche, but she does a damn

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good job talking about it.

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So I got to hand it to her. I was

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trying to think of other movies with witches in it.

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I was thinking The Blair Witch Project. There was that movie.

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Was it The Witch? The Witches. And then there's Witch.

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Yeah.

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With Anya Taylor.

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Yeah.

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And then there's Hocus Pocus, of course.

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And The Wizard of Oz, which is the scariest movie

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ever made, in my opinion.

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I'm telling you, flying monkeys still get me to this day.

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Nothing about it. Don't like anything about it.

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I thought it'd be fun to cold call Jason Colvin

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and have you guys explain to him what Suspiria is about.

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If someone had never seen it, what's the one thing

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that you would tell them that they would need to

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expect without actually spoiling the movie visuals?

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That's a good question. Like I just compared to this

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movie to like a chaotic stained glass window. Colors everywhere.

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It's a fever dream.

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Fever dream. Exactly.

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I thought fever dream. I thought, oh, what was it?

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Do you remember how when you used to read the

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Grimm's fairy tales when you were a kid and And

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I was like, oh, this is so nice. But then

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as an adult, you find out that these stories were

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actually a lot more sanitized. Absolutely. That's what Suspiria reminds

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me of.

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What works really good with this film is that from

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start to finish, because you're along for the ride, right?

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But you have to wonder, is it actually happening? Or

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is it someone hallucinating? Is it someone waking up from

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a nightmare? That goes back to the cinematic choices that

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he made, the way he shot this, the color grading,

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the music.

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By Goblin. There's so many reasons why. Colvin, you got

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to watch it.

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You have to imagine that this is probably, no, I

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wouldn't know. I have no experience as a clean team.

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Mr. T and Nancy Reagan taught me just say no,

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but like LSD.

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Yes.

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This is probably what people on LSD saw.

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Timothy Leary approves this film. If you're high on peyote,

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you're going to dig this one.

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Have I got a film for you.

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This is the section where we move in to talking

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about how this film actually came to happen. And normally,

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because I'm covering 70s films, usually I start maybe a

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few years prior to the movie itself. And at the most,

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maybe it's usually a decade. But for Suspiria, I actually

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have to go 132 years in the past. And the

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story begins with this English writer named Thomas De Quincey. Now, Amanda,

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had you ever heard the story of De Quincey in

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his book, Suspiria De Profundis?

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I did not.

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Well, let me tell you, De Quincey is probably best

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known for a book with the wonderfully direct title of

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Confessions of an English Opium Eater. And if the title

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didn't give it away, the man liked his opium. Yeah.

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And in 1845, he publishes what's called the Suspiria de Profundis,

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which roughly translates as Sighs from the Depths. And one

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of the chapters is called Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow,

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which imagines these three mysterious women. They had Our Lady

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of Tears, Our Lady of Sighs, and Our Lady of Darkness.

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So now we need to lead. Thomas alone. because we

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need to talk about Dario Argento. Argento takes a path

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into directing that we've talked about before on Cinematic Flashback

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with Peter Bogdanovich. He started off as a film critic

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and then he moves into screenwriting. And then in 1970,

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he made his directorial debut with a film called The

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Bird with the Crystal Plumage and became one of the

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filmmakers most closely associated with giallo. Amanda, what can you

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tell me about giallo?

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Well, I can tell you that I, until about two

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days ago, thought it meant red.

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That's just what I thought.

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I always thought giallo films were peppered with red everywhere,

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red lighting, the blood, you know, whatever.

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But fun fact, it's yellow in Italian.

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And I took Italian for one semester in high school,

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so that didn't pay off too well. But the name

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Giallo actually comes from Italian mystery novels that traditionally had

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yellow covers to them, which I think is interesting.

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Giallo is a specific type of.

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Italian style of a murder mystery or thriller often associated

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with horror. So people often think that all Italian horror

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is giallo, but it's not. If you think of a

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Venn diagram, you know, those two circles that connect, you know,

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you've got Italian horror, you've got giallo, and there's a

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mix of them in the middle, but they're not mutually exclusive. Giallo,

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the typical elements you're going to see in that is

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a nasty, form mysterious killer see elaborate murders you're going

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to see mystery and investigation stylized violence and bold visuals

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and music which on the surface of things Suspiria hits

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four out of five of those so a lot of

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people tend to think of it as a giallo but

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it's technically not because we're dealing with supernatural elements. And

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giallo films tend to have more serial killers. They have

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more in common with slasher than they have in common

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with this movie.

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Okay. Argento became one of the directors that is most

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associated with that style. And in 1975, he made a

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film called Deep Red. That's where he begins both a

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creative and a romantic partnership with actress Daria Nicolodi, who

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will co-write Suspiria with him. Also on Deep Red, Argento

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worked with the progressive rock band Goblin to score his picture.

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So when they started developing Suspiria, they wanted to bring

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Goblin back. Now we have all the pieces of Suspiria.

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Thomas De Quincey gave us the story idea. Argento takes

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the style he developed making Giallo films. Nickelodeon helps him

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develop this supernatural story. Goblin provides that absolutely insane score.

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And in 1977, all of it comes together. And that

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is how Suspiria happened. As we get ready to get

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into the production details and meet the cast of Suspiria,

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we're going to need to step away for a quick break.

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We'll be right back. It's a cinematic flashback.

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Let the show begin.

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It's a cinematic flashback. Let the show begin.

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Here we are.

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Come on.

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In.

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You can hide from Suspiria. But you cannot escape. Suspiria.

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Welcome back. Let's talk about this cast. Let's start with

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Jessica Harper as Susie Banyan.

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Argento handpicks her after he sees De Palma's film Phantom

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of the Paradise.

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Have either of you seen that one? That was on

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the list for season two, and it got bumped.

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Oh, don't bump it for season three. We got to

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talk Phantom of the Paradise. She plays this alluring singer

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named Phoenix, and she's kind of like the muse of

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the story. I don't want to spoil anything. You guys

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both have not seen it. It is a freaky Brian

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De Palma film. And based off of what Amanda, our

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variant slasher girl, has told us about Giallo, Phantom of

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the Paradise really checks most of the boxes that she

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was giving us. I strongly recommend it, but that's where

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she comes from. And oh, by the way, she has

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a part in Annie Hall and she turns it down

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to work for Argento. Wow. Hey, look, I mean, my

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feelings on Woody Allen are not a secret. So Harper,

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excellent work here making that choice.

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I did pull up a scene from Phantom of the

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Paradise to hear her sing. Old love is an old love, baby.

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And I hope that that is her singing voice because

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she was amazing. The movie's awesome, man. The movie's absolutely awesome. Later,

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she appeared in Woody Allen's Love and Death. She eventually

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did work with him, but Annie Hall, that was a

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pretty big picture in 1977.

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I'm not going to say it's not a well-known classic,

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but I feel like she makes the choice to take

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the lead in an iconic Italian horror film that we're

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still talking about all these years later. And who's to

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say that we're talking about her if she doesn't do

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that and she was just a day player in Annie Hall?

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What did you think of the character of Susie?

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I thought she was pretty strong, actually. Stronger than I remembered. Again,

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it's hard sometimes to watch these Italian horror movies. I've

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got some favorites. I've got some that aren't my favorites.

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The dubbing can really distract me. You guys, like my brain,

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it's literally like flies that are flying around my head

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all the time. And I have a really hard time concentrating.

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One of the things I love about this movie is

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I had to read the subtitles, you know, and I

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didn't feel bad about it. I did not feel bad

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about it.

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It's almost required.

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Yeah, I thought she actually did a really good job

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as an Italian heroine. Like, because there's some bad ones

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out there, you know, that are overly dramatic and whatnot.

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I thought the character did fine. Was it a little

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much sometimes? Yeah, yeah. But that's Italian horror.

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I think when you look at the archetype of her character,

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she's not the damsel in distress.

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Nope.

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And I know Chuck will probably talk about this a

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little bit later about how naive all of these dancers

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appear to be or seem to.

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Be the way they speak.

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There's a reason for that, though.

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There's a reason. Yeah, there's a reason.

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But I feel like she's she's very headstrong. She's trying

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to figure out what's going on. She's trying to figure

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out what's wrong. And she's not backing away from it. No.

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So I was in on day two, day two, you know,

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after being turned away in the rainstorm, you know, and

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is already asking questions.

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So, yeah, strong character.

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Yeah.

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Like Susie. I do want to give a shout out

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here to Matt, who would probably say that if you

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go to a place and it's pouring down rain and

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someone comes running out and someone on the speaker says,

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I have no idea who you are. That's your sign

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that you just need to turn around, get back on

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the plane, go home. See, I don't know about that, Chuck.

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I'm the type of guy when I'm told the park

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is closed, I punch the animatronic moose and And I

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take the security guard hostage and I'm going in. So

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I'm pro Susie here, man. Susie was great. What do

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we think about her friend, Sarah? Stephanie Cassini. And I

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don't have much about her, but I didn't want to

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give her a short shift. I think she's doing the

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most with what she's got here. And maybe that's the

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nicest thing. That's the nicest way I can put it. Okay.

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Yeah, a lot of the actors in this movie are

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kind of like that.

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Yeah.

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Except for Joan Bennett as Madame Blanc or Blanc, depending

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on how you want to say it.

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Blanc. Four years of French and I can assure you

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that that's Blanc.

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That's Blanc. Well, you know, Bennett was a Hollywood veteran

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actress whose career stretched all the way back to the

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silent era. She was pretty much hot stuff. And she

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became especially known for her film work with director Fritz Lang,

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including The Women in the Window and Scarlet Streets. I

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first remember her from this little gothic horror television show

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called Dark Shadows. Do you remember this show?

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Really?

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With Barnabas? Okay, yeah. Like the soap. It was like

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a soap opera.

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It was a soap opera.

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Yeah. Vampire soap opera.

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Yep. She looked familiar. And I just didn't put the

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pieces together.

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That's another one of those shows where it's like I

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started watching it and I wasn't really too into it

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until I got into it. Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And I think that's how all soap operas tend to be.

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They get you. Next, we have Miss Tanner, played by

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Alita Valli. Valli was probably the second biggest name in

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the film. She was a major star in European cinema,

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but she was best known from the movie The Third Man,

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playing opposite of Orson Welles. When producer David O. Selznick

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brought her into Hollywood, he thought she'd be the next

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Ingrid Berman.

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No.

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Really, the only other actors that I wanted to mention,

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because these are so small. Do you remember Professor Vertigast? Yes.

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He was the professor slash doctor. Not really that kind

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of doctor. Or is he a professor?

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No.

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Is he a PhD or is he a, I don't know,

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is he an MD?

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PhD.

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He was played by Renato Scarpa, and he was the

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inspector in one of my favorite films called Don't Look Now.

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And Amanda, if you haven't seen Don't Look Now, you

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need to watch Don't Look Now.

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Oh, well.

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I'm in.

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You mentioned Udekir earlier. Yeah. Do you remember him from

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