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ROSES ARE RED... VIOLENCE ARGENTO
BY
David Stagnari
It was the summer of 1977. After witnessing
the theatrical releases of THE SENTINEL, EXORCIST II THE HERETIC, THE
DEMON SEED, SORCERER, SLAP SHOT and THE BAD NEWS BEARS IN BREAKING
TRAINING in a two month period, I considered myself a seasoned film go'er
at 11 years old.
I had just came home from seeing STAR WARS for the first time at the RKO
TWIN in Commack, Long Island. Still buzzing from the movie I sat down to
watch TV with my father. It was during a commercial break on WOR-TV
Channel 9 when I saw something that would leave an impression on me for
many years to come.
A woman with her back to the camera was brushing her hair in a slow
motion. The music echoed a strange repetition of bells. A woman's
voiceover sang a nursery rhyme..."Roses are red...violets are blue..."
What was this? A shampoo commercial in hell?
Suddenly the voice got very angry when ending the nursery rhyme with the
line "THAT WILL BE THE END OF YOOOOOOU!" The head slowly turns. The face
inside the hair was a skull.
Holy shit! What the fuck was that? As an 11 year old I was blown away. It
was the most unexpected thing to happen. The voice over whispered the
title. "SASSSSPEEEEERRRREEEEAAAAAA."
What was the movie called? Superior? Sustainia? I couldn't read it
because the title was written with letters made of breathing organs
covered in pinkish veins. Then as quickly as it started it ended with the
phrase "YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN FEEL SAFE IN THE DARK....RATED R"
Wow, that was cool. What was the name of it? Couldn't quite get it.
Next came the newspaper ad which I cut out and saved. See below.
An interesting side note for those familiar with the trailer; the tag line on
the theatrical trailer is "THE ONLY THING MORE TERRIFYING THAN THE LAST 12
MINUTES OF SUSPIRIA ARE THE FIRST 92."
Hmmm...take a look at the newspaper ad from 1977. "...ARE THE FIRST 80?"
Although I didn't know it at the time, censors cut 12 minutes out of the
film for the US release. A problem Dario Argento had in 1975 with his film
DEEP RED.
I begged my father to take me and a friend, Jimmy Jones, to see SUSPIRIA,
which was playing locally at the Commack Drive In. My father said, yes
and off we went. The movie was headlining a double feature with, of all
films, Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Argento was being hailed as the Italian
Hitchcock after the release of THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE so it
sort of made sense.
The first thing I noticed when the movie began was that the opening credits
consisted of only the word SUSPIRIA written in the same breathing organs
from the trailer, something I've never seen on VHS or DVD. The image
filled the entire drive in screen which meant it was shot in a widescreen
2:35 to 1 format. By contrast PSYCHO looked like a tiny image being a
1.66 to 1 print and in black and white. A stark opposite to the vivid
technicolor process of SUSPIRIA.
I immediately recognized Jessica Harper, since I fell in love with her
three years earlier in PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. The music was a creepy
vortex that swirled and spun through the drive in speaker and never seemed
to resolve itself. And not only was the music creepy...so was the movie! I
have a clear memory of being terrified watching a simple scene of Jessica
Harper walking down a hallway passed the creepy faces of a woman and a
child. It freaked me out. You didn't quite know what was happening in
SUSPIRIA and that added to the overall weirdness that the film left me
with. Those were my memories upon seeing the film in 1977.
Fast forward to the VHS release of SUSPIRIA. Watching it on video was
ultimately a sad experience. I couldn't quite pinpoint why I simply hated
the film on video but I did.
It wasn't until the DVD release and its restored widescreen glory that I
truly comprehended what a great film it is. A multitude of highly stylized dramatic deaths scenes are perfectly framed
in a violent flush of saturated colors. In fact, SUSPIRIA may be the most
effectively colorful horror film ever made. Mix that with Jessica
Harper's innocent beauty, a demonic house dripping with maggots, an eerie
killer with painted finger nails, a freak out soundtrack by GOBLIN, and an
overall sense of creeping doom, all obsessively choreographed by Dario
Argento and you have a technical and artistic horror masterpiece.
This gives SUSPIRIA the honor of easily being one Argento's best films and
worthy of its long shelf life in the annals of horror classics.
(All photos and newspaper clippings courtesy of David Stagnari)
David Stagnari is a filmmaker and freelance writer. His film CATHARSIS
is available in a Limited Edition DVD at
http://www.catharticcircle.com/catharsisDVD.html
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