An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.5/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Metacritic: 79
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Dario Argento
Production
Seda Spettacoli
Cast
Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé, Barbara Magnolfi, Susanna Javicoli, Eva Axén, Rudolf Schündler, Udo Kier, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett, Margherita Horowitz, Jacopo Mariani, Fulvio Mingozzi, Franca Scagnetti, Renato Scarpa, Serafina Scorceletti, Giuseppe Transocchi, Renata Zamengo, Alessandra Capozzi
Where to watch
Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark of visual horror: more dreamlike than scary, but unforgettable for its color design, music, and nightmarish atmosphere. It’s essential viewing if you value style, mood, and sensory excess over tidy plotting.
Best for
fans of art-horror and surreal cinema
viewers who love bold production design and color
people interested in cult classics and genre milestones
audiences who enjoy horror as an audiovisual experience
Skip if
you want straightforward scares or a clean mystery
you dislike dubbed dialogue and intentionally artificial performances
you prefer fast pacing and conventional storytelling
you need gore to feel grounded rather than operatic
Overview
Suspiria is less a story than a spell: a ballet academy becomes a fever dream of crimson halls, impossible lighting, and music that seems to claw at the walls. Dario Argento turns every surface into a threat, making the film feel both exquisitely designed and deeply unstable, as if beauty itself has gone rotten.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the total commitment to atmosphere. The plot is simple, even thin, but the movie treats color, sound, and movement as the real subject. The result is a horror film that plays like a haunted piece of modernist architecture, where every room feels staged for ritual.
Bottom line
It’s not the kind of film that aims for realism or even consistent logic. Its power comes from excess: the garish palette, the abrasive score, the theatrical violence, the uncanny performances. For viewers open to horror as pure sensory cinema, it remains one of the genre’s defining experiences.
Top Letterboxd reviews
mia lee vicino (5★) · 18837 likes
actors: $2000hair/makeup: $300dubbing: class="h-100"050lighting: class="h-100"2 millionspecial effects: $750
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying
cinéfila... 🕯️ · 10757 likes
me, getting murdered in a neon house of horrors: wow i love this aesthetic :)
andrea🌹 (4★) · 9697 likes
dario argento wants to fuck the primary colors and u know what, i think we should let him
Wes (5★) · 6288 likes
dario argento: *bashes me over the head with a neon light while Goblin is screaming in my ear*
me: wow.............thank you so much
andie (4.5★) · 4828 likes
Me, pretending to know what I'm talking about: hmmmmm....I'm sensing a very strong theme of ummm red? don't know if anyone else caught that just throwing things out there.....