Since it is Halloween, I figured that this would be a great time to write about something I love
dearly; horror movies. Horror movies have always pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable
in film and television and are often the first movies to address taboo material, from fantastical
accounts of the devil or the occult to real-life issues such as sexuality, feminism, and mental
illness. Sufficed to say, I am a big horror movie junkie, especially for stuff from the 70s and 80s
when there was no such thing as CGI so people had to get creative with bringing the ghoulish
and macabre to life.
However the movie I will be focusing on today is less known for remarkable visual effects but for
its otherworldly atmosphere, striking set design, and beautifully eerie cinematography. I am of
course talking about the 1977 Italian cult classic, Suspiria, a movie that follows a ballet school in
Germany that undergoes many strange and supernatural events. As I mentioned before, there
is a lot to love about this movie. It is directed by Dario Argento, who is often considered by many
to be the ‘Master of Horror’ and while his work outside of Suspiria is lesser known in the states,
He is very highly regarded in Europe, especially his country of origin Italy. As opposed to
contemporary horror movies of the time such as The Exorcist or The Omen, which are shrouded
in dark and dreary colors, Suspiria is a very bright movie stylistically. The settings of this movie
are very ornate and visually entrancing throughout the movie. With the iconic double-murder
opening scene taking place in an apartment building that looks straight out of Candyland. The
fantastical nature of the setting contrasts with the grisly and elaborate murders that take place in
this movie resulting in a very striking final result.
The lighting of this movie is also quite commendable. Scenes during the day occur under
normal lighting, but the second it is night, the movie is enveloped in these rich primary colors
that create feelings of dread, paranoia, and curiosity. The color palette and lighting is as much
of a character in this movie as the actual characters as it tells a lot about how a character is
feeling and creates an atmosphere throughout the movie that will leave you on the edge of your
seat. This movie truly LOOKS like nothing else I have seen before, which is primarily due to it
being one of the final movies to ever be filmed with TechniColor, the process used to create
classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and The Wizard of Oz. TechiColor is
known for resulting in very intense, vivid, and saturated colors and that style works very well for
Suspiria (albeit for different reasons than the aforementioned movies). On top of being a very
stylistically impressive movie, it would also end up being very influential, as it served as
inspiration for the slasher film craze of the 80s.
However, there is one aspect of this movie that makes the movie the iconic horror classic it is
today and that is the music. The music is point blank the most iconic thing about this movie, it
was unlike any horror soundtrack up until this point and introduced new techniques and sounds
to invoke an atmosphere of terror and mystery that have been mimicked countless times in the
following years.
Suspiria’s soundtrack was both composed and performed by an Italian prog rock band known
as Goblin. Up until the 70s, most horror soundtracks had been orchestral and bombastic. It was
The Exorcist, and its experimental theme “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield that changed the
game for horror movie soundtracks. Tubular Bells was a sparse and entrancing instrumental
piece that had a very ominous tone, but did so without being overt and in your face, which is
symbolically a good fit for The Exorcist, a horror movie that starts slow before completely going
off the rails. Tubular Bells is also significant for being largely electronic and synth-based when
that technology was still in its infancy. If Tubular Bells unlocked the door to experimental music
in horror movies, Goblin broke that door off its hinges with Suspiria. Goblin had done film scores
in the past, most notably for an earlier film of Argento’s, Profondo Rosso, to rapturous success
and acclaim, but Suspiria was the first score where the band was given full liberty and freedom
to create whatever they saw fit for the movie. The result is one of the most interesting horror
soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
For this score, the band thought outside the box and brought in instruments I hadn’t even heard
of. Most notable was the tabla, a type of hand drum from India and the Bouzouki, a lute-like
instrument from Greece. Both of these ethnic instruments assisted in making the soundtrack of
this movie feel complex, strange and mystical. This movie also utilized the Moog synthesizer,
which was still a fairly new instrument at the time and was rarely ever used in horror movies.
The Moog has this robotic and artificial sound that makes it a bad fit for many movies, but for
something like Suspiria it worked like a charm. It was clear Argento and Goblin wanted to create
something different, something claustrophobic that made you feel like there was danger lurking
around every corner and the music accomplishes that masterfully.
The opening song, ‘Suspiria’ plays over the movies iconic opening scene and starts slow with
twinkling synths that loop throughout the song, the gutteral hit of the tabla’s and the intricate and
engaging bouzouki’s. The song morphs over its runtime to become more and more intense with
some more conventional instrumentation such as guitars entering the fray. This song also
features whispers of the word “witch”, something that may or may not be foreshadowing. This
song is played as we watch a girl travel from the airport, to the ballet class, foreshadowing the
chaotic, dangerous and crazy world she is about to enter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYNqV-u5MEI
As the movie shifts to focus on a girl who has found out far too much and runs away to stay in a
friends apartment the music shifts to the next song ‘Witch’. While the opener is very ethereal,
visceral and creepy, it is mere child's play compared to ‘Witch’. This song kicks off with a very
shaky drum rhythm and discordant synths playing over gutteral cries from the band. As song
develops, more and more creepy ambient effects are added to the song, creating a feeling of
severe uneasiness. Seriously, this song is straight up anxiety-inducing, especially when you
know what scene plays over the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa3BF6S03Kg
A lot of times the music serves as an omen. A fairly plain scene will play out between two
characters and then all of a sudden you will be hit by this wall of distant cries, frantic strumming
and other noises I cannot even begin to describe. It keeps you on edge throughout the movie
and helps put you in the character's shoes. A big theme in this movie is paranoia and the way it
is felt by the characters throughout this movie is palpable because the score makes us feel that
same unease. This soundtrack can be very overwhelming and intense, but then again so is the
movie. The cinematography and set design of this movie is larger than life but also made to
overwhelm you and catch you off guard and I think thesis ethos is shared with the soundtrack
and is exactly why it compliments this movie so well.
Following this movie, Goblin went on to do soundtracks for a few other horror movies before
fizzling out in the mid-80s (they do still tour though), the most notable of which being 1978’s
Dawn of the Dead (aka that one zombie movie that takes place in a shopping mall). However,
their legacy continues to live on from the very famous composers they inspired. Kyle Dixon and
Michael Stein, the two men behind the iconic and brooding soundtrack of Stranger Things have
cited Goblin and their soundtracks as one of their core influences, and I can definitely see why.
Both soundtracks are largely electronic and build the atmosphere of their respective properties
with unconventional instrumentation. The band Tangerine Dream, who created the soundtrack
for Firestarter also considered Goblin, and Suspiria in particular, as influential to how they went
about their soundtracks.
However, probably the most consequential person that Goblin went on to influence was a young
John Carpenter. When Carpenter was creating his breakout hit, Halloween, he was on a
shoestring budget and had to be efficient, meaning he composed the soundtrack while also
directing and producing the movie. The end was result is probably the most iconic horror
soundtrack in history. You don’t even have to have seen Halloween to recognize those piano
keys on the soundtrack's main theme, it is that ubiquitous and iconic. Halloween utilized
synthesizers and unconventional instrumentation, just as Suspiria did, to paint the picture of a
quaint midwest suburb being terrorized by a mysterious figure in a hockey mask. When
Carpenter met Goblins bandleader, Claudio Simonetti, in 2012, Carpenter famously said “I know
who you are - I stole all your music”. If you have the most famous horror director of all time
considering your music his gold standard for horror, then I would say you have done your job
well.
Goblin is a great and criminally underrated band who should be up there with John Williams &
Hans Zimmer as one of the great soundtrack composers. So this Halloween, do yourself a favor
and watch Suspiria or at the very least, listen to its haunting and mind-bending soundtrack.
