25 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die
16. Suspiria
Nobody does horror like the Italians. During the US horror boom of the sixties, seventies and eighties there was a parallel resurgence in Europe, with the best coming out of the “giallo” sub-genre: operatic slasher flicks with big, theatrical (and incredibly bloody) death scenes set to proggy synth scores. The undisputed king of giallo was Dario Argento.
He's gone a bit off the boil since...well, since the eighties ended, but Argento's back catalogue is strong enough that he remains a horror icon. The crowning achievement of his heyday was Suspiria. Beginning as the story of a girl going off to a ballet school in the middle of nowhere, it becomes something very different.
Witces show up, people are sliced into pieces by shards of glass during tragic, beautifully composed death scenes, and the score by Italian band Goblin pulses underneath. It's cheesy as all get out, not particularly well acted or plotted, but it has a certain something that you can't get anywhere else, and won't leave your mind for months after.