Transcript: Suspiria (1977)
Transcript of 70mm’s Suspiria (1977) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday I’m joined by dear friend and artist Danny Haas.
DANNY Rowdy Roddy Piper, you kidding me?
SLIM And our spiritual advisor, Protolexus.
PROTO Goblin this, Goblin that, what’s his deal with Goblin? Goblin’s the real deal!
SLIM And together as friends forever, we discuss recently watched movies. In the second half of this episode, we cover 1977’s Suspiria. Is it truly an audio visual throb job? Or is it a dud? Find out… now.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Big week, big week next week. There’s a lot of buzz on the internet right now about our dear friends at Dune Pod. I think they’re seeing Dune right now. Like a watch party. You guys heard of this? They rented out a movie theatre for locals in Frisco.
DANNY Moneybags.
SLIM San Fran. The San Fran Valley.
DANNY Frisco boys.
SLIM The Frisco Kids they prefer to be called that Dune Pod. So they finally made it, they’re watching the Dune movie. And you know, try as we might, we couldn’t scoop them.
DANNY No.
SLIM I don’t think we’re gonna make the scoop job lIke I threatened on Discord. But you know, better late than never. Next week, our episode will be on Dune 2021. We’re going to watch it. We’re going to talk about it.
DANNY Next Thursday beb.
SLIM Proto, can you hold in your opinions for one more week on Dune?
PROTO I might have to go radio silent. I might have to pull out my Wifi for the week. Take off sick days. Sorry boss, can’t work. I can’t spill the beans on Dune. [Slim laughs] I think it’ll be fine.
SLIM Would you be fired if you said that to the boss. ‘’Sorry, boss. I can’t work this week. I gotta stay radio silent on Dune.’’
PROTO Only one way to find out. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Danny, when are you seeing Dune? As of recording live, you’re probably seeing it tomorrow night. Is it Friday, Danny, you’re seeing in IMAX?
DANNY 7pm Eastern. IMAX Point Orlando. I’m seeing it. Very excited. Very, very excited.
SLIM Wow. There’s a clip that got posted in Discord from our former producer Ian, now disgraced, host of the Cinenauts podcast, but he interviewed them on something. I don’t know what kind of interview it was. But I heard like a few seconds of music. And that was the first music I’ve heard.
DANNY You’re not ready.
SLIM I’ve been radio silent. Like Proto, has been no WiFi connectivity on this movie. And I heard a piece of music in that video and I was like, fudge. [Danny laughs] So that’s next week. We’ll be covering Dune for our very next episode.
DANNY We’ll settle the score.
SLIM It’s time to settle this. Danny, did you watch any movies this week?
DANNY I watched a lot of movies this week. I just looked back. And I did some work. I will say last weekend, Casey and I went to see No Time To Die in the theater. The last of Daniel Craig’s Bonds and gave it four and a half stars. I had a lot of fun watching that film.
SLIM The end of an era.
DANNY A lot of fun. End of an era. I’m actually excited to see where we go from this. Had a good ending. A good enough ending I guess you could say.
SLIM I didn’t like the ending.
DANNY I know we talked on Apex that you weren’t a fan of it.
SLIM We talked privately on Xbox Live Chat. Didn’t love the ending.
DANNY It’s okay. I don’t think everyone can love that ending. It’s very interesting.
SLIM Yeah. How about the opening, you know, the big opening setpiece?
DANNY Stop. it’s stupid. Like, come off guys. What are we doing?
SLIM When he like hides behind that one rock?
DANNY Agh!
SLIM And then he jumps over.
DANNY Kidding me? Daniel!
SLIM We’re back at a Casino Royale territory with that opener, I think.
DANNY That’s very true. Casino Royale is a five banger. So yeah, I am with you on that. Other films I watched this week, I’ll go through one quick. I watched American Psycho today, wasn’t feeling it, still gave it three stars.
SLIM Wow.
DANNY Didn’t like the ending is what kind of threw me. I didn’t like how it ended.
SLIM I’m not even sure if I’ve ever seen that movie.
DANNY I think you have a heart next to it. Christian Bale is really good in it. Like he’s pretty great. Something about that story, I didn’t like how it ended. Legend of Boggy Creek, watched that for the first time.
SLIM Putting in the work this week.
DANNY Love for Bigfoot, had a good time watching that film. Two of the big ones though. I watched They Live for the first time.
SLIM Oh, the movie that loss to Suspiria that we’re covering.
DANNY Holy cow. What an awesome movie. I don’t know why I never watched it, I guess. I mean, I only really watched spooky movies, or horror films, I guess, this time of year. And I’ve only been doing it for a couple of years now. So getting caught up on everything. It’s been fun. So this film, I couldn’t get over how cool this was. I wouldn’t classify it as a horror film. Just like a, I don’t know, sci fi I guess. It would be more sci fi thriller. Man, what a cool movie. Rowdy Roddy Piper. You kidding me? He’s great in this!
SLIM Rowdy’s thick in this movie.
PROTO Is that a real name?
SLIM Rowdy Roddy Piper.
PROTO Who’s his mom?
SLIM Former Intercontinental Champion, ever heard of it Proto?
PROTO Champion of what? [Danny laughs]
SLIM The Intercontinental. They Live, you know, if we could go back maybe a decade or or two. This was like, this was in my opinion, a legit like cult movie. You know, like, not a lot of people talked about They Live before kind of like blu rays and stuff and DVDs. This is like the cult movie. Like if you found some person that knew about They Live and liked it. Like that’s probably your best friend probably for the next 30 years. Realistically.
DANNY Great film. I had fun.
SLIM Yeah, the relationship between the two leads. Fantastic. Trying to tell each other about what’s happening.
DANNY The shots when he puts the glasses on the black and white. I don’t want to spoil too much though. Those scenes are like I don’t know what it was. But I I really loved the attention to detail on all those scenes. It was a lot of fun. One last big, big one for me. I watched Carrie for the first time.
SLIM My god.
DANNY I wanted to check that one off the list. And I could safely say this is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It is so good. I couldn’t get over how good the story was. I had seen quick shots of obviously the prom night scene is what you’ve always seen. So I didn’t really know the whole story of it with her mother and I don’t know, John travolta and all them. I had no idea he was even in this film. But just to watch it for that prom night scene alone is incredible. Like the just the way De Palma does it is crazy.
SLIM Who?
DANNY Brian. [Slim laughs]
PROTO De Palma as in Brian.
DANNY The Brian De Palma.
PROTO The Snake Eyes De Palma.
SLIM The King De Palma. There’s no way Proto is gonna watch Carrie after his Snake Eyes experience.
DANNY No, now he has to. Now he’s now he’s interested.
PROTO I just don’t know if I can trust you.
DANNY You can never trust me. You kidding me?
SLIM I just want to point out there’s a lot of talk in Discord about my Travolta impression being on point. I’m getting DMs.
DANNY Do you wanna do it again?
SLIM No, we might need to save it. I don’t want to just bust out a Travolta at the drop of a hat.
DANNY Anyway, holy cow. Sissy Spacek. She’s incredible in this.
SLIM Amazing actor.
DANNY I had a great time. I really did love this movie. I couldn’t get over it.
SLIM I can’t remember what I had — I think I had it four stars on previous viewing. What was I thinking?
DANNY You had it at three and a half.
SLIM Oh my god.
DANNY When I finished, I was reading your reviews. I was shocked.
SLIM But I righted a wrong.
DANNY You did right a wrong. And I’m proud of you for that.
SLIM Thank you. Thank you. Listen, you can have different ratings on different viewings on movies on Letterboxd logs. Okay, Ian? Can someone ban him from chat? Does anyone have a keyboard? Where’s Dale? That’s the beauty of logging movies multiple times, you have different ratings, different experiences, people change.
PROTO Drag Ian’s avatar to the trash can. See what happens. [Slim & Danny laugh]
DANNY Anyway, I know I’ve taken up a giant chunk of time with my movies this week, but They Live and Carrie were very much big highlights for me.
SLIM I kind of want to go back through Roddy Piper’s filmography.
DANNY I clicked on it, it’s impressive.
SLIM Right? It’s got to be better than what I’m going through with Seagal right now.
DANNY There’s a lot and they all look amazingly bad, but that good bad. Gotta be fun.
SLIM We watched one at a previous lake house trip. It’s like The Legend of Fog Alley or some kind of weird movie. I don’t know. Speaking of your favorite horror movies, last week, Proto asked us to compile some letterbox lists. Get our top five horror movies you know for the next episode. So Carrie is in your top five Danny, is it safe to say?
DANNY Well, yes. It is safe to say that because I already did my letterbox top four for Horror Month, so my top five would be Psycho. Absolute perfect movie. The Thing. Another perfect movie. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is another one of my faves. And then 1978’s Halloween were my top four. And Carrie is my fifth. Easily.
SLIM Oh gosh. It’s a great list.
DANNY Thank you.
SLIM Great list. I was compiling mine. I had a Letterboxd private list setups that no one could see what I was working on. Kept it private, kept a secret, kept it safe.
DANNY Thank you.
SLIM And I put that together. It was kind of hard. You know, some of the ones that I put in my list aren’t, I don’t have his five bangers, believe it or not.
PROTO It’s not always about the five banger.
SLIM It’s not about the bangers, the fives. It’s about the experience, the memories, the emotions.
PROTO My number two is a four banger.
SLIM Wuuut? Let me just go through real quick, this is in no particular order. It might be a scandalous comment. But one of those movies is Host, came out last year during the pandemic.
DANNY Scandalous.
SLIM The one word to place on zoom. They do a seance. A remote seance. I had a lot of fun with that movie. I gave that five. That’s a five banger. Babadook’s on there. Obviously we talked about that already. Hereditary. That was an exhilarating film experience that I may never want to experience again. I’m not even sure if we’ll ever watch Hereditary again. And the two are maybe off the beaten path. Altered States.
DANNY Okay.
PROTO William Hurt.
SLIM Kidding me? That’s a blu-ray that I have right now. And then my last one, actually one that Marcie just washed for the first time. Because I think that might be on the Criterion Channel. And that’s The Innocence of 1961. Jack Clayton directed. I had a hell of a time watching this with my dear wife, Amanda and I bought the blu-ray right after. So those are my five faves right now.
PROTO I remember when that review came in and the Letterboxd feed channel was shook at that review. [Danny laughs] This movie no one ever heard of.
SLIM It was never the same so yeah, it’s on Criterion. It was hard to find originally so check it out if you can. Proto, what about yours? You’re not a horror fan. Right?
PROTO Um, I think I am now.
DANNY Oh yeah, here we go.
PROTO I think I like horror now. Not all of it. But I think it’s an acquired taste. I’ve gotten there. So for me my number five is Onibaba, which is the 60s black and white Japanese story. Love that. I’ve been trying to get people to watch this. Every time somebody on Twitter says can I recommend a movie? I say Onibaba, go watch it. Oh, actually, I think two of my movies are one stars from Danny, which is exciting. So number four, I have Possession.
SLIM Oh my gosh, yes.
PROTO You remember Possession? Woof!
SLIM The subway scene?
DANNY Garbage.
PROTO Changed my life. Changed my life.
SLIM Great pick.
PROTO And number three, Midsommar.
SLIM Really?
PROTO Yeah, you know, I haven’t watched that twice. But man, that movie really — I thought that was a movie was a masterpiece.
SLIM Ari Aster himself.
PROTO Yeah, I’d love to go back and watch that again at some point. I was just blown away. And then my number two which is a four star, Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman. I love this movie. Such a great flick.
SLIM The amount of Proto Black Swan quotes that we hear in Apex.
DANNY It’s ridiculous.
SLIM People don’t even realize.
DANNY It’s sick.
SLIM Hold on. Have you ever shown the face swap that you’ve done on Black Swan with Proto?
DANNY It’s not even a face swap. It’s a full video.
SLIM It is one of the most disturbing videos you will ever see. It’s like The Ring tape. You watch The Ring, and your life has changed after.
DANNY I’ll find it. I’ll find it. Keep talking. Wait, are you telling me your number one is a one star from me?
PROTO No. Oh, I thought you go Midsommar a one star.
DANNY Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I love Midsommar.
PROTO And then my number one which might be kind of controversial because technically on Letterboxd it doesn’t fall under the genre of horror. But I think it qualifies as har is Under the Skin. From my boy Jonathan Glazer.
SLIM I remember — oh yeah, that’s a one star from one of us. That might be me.
PROTO No, no, I think you gave it like three stars. Maybe two and a half.
SLIM So tell us about Under the Skin. Tell us how that movie makes you feel.
PROTO It changed me. That movie was an experience. I mean, if you’re if you’re watching that movie and you don’t think that beach scene is horrific. You need to get yourself checked in and get checked out. Real quick. But yeah, I’m you know, I’ll follow Jonathan Glazer. I mean, I know we watched Birth not a great movie. But I love Under the Skin. I think it’s a brilliant movie. So that’s my number one. I mean I have it Danny. You want me to drop it in here?
DANNY Yeah, go for it. Drop it if you have it. It’s making me copy and paste the iCloud link and I don’t want to do that.
SLIM My god.
DANNY Oh, there it is baby.
SLIM Even the background just stop image.
PROTO The music.
SLIM It’s sick. it’s sickening. [Slim laughs] Proto, did you watch any movies this week?
PROTO I did. I watched a couple movies. Let’s see what I want to talk about. Oh, first thing I want to talk about is I think I’m the only one who’s keeping this Noir journey alive this month.
DANNY I’m sorry.
PROTO But I’m glad to do it.
SLIM We’re in month twelve of the Noir journey. [Danny laughs]
PROTO Yeah, month twelve. So a lot of people have fallen off at this point. But this month one of the the Neo noir film is a Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, which came out in 2009. This is the story of a mother whose son gets accused or convicted of a murder and she’s doing everything she can to get the charges lifted and prove his innocence on her own. It has a lot of similarities to Joon-ho’s other movies. To me it felt very similar to like Memories of a Murder and even like Parasite, you know just has like Bong Joon-ho’s patented look and his comedy and you know everything that makes his movies great. So I gave it three stars I thought it was good. I wasn’t I wasn’t really like blown away by it. I felt like the story kind of, I don’t know, the story fell a little flat for me at some points but he does — he kind of subverts your expectations in fun ways. So I think it’s definitely a good watch. It’s interesting, and it’s just, it has a good blend of of a lot of different genres, so that was a fun movie.
SLIM Yeah, like Kev said, there’s still two weeks left in October, it could still happen.
PROTO And then — I just realized, where’s my Creature from the Black Lagoon isn’t showing up in my diary.
SLIM Did you not put a date on that one?
DANNY I think because you didn’t star it five, I deleted it.
PROTO Wow.
SLIM Yeah I don’t see that in your diary.
PROTO But I watched that — I mean these movie these universal monster movies, they’re like an hour long they’re hard not to watch and you know it’s fun. It’s a fun little movie. As I say my review, Julia Adams. What a babe.
DANNY I got it right here. Julia Adams is an absolute dime, my god. No wonder Fishman was on the offensive. My primordial urges taking over.
SLIM What a scandalous review. Maybe Letterboxd hid that review.
DANNY He got flagged.
SLIM Maybe got shadowed.
PROTO Shadow flag, wow. I do have a date on it. What is going on here?
SLIM Somebody complained it was a little too horny on main. [Slim & Danny laugh] Could be. What made you seek out Creature from the Black Lagoon? That’s not on the Noir journey is it?
PROTO No but I mean, it’s horror month. I watched — what did I watch? I watched Dracula, Invisible Man and Frankenstein last year. So there’s a few that I wanted to you know, watch and they’re all on the Criterion Channel right now or a bunch of them are. And I think it was Saturday. I wanted to watch something that my kids could watch. So they thought it was pretty funny. The music is insane in this like whenever the the creature is on screen. It’s just like screeching horns. It’s very bizarre.
DANNY How about those underwater swimming scenes?
PROTO Yeah, the underwater swimming stuff is pretty, pretty crazy. Yeah, it’s great.
SLIM This isn’t including that Universal 4K set, is it?
DANNY No, I think they were sticking with 90th anniversary stuff. So there’s only four of those films.
SLIM Is there any more buzz on if that new Universal area is going to have the Universal monster movie section? Is that confirmed?
DANNY Epic Universal? Yeah, there’s a little land cut out for the movie monster. So listen, if I can walk through Dracula’s castle, I’m gonna.
SLIM That is gonna be awesome. Do I want to talk about any movies this week? Well, I can talk about Harakiri real quick. We did a special episode that is only available for patrons in the 70mm vault. Harakiri. We all watched it and I highly recommend anyone with a Criterion subscription, access to one of their sales, buy that movie and then listen to our episode. Very fun chat we had. I been going through — Danny I don’t know if you said this off air, but he bought that Psycho 4K. I’ve been going through this Psycho cinematic universe and watching those other movies. You know they made four Psychos?
DANNY Yeah baby.
SLIM I enjoyed the second one.
DANNY I thought there was five. Or was there a TV show?
SLIM I think there was a TV show. The second one he is him released 22 years later and going back to the motel, the house and trying to kind of —
DANNY Oh baby.
SLIM He’s deemed like no longer insane. And there’s like people, there’s like the sister of someone that was murdered is like kind of pissed that he’s been released so she’s, you know, waiting for him to screw up. He meets a young waitress, he gets a job at the kind of diner. I really thought it was a lot of fun.
PROTO This is the exact plot of Halloween 2018. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM Psycho did it first. The third one we just watched, I bought the blu ray set of this a while ago. But believe it or not the thing that kickstarted me watching it as because they’re all on the peacock app. The peacock army rise up so we watched the third one and believe it or not. Perkins is the director of the third one.
DANNY Oh really?
SLIM Yeah, he directs the third one. Did not love it though. The fourth one is allegedly him calling into a radio show to explain why he did what he did. And I think there’s a younger actor that might play him so I’m not sure if it’s like a flashback film. So we’ll see.
DANNY Getting interviewed by podcasters? [Slim laughs]
PROTO The first Psycho isn’t on Peacock though. That’s disappointing.
SLIM Yeah, that’s not showing up on Peacock app. They couldn’t even get the first Halloween 2018 on the Peacock app. [Danny laughs] They’re not getting Psycho on there. We should get into — oh my God, we still have to call out our new friends this week. We need to do that, to the Patreon. Three new friends, Blake, Peter and Eric joined up this week. You can do so at 70mmpod.com. Get access to the exclusive episodes that are only available to our friends on the Patreon or paid Spotify subs and four bucks a month. Get access to all that on our Patreon. Get access to the VHS Village Discord. I saw there’s a Secret Santa happening in the Discord.
DANNY Excuse me.
SLIM Did you see that?
DANNY No. Are we invited to that?
SLIM I think we are. If you saw that. There was also I think another watch party that happened recently. So there’s a lot of activity if you’re looking for some movie friends, maybe you don’t have them. Come join us on our Patreon. And last but not least, if you share the show on social media, you get entered to win a free year of Letterboxd Pro, no ads for you as a Pro member. You get access to some year end stats. So some cool features when you upgrade. And this week’s winner is IamDunham on Instagram.
DANNY Nice. Congrats.
SLIM Just won a free year of Letterboxd Pro. And if you want to upgrade, maybe you didn’t win this week, you can do so 20% off for a Letterboxd Pro or Patron status at the link, fancy link on 70mmpod.com. It’s time. It’s time for Suspiria. The winner of the vote. They Live, Rowdy Roddy Piper lost out. We’ll never experienced Rowdy himself in movie form. But we have our Argento’s Suspiria. 1977. Proto, what’s this movie about?
[music from Suspiria fades in]
PROTO Suspiria is about Suzy, who is an American Ballet student who has just arrived in Germany to study at the prestigious Tanz Dance Academy. What Suzy doesn’t know is that the school is a front for a coven of witches, led by the undying Helena Marcos, an evil witch with an incredible nose whistle. Immediately, Suzy is bombarded with strange occurrences, a big slumber party murdered students, a prescription of blood, a downpour of maggots and a soundtrack that will get your trousers throbbing. Suzy is marked for death, but may be able to survive if she takes care of that pesky witch, which is our thriving in freeburg. But Susie has had enough and is ready to burn it all down. Suspiria.
SLIM You know, it’s funny, I was listening to our Halloweens episode and Proto’s comments on the John Carpenter score and I didn’t put two and two together that the Goblin’s score plays probably 100 times more than the carpenters heart Carpenter score did and Halloween so I started to get all nervous after I realized that fact. What’s your what’s your history with Suspiria, Danny? You’ve seen the new one? Right? The most recent one? You’d never seen this.
DANNY Never seen this. Love, love, love, the new one. So this as people have brought up my words from last week, yes, I was very excited to watch this film. I was glad it won, because I didn’t have any intentions to watch the live so yes, I was looking forward to this movie for a while now I really wanted to revisit it wasn’t easy to track down so I think that’s why I didn’t watch it right after I watched the new one. But yeah, that’s all my history with this film is.
SLIM Proto, what aboout you?
PROTO Yeah, I’d seen the remake. I think in 2018, didn’t really know much about this. I assumed it was pretty similar to what the story of the remake is. And then you watched the 4K a couple months ago and you had high praise for it. So at that point I was excited to watch it. I mean you know of Argento. I know the name. I don’t think I’ve seen his other movies.
SLIM Yeah, that’s the reason why I saw Suspiria because I think I was listening to BAT & SPIDER’s podcast and they might have been talking about Argento movies, and they’re always talking about Gallo movies.
DANNY They did Crystal Plumage, is Argento I believe.
SLIM That was an oldie. So I think that sent me on the journey. You know, because I felt like a dullard. I was like, what is this movie type they’re talking about? I didn’t know what the hell whenever they said every episode and I’m too shamed to Google. But apparently it’s like a horror movie with like, you know, mystery detective aspects of it. You don’t really know who’s done it. A who dun’ it. Italian who dun’ it, I guess. And so I went through some of his movies. I think one of them was like Phenomenon. And I didn’t get it. Because I’m jumping in feet first. And I’m like, man, the audio sucks on this movie. [Slim & Danny laugh] And I’m like, Is this just the way it is? And if you’re not used to watching those movies, you’re in for a rude awakening because it’s ADR, you know, all the audio is really done after the fact I don’t even know if they have an audio recorder on set. You know, they’re just recording that in the studio afterward. What really shocked me about getting into those movies is like the audio of the music often was not the same level as the vocals. So I had to like turn up the volume to hear like them talk. And then the music would hit and I’ll have to quick like turn them down. Like what the French is going on with the soundtrack? [Slim laughs] I was getting so annoyed. So I didn’t really love two. I think I watched Deep Red also. But then I started up Suspiria and I knew that there was like a backstory. There’s like multiple versions or real masters transfers of this film that exists. Like there was a blu-ray that maybe people didn’t love. And there was this other company that restored it and it looks a lot better. So I started on Tubi I think, and the colors were just like popping even on like a Tubi version and then I started like, wonder if the blu-ray looks like for this and then I saw there was a 4K and I was like I gotta buy this 4K, I’m just going to effing do it. I’m gonna buy this 4K. I’m gonna sit down and watch it and I had an experience watching it for the first time in blu-ray or 4K. So that was my backstory for Suspiria. So Danny what’s on your list for for this film?
DANNY Listen. [Danny laughs] I don’t have a lot on my list, I will say.
SLIM Let it out. It’s a safe space.
DANNY So the beginning of this film I thought was amazing. I love the intro to the character of I forget her name, Suzy? And I love the first killing of the girl running away from the ballerina studio, ballet studio excuse me. That kind of set — like I was very like oh yes I’m I’m in for a treat with this film. The setting of the I’m assuming it’s a hotel that she ends up being murdered. It’s stunning, like it’s it’s really stunning. The colors — I mean we were gonna harp on that. I mean I’ve heard it all week long in reviews, the colors. I mean it really is something to talk about. It’s incredible but then the first killing is over and the rest of the movie has to go on. And I got bored very fast, I will say. And I didn’t enjoy the story that much.
SLIM There’s like no story.
DANNY Thank you. I needed someone to say it before I did.
SLIM Yeah I mentioned in my review, there’s like no story. And what frustrated — I’m gonna be frustrated, I’m sorry. What frustrates me about this film is how it’s talked about in in like I don’t as if it’s like something like an incredible film. I was expecting levels of like House, that movie we did with Sophie from Film Hags. Like that level of insanity, even with like a loose story — that movie is incredible and crazy. This one it just kind of falls off for me real fast. Like it’s a real high in the beginning for me and then it just falls away real fast. I was just like, this is not scary. It’s got very few aspects of horror. And I don’t know, I mean i’m happy to talk about with you guys because I want to hear from you guys as well. But I don’t know, this didn’t sit well with me. And I watched it twice this week.
SLIM Thanks for being honest with us in this moment.
DANNY You’re welcome
PROTO Thank you Danny. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Proto, what about you? What was your initial vibes was sitting down to watch this?
PROTO My initial vibes — well I mean, a question for Danny. Did you did you watch it with audio?
DANNY Yes.
PROTO Because this soundtrack is pumping! Are you kidding me? This Goblin —
DANNY Are —
PROTO No, you had your moment. The sounds that I was experiencing. I mean, I know like people talking about, ooh Goblin. We’re talking about BAT & SPIDER doing Argento movies and they bring up Goblin. Goblin this, Goblin that, what’s this deal with Goblin? Goblin’s the real deal! Holy moly. There’s a sequence of the soundtrack with like this breathing wind.
SLIM I’m just gonna point out real quick that I’m so deep in the fog or not. [Slim & Proto laugh]
DANNY Goblin music is underlined in my notes. Okay? I hadn’t got there yet. Okay?
SLIM Continue, Proto.
PROTO If this movie didn’t have this soundtrack, no one would ever talk about this movie. I mean, it looks great. But there’s a lot of great movies that look great. There’s a lot of movies that look great, but no one talks about them. The music in that there’s entire scenes where the music is just carrying everything that’s happening. There’s a scene with the girl I think her name’s Sarah, the one that kind of befriends Suzy and it’s kind of telling her about everything. They were she’s in the room and she looks out the window — I guess that’s the scene where she gets killed. But like if you don’t have the music in that scene, like nothing is even happening like you have no cues for what’s happening you know what’s going on it’s all entirely carried by the music.
SLIM I didn’t know which direction Proto was going to go. Because like I said, the John Carpenter Halloween is high on people’s list. So then when I was rewatching it, I’m realizing like man, Goblin plays like this hook a lot. And I wonder what Proto is thinking right now watching this movie. And Goblin, I wrote in my review, Goblin is better than the Beatles is what I said in my review. And I I’ve seen a few movies this year. I’m trying to click on them on Letterboxd. Goblin is legit. Like Dawn of the Dead — I’m going through the list Dawn of the Dead, Demons, Phenomenon, Suspiria, Shaun of the Dead they’ve done some music for, Deep Red. There’s just something about the way that they produce music, that it’s just unlike any other like musical score. Right? Like I think I also compared them to like Atticus and Trent you know how about like oh, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross doing the soundtrack. Like okay, we get to do the soundtrack every frickin car commercial now, but like Goblin like why don’t people talk about Goblin like they talk about Trent Reznor doing the scores for movies?
DANNY Because they did scores for a movie like Suspiria. I mean, it’s just blah.
SLIM The movie you mean?
DANNY Right. [Slim laughs] If this movie was a better movie Goblin would be hailed as one of the greats for sure. Having the music carry this film is is the problem with this film.
SLIM How about the scene where that Proto mentioned, that window scene where her face is pressed up against the window, and then her face gets pushed through the window. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Absolutely incredible.
SLIM I think someone posted that this week, but then deleted it because it was — [Slim laughs] I mean, can you imagine if that was the art? Her face?
DANNY I should have. It should have.
SLIM Oh my god. So Proto, what else for this viewing jumped out at you for Suspiria?
PROTO So the I mean, the other thing big that we meant mentioned is just the ADR and this you know, these movies of this time, these Italian movies had this. And it’s just like it’s very jarring. And I’ve had this issue now. So I have a soundbar and I keep having this issue where sometimes the audio gets out of sync with the visuals. And I’ll have to like reset the soundbar. And at first I’m thinking like I cannot get this soundbar to work properly! [Proto & Danny laugh] And then it kind of like dawned on me I was like oh wait, this is one of those movies. So that kind of threw me for a loop at the beginning but at the start of it, how about the typeface of the credits?
SLIM You kidding me?
PROTO Gorgeous.
DANNY Got one thing right.
SLIM Is that the official 70mm font from our new social media videos? I do have to — we talked about — Danny briefly touched on the lighting. I mean, the lighting in this movie, the red, the blues, like it doesn’t make any sense in some of those shots, but it just looks so sick. Like there’s so many scenes kind of towards the end, I rewatched the last half today where she’s coming out of rooms and there’s just this bright red hue coming through. It is just like a simple change to a set. But it just pops so well in this movie in my opinion.
PROTO I love the the scene where she I think what she’s first there and she’s shown to maybe like the locker room and then when she comes out and like the maid is there with the little boy and the maid like flashes her with that piece of glass and it like all goes white and the music playing in the background.
SLIM The colors of the academy building, like the visuals as soon as you enter that building, but then also Danny positively talked about the first death scene at that apartment building. What the French was at building even? What?
PROTO Why is a killer there?
SLIM The ceiling piece like the of the shards breaking and then killing that woman. I just want to go hang out in that building!
DANNY That long shot of the lobby how symmetrical all of the design and graphic work were. Incredible! I mean it felt like Wes Anderson was probably enjoying this shot.
PROTO Yeah the shot of the woman trying to get back into the room and the cameras back and she’s like banging on it and just the framing of that is really beautiful. I was really — I found it hard to stomach the killings in this. The stabbing felt so real and terrifying. Like someone getting stabbed and then trying to recover and then just somebody stabbing them again. Like I could feel every time she was stabbed and then when she stabbed like directly in the chest that just felt so real and visceral to me.
DANNY And to her heart. Her beating heart was out.
SLIM Oh yeah. How about when the one girl gets her throat cut open and just like that extended like shot of the knife going through the fake skin and stuff?
PROTO I did have a note I think where she the girl gets in the beginning where she’s where she’s hung and then it shows the bloods dripping down and and then there’s it’s like falling onto one of like the white tiles and it looks like a piece of canvas with like blood and I actually said ‘this guy’ out loud. Like this guy, like Argento, what are you doing here? [Proto & Slim & Danny laugh]
DANNY That whole shot was amazing though with the the ceiling falling through the roommate or whatever. She died too from the the roof caving in. I mean that whole beginning into is great!
SLIM Her yelling for like 10 minutes, she’s banging on every door, no one’s answering.
DANNY There’s no one in that building but them too and whatever monster killing thing it was.
SLIM The other scene Paul just referenced it but the barbed wire scene, where this one gal falls into this pile of barbed wire. So someone’s like a bat to unlock a door that she was in that person was unlocking attempting to unlock this door for like 10 straight minutes. All they had to do was just lift up! The door would have been unlocked.
DANNY What were they doing?
SLIM And she’s like, stumbling on luggage trying to get out and then next thing you know she just falls backward into a room of barbed wire.
DANNY No, no, no. She steps into it. I don’t know how she doesn’t see it. Like what are we doing? [Slim laughs] She willingly jumps into this barbed wire and don’t let them fool you.
SLIM I just laughed out loud rewatching that scene because it was so silly.
PROTO It’s so ridiculous. I felt like why didn’t she just hold the lock down? [Danny laughs] What’s that guy gonna do? The guy’s gonna get bored eventually, someone’s gonna come around.
SLIM Also, why is it taking so long to just undo the lock?
PROTO It’s like a butter knife.
SLIM Oh my god. How about the the pianist?
DANNY Excuse me?
SLIM The blind pianist, who was fired because his dog bit one of the evil little kids.
DANNY The kid deserved it.
SLIM The witch kid. And this guy walks you know, tried to walk home at night and then this dog turns on him and gnaws his throat What do you think about that animatronic Proto?
PROTO That music was pumping! Another scene with Goblin just carrying that whole scene.
DANNY Carrying, I know.
PROTO But see, but that’s the thing. This movie, I know people say this — there’s lists on Letterboxd about this — but this is a movie that you feel more than you think. You just got to go with the vibe man. We’re just vibin’ out man. There’s people getting murdered, there’s witches, there’s dogs gnawing throats, people jumping in barbed wire. You just gotta vibe with it.
SLIM Vibe with it. Let’s see what else is on my list here. How long does it take to under the lock with that knife as she climbs out, lol stupid. She falls into the barbed wire lol. Oh so she tracks down the one girl’s therapist after she like finds out that there’s like witchcraft happening. And the therapist is willingly has a conversation with her about how oh yeah, she was she told me all the time about the witchcraft stuff. And then he gives the backstory on the school. And then he’s like, oh, you know what, you start to this guy. He’s like an expert in witchcraft. And then he walks — that’s like the kind of stuff with like the story —
DANNY The amount of exposition in that scene.
SLIM You just need that seed go with it. Like what are the chances that any of this stuff is happening at the same time? Why are you willingly telling her this information that’s probably secret? That was another thing that jumped out at me.
DANNY The maggots all over the place.
PROTO That zoom in through the ceiling. The ceiling just covered in maggots.
DANNY The face.
SLIM Yeah, disgusting.
PROTO Little known fact maggots have the ability to shift through solid surfaces. [Danny & Slim laugh] Like how did 10,000 maggots get from the attic where they’re storing food for whatever reason into everyone’s room and no one noticed?
SLIM Witches, that’s the answer. That’s the answer to all those questions. The wallpaper in that apartment I think the I wrote down the flower wallpaper was out of sight as well. And I think too, one of the reasons why I think I had this rated so highly as well is you were used to watching or at least me Argento movies such as didn’t connect with me. And then he pulls out this visual throb job and audio visual throb job and it’s like what the eff am I watching right now? And I think Proto was right with like the vibe. A couple people reached out to me said like, they bought the vinyl they went to like a concert where they just played the music. I think Ian said that, like where they just they had a concert while the movie was playing in the background. I just haven’t experienced a movie like this where the audio visuals carry everything. You know, the story is like, there’s nothing there, there’s nothing happening.
DANNY There’s literally nothing happening.
PROTO Well, I mean, there’s a coven of witches.
DANNY It’s a ballet studio, and they do one dance and she collapses.
PROTO Hold on a second. There is stuff going on here. C’mon this witch!
DANNY Talk to me. Talk to me.
PROTO Helena Marcos? What a crazy idea.
DANNY Which one was that?
SLIM The invisible one.
DANNY Oh the invisible that you could only see because there’s lightning somewhere.
PROTO She had a spell cast on herself. It’s like an invisible visibility cloak. You can do like — you’re okay with Harry Potter, huh? You’re okay with wizards!
DANNY He has a cloack.
PROTO Well he didn’t explain that part. But just the slumber party scene, the slumber party scene where she comes in and she lays down and she’s snoring. I love that seed. What a great idea. And then it like zooms in on her her skull through the sheet. And it’s like, like a part of her brain is like, throbbing as if she I thought like maybe she’s gonna like transfer her consciousness into one of these other kids. But there was so much cool stuff going on. That’s like unsaid about these witches of like, like what they’re even up to what this woman is capable of. Or when where he’s like, he’s like, oh, yes, the black queen? What an evil witch. She had a gift for evil.
SLIM What else is on your list for this viewing, Danny? We haven’t scratched the surface. I feel like on your list.
DANNY I have the first killing, maggots, lockpick, Goblin music. That’s literally my notes.
SLIM That’s it? Oh my god.
DANNY That’s it. This movie is not great. There’s not much to talk about. We can literally sit around talking about Goblin and the colors in this film all night. But that’s all it is.
SLIM Give us the rating now.
DANNY It’s two stars. [Slim laughs]
SLIM See, you know, producer hat on for a second, I anticipated, potentially at least one host low rating this movie. So that’s why I kind of had our first segments drag on a little bit. I knew that there might need to be some time saving in this segment. I felt it.
DANNY I just don’t know what else to say about this film. I watched it twice this week, hoping that my first of sitting down of this film was just off because I expected something completely different. I expected — it’s not what I expected. So watching it the second time, knowing what I wanted, knowing what it was. Maybe I could fully enjoy this.
SLIM Torin wants to know if your rating went down the second time.
DANNY No, no, no.
SLIM Same?
DANNY I mean, I didn’t know how to rate it the first time because I was already frustrated. But the thing is, it is. It’s a gorgeous film to look at, the music is great. But that’s where it is.
SLIM What if this movie wasn’t on the hype train? And you just kind of like stumbled upon it maybe?
DANNY Maybe there is some sort of influence to it. And, and I think someone else’s review said this week. If they hadn’t seen the remake first, they would have a different opinion. And maybe that’s what also is swaying me because of how much I love the remake.
SLIM Did you know that the director of the remake is the director of Call Me By Your Name?
DANNY I don’t think I knew that.
SLIM I didn’t know that.
DANNY I do know the girl that played Rosie is in it. Or is that her name? The main actress and this old Suspiria, she’s in that one. Anyway.
PROTO Let’s focus.
DANNY I’m not gonna apologize for two stars for this movie.
SLIM You never have to apologize for any rating. If there’s one thing we’ve learned on this show.
DANNY I wanted to love it, that’s the thing. Maybe I’m just disappointed because of how much I wanted to love this movie.
SLIM You never have to explain yourself on this show, to me or Proto.
DANNY Thank you. I know that. It’s just — it’s nice to hear it every once in a while.
SLIM I’m never clipping that out. I should add audio for that so no one can clip it out. [Danny laughs] Proto, what else is on your list that we haven’t covered yet?
PROTO Towards the end where Susie is figuring everything out — so there’s two things that I love is one is her trying to recall what that girl said when she first comes to the school in the storm and she’s on the front step and she yells something out and there’s a few moments where she’s trying to remember and then you see a flash of it and she’s trying to recall the audio. I love the way that was done I thought that was so smart because you see the scene and you’re and but you don’t know if it’s important or not and then afterwards when she’s trying to recall it, I felt like I was trying to recall like Wait Did I hear what she said? Should I know what she said at that point? I just really liked the way that was done and then toward towards the end when when she’s like sneaking in on them and again there’s like little details in this that aren’t explained but they just create like an atmosphere and an idea of what these witches are up to where the the one had mistress is like sitting there and she just says like, give me power and she she looks like she’s like given a mint is white like a candy and like she just takes a bite of it and then she’s like drinking blood or something, like I don’t know what’s going on. But I just love the imagery of it. And it gave me a lot of Rosemary’s Baby vibes. Just a coven, witches, satanist, whatever. I just love that idea in a movie.
SLIM The walking around the hallway when she’s like finding them. Like she listens to their footsteps and realize that there’s like a secret part of the building that they’re kind of like hiding in and she walked through those hallways, that’s just another like, you could screenshot 90% of this movie. And like that scene is especially potent like that. So that’s my last note. I think I’m still four and a half stars for this movie, maybe four on this viewing. I still think this is a great movie. I think it is worth the hype. The combination of the audio, the visuals, just really shocked me when I first saw this movie, and I totally get that it’s kind of difficult to put the hype train behind you and just kind of experience this for what it is. But that’s my final thoughts on Suspiria. I do want to rewatch the new one. I watched it first before seeing this. I think I gave it like three and a half stars, the Tilda one.
DANNY I don’t think people shouldn’t watch this film though. I will say that. I think it should be explored just for what it is visually and the music alone. I think you should definitely try check this out. I just prefer a little bit of a story next time.
PROTO The story is what you make it.
SLIM Proto, final thoughts on Suspiria?
PROTO My final note was just the Helena at the end, the line that she gives to Suszy. ‘’You’re going to meet death now.’’ I just love her. She is evil, but the nose whistle, the snoring, what a great character. Wonderful. I mean the ending makes no sense, like why is everything on fire suddenly? Who knows? But the Goblin soundtrack really made it for me. It reminds me of one of my favorite bands growing up, formative band of my life was Animal Collective. And it just gave me those vibes. It felt like I was listening to like a weird alternate universe album from them. So that was awesome. I give this four stars. Yeah, I don’t think it has to make a ton of sense. It’s visually and the audio is amazing, it’s beautiful to look at. I had a fun ride. I had a great time watching this.
SLIM Wowowowow. I want to track down the vinyl for this this movie I’m not sure if it’s one of those like hard to find jawns. But man, Imagine firing this up on a weekend? You know, put the record player out. Turn it up a few notches. Get yourself some salami and cheese. You know?
PROTO Whoever gets Slim for Secret Santa. [Slim laughs]
SLIM That’s right. So that’s Suspiria. I’m glad we experienced it together and we made it out alive at the end of it. That’s all it matters. You know? If we can get through Halloween Kills together, we can do anything.
DANNY But we all loved that movie. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM So if you want to shoot us a letter or a voicemail, you can do so using the links on 70mmpod.com. And one I just wanted to spotlight, because I feel like maybe people might be curious. Someone emailed in Rob, asking if it was possible to listen to the exclusive episodes, the ones in the vault in spot in Stitcher, and so I figured maybe there’s people curious like if you can listen to these episodes wherever you want. So if you join the Patreon, you can listen to pretty much every app except Spotify and Stitcher. So if you listen to Overcast, Apple Podcasts, Pocketcasts and Downcast, you can listen to this secret feed in your in your preferred app. But we also offer paid subs on Spotify because we know people prefer to listen in Spotify. So I think our feed on Spotify is $2.99l. So you don’t get access to the VHS Village, you don’t get to vote, but you do get access to the episodes in the vault so that option is out there and those links are in the show notes so just wanted to just mention that real quick. We got a VM though that we gotta get ready here. I’m fired up here. I don’t know what to expect with this one. [Slim laughs] Let me see what we got here.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hey 70mm, it’s Haitch. I’m not gonna be able to make sure the recording tonight I’ve got another thing I have to do but I just wanted to say thank you so much for choosing Suspiria. What a killer movie man I have wanted to watch this for like 20 years but always was kind of afraid to tackle it. And just to pick it up and throw it on the other day it completely blew me away. It’s totally goofy but also just gorgeous the color palette and the cinematography in this film was really stunning, so just enjoyed the hell out of it. So thank you for picking that up you guys appreciate everything you do all the time and can’t wait to hear what you guys are up to this week. Peace!
[voicemail ends]
SLIM What do you think Haitch is gonna think about our Dune episode coming next week? Is he ready? Is he ready?
PROTO You know he is tracking down the vinyl for this Goblin soundtrack.
SLIM Goblin is probably at his live screening of Dune. He probably invited them to the screening. They’re doing a pre-show and post-show for all we know. He has seen the movie but he has not given a rating on Letterboxd, neither he or Jason the hosts of Dune Pod have given a rating, which I find just despicable. It’s repulsive. And it’s despicable.
DANNY Repulsive.
SLIM So next week is Dune, I’m excited to finally watch this movie. I’m excited, you know, I’m excited to see what the old box office is going to be like. Do we want to make any predictions? Domestic?
DANNY I don’t care about any of that.
SLIM Danny’s out. He’s not making predictions. Proto, you’re a whiz at the box office stuff, we know that based on the history of this show, but are you ready to make a prediction?
PROTO Yeah, yeah, yeah. Based on extensive research, I’m going to say 599 million, first week. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM You heard it here first. Wait a minute, Yoli just linked to some Goblin stuff?
PROTO Wait a minute.
SLIM Goblin Suspiria vinyl.
DANNY Add to cart right now.
SLIM I’m accepting all cookies right now, hold on a second.
PROTO Adding to cart, entering credit card information.
DANNY You better hurry, this one looks like it’s just one for sale.
SLIM Is this region blocked? Look at the logo of Goblin. That is a logo. Can we steal that?
DANNY No, Matt.
SLIM Can we steal that font in some way?
PROTO I’ll take this on. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Thank you Proto. That’s it, another one of the books we have a big week next week and then we have another month to kick off. Danny, I think is the first pick. Somehow you’ve been the first pick for last like six months.
DANNY I know, it makes me sick. I don’t like leading these months. It’s too much pressure.
PROTO That’s not true. It’s been like two months.
SLIM You got something up your sleeve as well. Maybe we’ll get into next week.
DANNY My dear friend.
SLIM Well, he’s getting into it right now.
DANNY I have a dear friend that is willing, longtime friend, to come on the show. Because I knew the movie I’m picking for that month was going to be something they want to talk about.
PROTO Wow, George Lucas, I can’t believe it.
DANNY The man himself. He’s going to explain the force and you’re going to learn about it.
SLIM For the record, Proto nor I, know who this person is. But Danny is bringing a guest to the show. This has never been done.
DANNY You’ll know next week.
SLIM Cripes alive. Proto, can you take us out, this week, please?
PROTO Yeah I was inspired this week watching this. I actually wrote down a prayer that I had while while watching this that I want to share.
DANNY Oh gosh.
PROTO O god, we come before you to thank you for the gift of ADR. [Slim & Danny laugh] Because it reminds us of our weakness in many things, but just like it, we know we can be perfect in spite not because of as if we deserved but in spite of our flaws. Go in peace.
SLIM See everybody next week for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone fades out]
SLIM 70mm is a TAPEDECK production with original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual guidance and VGER, the robot who loves movies created by Protolexus. Producer emeritus Dale_a. Transcript provided by Sophie Shin. Prints and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited and produced by me, Slim. Support our Patreon for access to the VHS Village Discord to talk movies with new friends, access to exclusive episodes, discounts on merch, and a physical membership card mailed to you. To check out other TAPEDECK podcasts, find the link in the episode notes. And if you’d like to support our friends at Letterboxd and upgrade to Pro or Patron status, you can do so with a 20% off discount using the links at 70mmpod.com. Goodbye!
