Suspiria/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Anticlimax Boss: Helena Markos. She's the head of the coven of witches who can do pretty much anything they want. Once Suzy sees a flaw in her invisibility, she easily stabs her. Mother of Tears addresses this, saying that she had been left in a weakened state from a battle with another witch.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: For all the squick involved, the maggots have absolutely nothing to do with the plot.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The entire score by Goblin is pretty impressive.
  • First Installment Wins: Suspiria is seen as a classic of horror cinema, despite some flaws, and it is widely respected in film circles. Inferno is viewed as So Okay It's Average (though it does have a strong fanbase too) while Mother of Tears is viewed as a disaster.
  • Fridge Horror: The third film reveals that evil witches are cannibals. Knowing this, Madame Blanc's attributing the rain of maggots to "spoiled food" makes more sense.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Pat's murder, Sara's death, Helena Marcos. It's widely considered one of Argento's masterpieces and most gory movies.
  • Hype Backlash
  • Narm: "So! You've come to kill Helena Markos! A ha ha ha!"
    • Averted in the original Italian dub 'I'm coming, American! And let the living meet the dead, and the dead the living...'
    • Mostly all of Helena Markos' lines in the English dub are overly hammy.
    • The bat near the end of the movie. Seriously, had anyone who worked on that movie even seen a real bat?
    • The first victim's name happens to be Pat Hingle. It's either an unfortunate coincidence or one of the weirdest Shout Outs in the history of cinema.
      • Knowing Argento, it's most likely a Shout-Out.
    • Also, the US trailer for the movie. "But the Iris is the flower that will be THE END OF YOOOOOOOOOOOU!"
      • Which is said over the image of a girl brushing her hair only to reveal that her head is a skull!... which looks like its right out of a local neighbor's Halloween decorations.
    • ◦ The "names of snakes" scene is odd to watch, mostly because it's bizarre to see girls in their twenties bickering like children. This is a leftover detail from the original script where they were children. Dario Argento just didn't change the lines.
  • Sequelitis: 1980's Inferno and (to a far greater extent) 2007's Mother of Tears.
  • Squick: Nothing like brushing maggots out of your hair.
  • Special Effect Failure: A bat attacks Suzy in the third act, but it looks incredibly fake.
  • Vindicated by History: Although the film was a commercial success, it was trashed by critics upon release because of perceived plot holes and weak characterization. Nowadays, it's considered a masterpiece of Surreal Horror and one of the most visually stunning films of all time.

• Visual Effects of Awesome: The set design and lighting truly seems like something out of a nightmare.