Suspiria

Dario Argento, 1977 (suom. "Suspiria - tappavat huokaukset")

I've watched a couple of other films from Dario Argento after Suspiria and been disappointed; none of them even closely catches the atmosphere Suspiria carries. The color, the sound! I think the real explanation why this film really corroded on my mind is in the loud and highly innovative soundtrack.

Horror films are not everyone's treat and many people argue that they cause nightmares... but in my thinking it is exactly the opposite way around: nightmares are related to our imagination and subconscious mind - that everyone has - and horror films rather provoke us to deal with the subconscious and provide a safe environment for us to have scary experiences. To put it another way, I much rather see nightmares in which I am the viewer/director - which is natural to me being accustomed to watching horror films - than actually living the experience of the horror film victim and becoming genuinely afraid to go to sleep.

A bit more philosophy of horror: we all have the capability for horror experiences in us and actually it is argued in many contexts that our subconscious fear is always the same kind of fear. In order to be able to effectively face one's subconsciously experienced incapabilities (in order to get better) one needs to be able to face that fear. Fear of humiliation is as strong as fear of death deep down; it is just not recognized as such since dying is very concrete compared to fear and also, for social reasons, we are not allowed to show fear without a visible target.