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 Once Upon a Time…
Over the opening titles, a narrating voice introduces Susy and the reason for her arrival in Freiburg. Exiting the airport she is hit by a storm. Arriving by taxi at the school, she sees a girl fleeing (Pat), but she does not understand what she is screaming or whom she is screaming to. Susy is not recognised at the entry phone, so she goes back to town by taxi. Meanwhile Pat succeeds in going to a friend’s room, but she doesn’t tell her anything about her escape. In the bathroom she is attacked by something outside of the window; then she is dragged outside and repeatedly stabbed. Her friend tries to call for help, but with no success. Pat’s heart is stabbed; her corpse falls through a glass ceiling, breaking it. The broken glass stabs and kills her friend.
The Tanz-Akademie
Susy arrives at the school and explains to Miss Tanner why she did not arrive the night before. She talks also to the second-mistress, Madame Blanc, who tells her about the absence of the headmistress. They tell Susy about what happened the night before, and she is invited to find accommodation in the town: she will stay at a schoolmate’s place until her room is prepared. Whilst Susy is leaving with Miss Tanner, she assures two policemen she saw a girl the night before. Susy gets to know her colleagues, of whom there is Olga, the girl who is she is going to stay with, and Sara, another American girl. At Olga’s, Susy meets Mark, who carries her bags there. Olga says that he likes Susy, and recalls an affair between Mark and Pat. Susy tries to remember the scene of the night before (short flashbacks) while Olga talks about Pat’s expulsion from the academy. At the end Susy succeeds in remembering the words Pat said: "iris" and "secret".
Blood, worms and sighs
Susy’s room is ready, but she refuses to go there. Walking through the academy from one room to another she crosses a hall. There sits a woman with a crystal in her hands, which suddenly flashes: this light stuns Susy. She arrives in the ballroom and says to Miss Tanner that she does not feel well, but she insists on seeing her dance. After a short time Susy faints: she has blood coming from her nose and mouth. Susy wakes up in her room in the Academy: Olga has brought all of her belongings there. The doctor prescribes Susy a light diet, with red wine. In the evening Susy feels better, and discovers that her roommate is Sara. Susy has her first "light" dinner. Before bedtime she brushes her hair, when she sees there are maggots in her hair: thousands of maggots fall from the roof, the girls run away, frightened. The cause of this event is some rotten food in the attic. The exercise-room is turned into a sleeping room. Sara tells Susy that the teachers sleep in the town. After a while a shadow lies behind the sheet next to Sara and Susy. The girls listen to a wheeze coming from behind: in Sara’s opinion it is the mistress’ breath.
"I’m blind, not deaf!"
The following morning Sara asks Miss Tanner if the mistress slept there, but she denies it. Daniel’s dog attacks Madame Blanc’s nephew. Miss Tanner gets mad with him, but the pianist says that the animal was surely provoked. Miss Tanner chases him away from the school. Susy goes on with her light diet; during the night Sara tries to workout the path the teachers take. Susy cannot stay awake, but in a moment of lucidity she notes that the steps are headed towards the inner part of the school, not outside. Sara takes notes of the last teacher’s steps and of every other kind of noise. Daniel goes out from a Bierhaus with his dog. In a deserted square they both feel a presence. Something flies past Daniel from above, almost touching him. Suddenly the dog attacks and tears his throat to pieces. Two policemen arrive, but it is too late.
Sara
The girls at the school chat about the events of the day before. Susy remembers some of the words Pat had said and tells them to Madame Blanc. She thanks the girl and warns the police. In the swimming pool Sara tells Susy she was the girl on the entry phone: Pat was telling her something. In the evening, Sara tries to wake up Susy to tell her that Pat’s notes have vanished, but she falls asleep. Sara is scared and trying to escape reaches the attic. A figure, seen from behind, takes a razor from a box and uses it to open the door of the room in which Sara is. She sees a window up above, goes through it, but falls into a mass of barbed wire that cuts her. A razor cuts Sara’s throat.
Witches
The following morning Miss Tanner informs Susy about Sara’s departure: she says that probably there was a car waiting for her. Susy phones a friend of Sara to try and find out where she is. They meet in town: he is a psychiatrist and he treated Sara for a while. He says that recently she was upset because of some stories about the academy, founded by a witch, Elena Marcos, also known as the Black Queen. Susy wants to know more: she is introduced to professor Milius, a master in this field. He explains to her that the only aim of all witches is to use evil to gain material possessions. He says also that the strength in a witches coven is mostly in its leader.
Elena Marcos, the Black Queen
Susy is alone in the school: everybody has gone to the theatre. She tries to phone Frank, the psychiatrist, but the line fails. Susy goes back to her room and throws away her dinner: the sink is stained with the red wine. A bat flies into the room and attacks her: she covers it with a towel and finally kills it. Susy hears some steps and looks for Sara’s notes. She decides to use them to walk the same path as the teachers. After having wandered along the academy halls, she arrives in a painted room, and sees some irises. In a flashback we hear the exact words Pat recited: "I’ve seen beyond the door: the three iris, turn the blue one".
Susy follows these instructions and finds herself in a corridor with black and gold decorations. In a room she sees Madame Blanc, Miss Tanner and their followers holding a black mass. They cry out for Elena Marcos and pray for the death of the American girl. Susy is frightened and runs away. She sees Sara’s corpse with her eyes pinned.
Escaping Susy enters a room in which there is a canopy, from where there comes the same wheeze she and Sara heard. Susy hits an ornament that falls: the noise wakes Elena Marcos up: the wheeze was hers. Susy goes over to the bed holding a crystal dagger from the ornament. She moves the curtain, but no one is there. Sara’s zombie is almost on top of her when lightning lights the room. Susy sees the shadow of Elena Marcos and stabs her neck: the Black Queen turns into a horrible old woman.
A strong wind rises; the school begins to fall. Susy flees and sees the followers dying in agony. At the end she exits the school that is completely in flames, under a storm. Over the image of the burning academy the end titles roll.
The criterion used to divide the story into sequences is essentially a temporal one. The corresponding sequence = day is interrupted only in the last two sequences that happen in just one day. The sixth one presents a radical change of location: with the very beginning, the sequence of Daniel’s death and the sub-sequence of the psychiatrist being the only ones not located in the school or in its vicinity. |
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suspiria - the eye of evil
An analysis of suspiria by Francesco Locane. This study was written for part of an exam of semiology of cinema, held by prof. A. Costa, at the university of bologna, italy, during the academic year 1998-1999.
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