Suspiria Limited Edition
(1977)
review by Suspiriorum

When Anchor Bay released Suspiria on DVD, there were two versions available, the standard single disc, & a three-disc limited edition version of 60,000 copies (plus 10,000 in Canada), that sold out in around a week of release. This version contains the first disc, with all it’s extras (see my review here), plus two other discs. The second disc contains the 52 minute 25th Anniversary celebration featurette, which includes interviews with most of the key people involved in the film, including Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Luciano Tovoli, Goblin, Jessica Harper, Udo Kier & Stefania Casini. This is broken down into different sections dealing with different aspects of the film: The Story, The Director, The Stars, The Score, The Style, Favourite Scenes & Anecdotes, Looking Back. Although this perhaps doesn’t go into quite as much detail as might be liked, there’s tons of interesting stuff, including Tovoli explaining how the Technicolor process was used to create the unusual look of the film, & it will likely please most fans. Amongst the other highlights are Argento & Nicolodi both trying to claim that they came up with the basic story, Casini getting extremely passionate about everything, Harper explaining the difficulties of working on a scene when three different languages are being spoken by the actors, & Udo Kier appealing to Argento to make another film with him. There are plenty more, or course, but me telling you about them just isn’t the same. If you’re a fan of Suspiria, you will want to see this documentary.

The third disc contains a new CD version of Goblins’ soundtrack album. This version includes all but one track that was on the recent complete Cinevox CD issue, with rather more dynamic & richer sound quality. The one track that is missing is a simply Celeste & bells version of the Suspiria theme, which is included with narration on the top (as on the Cinevox CD). This is not a particularly upsetting omission, since this track is only fairly short & quite boringly repetitive. Included on this version but missing from the Cinevox version is the Daemonia version of the main theme, which makes this the best version of this score currently available on CD.

But that’s not all. In addition, you get a 32-page booklet, containing several nice pictures, a brief introduction, & an interview with Jessica Harper that doesn’t cover too much of the same territory as the ones in the documentary. Plus, there are 8 reproduction lobby cards. Sadly, though, the cover artwork is not as attractive as the one for the single disc version, in my opinion. Overall though, if you are lucky enough to find a copy, this release is a Suspiria fans wet dream.