Right from the get-go the music sets the tone and prepares you for something sinister. It makes for one memorable opening credits sequence. When the movie actually starts however, the same track is still loudly thrumming in your ears despite the protagonist doing nothing more than arriving at an airport and catching a cab to the dancing academy during a thunderstorm. I can't help but wonder if it's opening moments might not have been a little more effective had director Dario Argento let the setting create an atmosphere by itself in silence rather than trying to force one with a full-on aural assault that doesn't relent until the film's first kill. Luckily, after the first chapter's bloody conclusion Argento makes more functional use of the soundtrack from prog-rock band "Goblin" and it becomes one of the film's most magical qualities. Further amplifying it's hallucinatory fever dream effect. Imagine something with the surrealness of Jacob's Ladder and the visual style of Stanley Kubrick à la The Shining or maybe even A Clockwork Orange and you have Suspiria. It's liberal use of colors and unique camera angles make it both beautiful and unsettling. Argento is a master of atmosphere. He manages to give Suspiria the qualities of both a supernatural threat and a slasher film. It's really quite hard to classify just what kind of horror film it is. It's also a bit hard to decipher what it all means. However, even at just face value it's an excellent movie. I did find myself once or twice drifting to my phone during some slow moments, but I always found my attention quickly restored as the unexplainable began to happen once again. It's an original and entrancing experience. A legendary standout in the genre for good reason. Not to be missed.