Episode 403: SUSPIRIA (1977) with Velma Rent

SUSPIRIA is cooking — A BIG CAULDRON OF INNOCENT BALLET GIRLS, that is!

You’ve never seen anything like Dario Argento’s 1977 giallo classic… and yet, it’s so immediately evocative that Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 spiritual remake had no choice but to go a different direction with its visuals. You simply can’t outdo what SUSPIRIA is doing!

With Velma Rent, Trylon board member and longtime volunteer, we’re hopping into the razor wire pile that is this movie’s legacy (without looking)! We get into the feminism, the Roman Empire, the inimitable style, Jessica Harper’s ‘made-for-horror’ expressivity, and more. Turns out there’s a VERY GOOD REASON why they’re all talking like that!

Find Velma…

On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/jokerslaughter/

On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jokerslaughter/

References:

“Suspiria’s Score is One of Horror’s Scariest Characters” by Lucille Hanson for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2026/09/27/suspirias-score-is-one-of-horrors-scariest-characters/

“Dario Argento on His Macabre Masterpiece, Suspiria” by Ben Cobb for Another Man Magazine (March 2018): https://www.anothermanmag.com/life-culture/10256/dario-argento-on-his-macabre-masterpiece-suspiria

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