by Marc Patterson

Now here’s an exciting bit of news that will make our British pals happy. Suspiria, the classic Italian horror film from Dario Argento, will be seeing Blu for the first time thanks to Nouveaux Pictures and Cine-Excess. The UK release date comes on January 18, 2010 and word on the street says that this new transfer is going to look phenomenal.

Extras included on the disc will include:

• A brand new documentary featuring director Dario Argento and composer Claudio Simonetti and a feature length audio commentary by Argento experts Alan Jones and Kim Newman.
• Fear at 400 Degrees: The Cine-Excess of Suspiria–a documentary featuring director Dario Argento and composer Claudio Simonetti
• Suspiria Perspectives: featuring Claudio Simonetti, Norman J. Warren and Patricia McCormack

Suspiria is one of Argento’s finest films and for me a cornerstone of any horror aficionado’s education in the Italian school of horror cinema. It’s use of vibrant coloring combined with stylistic camera techniques, and a haunting score by Goblin that has endured with fans throughout the decades make this just a stunning visual experience of pure horror that will only be heightened with the crisp clarity of a high-definition transfer.

Suspiria is the first film in the Three Mothers trilogy, which concluded with the recent bellyflop of a flick Mother of Tears. The basic storyline follows Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) who travels to Germany to continue her studies of Ballet at a premiere dance academy. Suzy arrives to the school where immediately she’s beset with a strange vibe. Slowly and methodically Suzy discovers the sordid past of the school and the suspenseful atmosphere gets claustrophobic with horror as we are catapulted towards the intense climatic conclusion.

While there is no word on what the region coding on the disc will be we do know that Blue Underground put out the latest 2 Disc Version of Suspiria here in the US a couple years ago and they’ve been slowly going through their catalog giving select titles the Blu Ray treatment. With the upcoming remake looming on the horizon I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until we Yanks get a Blu version of our own. We’ll keep our ear to the grindstone, and as always keep you informed!