❉ CultFilms announce dazzling 4K restoration of Dario Argento’s groundbreaking masterpiece.
In 1977 SUSPIRIA stunned cinemagoers around the world. Now, forty years later, CultFilms is proud to terrify audiences once again with the dazzling 4K restoration of Dario Argento’s groundbreaking masterpiece.
Italian horror auteur Dario Argento unleashed the ultimate cult film with his visionary symphony of terror, SUSPIRIA. Ballet student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arrives at a prestigious dance academy in Freiburg, a school plagued by gruesome and supernatural happenings. Soon students begin to die in horrific circumstances – is Suzy next, and can she uncover the academy’s sinister secret before it’s too late?
Abandoning the black gloves of the giallo in favour of a witchy brew of magic and murder, Argento carved a Baroque nightmare, saturated with expressive colour and punctuated by shocking violence.
Considered the most famous Italian horror film of all time for its vivid, groundbreaking style and jaw-dropping bloodshed, SUSPIRIA now returns for its fortieth anniversary to assault audiences once more.
Crowd-funded limited edition UHD and Blu-ray dual-format SteelBook
Fans will have the opportunity to crowd-fund a very special limited edition UHD and Blu-ray dual-format SteelBook (pictured above) of the SUSPIRIA 4K restoration. The crowd-funding campaign will go live on 30 October, just in time for Halloween! This will be a limited numbered edition including a slate of specially-commissioned extras exclusive to this SteelBook release and available nowhere else in the world. Keep your eyes peeled for more information coming very soon.
SUSPIRIA Blu-ray and DVD dual-format edition
CultFilms will release their 4K restoration of SUSPIRIA in a Blu-ray and DVD dual-format edition with slipcase on 14 November 2017.
Extras will include:
- Audio Commentary by critics Kim Newman and Alan Jones
- An interview with Dario Argento and Claudio Simonetti
- New Extra: The 4K Restoration Process
- New Extra: Dario Argento Presents his Suspiria
- New Extra: Dario Argento Introduction
CultFilms presents the SUSPIRIA 4K Tour
CultFilms will orchestrate the ‘SUSPIRIA 4K Tour’, which they are coordinating with several venues across the country. The SUSPIRIA tour will culminate with a very special event in London: an evening with Dario Argento, featuring a Q&A with the maestro himself and a presentation of the restoration. Dates for the tour include but are not limited to:
- 6 October: BFI London Film Festival (Suspiria 4K premiere)
- 14 October: Mayhem Film Festival
- 14 October: BFI London Film Festival
- 21 October: Celluloid Screams, Sheffield
- 28 October: Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema
- 28 October: Regent Street Cinema, London (35mm)
- 14 November: Barbican, London (with Dario Argento intro and Q&A)
- 17 – 23 November: Barbican, London
The Restoration
‘I hope that you are ready…’ declares Dario Argento in his personalised introduction to the CultFilms release of SUSPIRIA
Argento filmed SUSPIRIA on some of the last of the Eastman 5247 film stock. In order to reach the deep colours he had envisioned, the director struck the original release prints using a very different Technicolor Dye Transfer process which had already become obsolete. SUSPIRIA was the last film to be released following that particular method and all subsequent prints did not adhere to Argento’s original vision, with the look of the film affected dramatically.
The new 4K scan was painstakingly restored by TLE Films in Germany with that crucially distinct colour palette reinstated in accordance with Argento’s original Technicolor Dye Transfer specification, using period film materials as reference.
The restorers also reinserted all missing frames which had degraded badly or were simply lost over the years, making this version of SUSPIRIA premiered by CultFilms the most complete and original looking, and finally doing justice to Argento’s vision.
❉ ‘CultFilms will release their 4K restoration of Suspiria in a Blu-ray and DVD dual-format edition with slipcase on 14 November 2017.
❉ CultFilms specialises in distributing the finest art-house world cinema and the best cult classics. Born from the fusion of Nouveaux Pictures and Argent Films, two long-standing pioneering world cinema labels established in the 90s, with over a quarter century of curating experience, CultFilms specialises in restoring and releasing renowned classics and little-known gems to discerning audiences on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD, television and in cinemas.
❉ News source: Alex Morris/CultFilms
❉ We Are Cult is not responsible for the content of this news release.