An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
Cinematography
Luciano Tovoli's saturated primary colors that make blood look almost cheerful.
Score
Goblin's prog-rock nightmare that hisses and whispers directly into your spine.
Sound
The witches' breathing—mixed louder than dialogue, pure skin-crawling design.
Director
Dario Argento
Jessica Harper
Suzy Bannion
Stefania Casini
Sara
Flavio Bucci
Daniel
Miguel Bosé
Mark
Barbara Magnolfi
Olga
Susanna Javicoli
Sonia
Eva Axén
Pat Hingle
Rudolf Schündler
Prof. Milius
Udo Kier
Dr. Frank Mandel
Alida Valli
Miss Tanner
Joan Bennett
Madame Blanc
Margherita Horowitz
Teacher
Jacopo Mariani
Albert
Fulvio Mingozzi
Taxi Driver
Franca Scagnetti
Cook
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Argento had the walls of the academy painted in impossible colors then lit them with single-source lighting—no horror film had ever looked this artificial, or this wrong.
The Three Mothers trilogy that begins here spawned a secret mythology influencing everything from 'Baba Yaga' folklore to Ari Aster's 'Hereditary'—Argento essentially invented witch aesthetic as we know it.
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