As you might expect, I first heard about this film back when the announcement for its remake this year was made. The talk on Broken Forum was mostly about how much they liked the original. Given that this version as a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while the new one has only 63%, I feel pretty justified in choosing to watch this.

An American girl Suzy Bannion arrives at a dance academy in Germany amidst a terrible thunderstorm. On the doorstep, she encounters another girl who mumbles some mysterious word and then flees into the night. The other girl is later murdered in her friend’s house. Meanwhile Suzy enrolls in the school but finds that its staff are very odd. A strange effect weakens her and causes to fall while trying to dance. The doctor prescribes her a glass of wine every night which seems to be drugged. One night, a horde of larvae falls from the ceiling terrifying all of the girls. The school’s blind pianist is fired after his seemingly harmless dog attacks the nephew of the headmistress. Another female student befriends Suzy and says she was friends with the girl who died. Apparently they were working to uncover some dark secret hidden in the school. Unsurprisingly, this girl is soon killed as well.

My cinephile friend warned me that this is very much a B-movie and this is true. Its production values look cheap, the villains are cheesy and the special effects are very crude. Then again I’m one of those who find a certain charm in B-movie values so I’m inclined to cut it some slack. Despite the low budget, the film does manage to create a vivid and distinctive visual style with heavy use of the primary colors. It never lets up in fomenting a creepy and scary atmosphere, making copious use of colored lighting, warped camera effects and discordant music to unbalance the viewer. A lot of the time, the effort is so transparent and predictable as to be laughable, such as the flashes of lightning right on cue and it is the very opposite of being subtle, but it does have its moments of cleverness. One example is when Suzy goes through a secret passage and the lighting suddenly changes to suggest it is daytime.

Visuals and atmosphere aside however the film is admittedly weak. I don’t believe the film ever quite explains why a coven of witches set up a school and it’s odd how the film teases a plotline involving a handsome male student who is apparently attracted to Suzy and then nothing happens. It’s pretty clear that the film was set up as a series of visually interesting scenes rather than being any kind of coherent narrative. I happen to think it’s a hoot and it’s a near perfect example of a cult classic but you do need to lower your expectations for B-movie fare like this.