Suspiria is 2018 a psychological horror movie about a dance academy run by a coven of witches.
When director Dario Argento first released Suspiria in 1977, it was described as a technicolor nightmare and a beautiful twisted fairy tale. The use of vibrant colors, bold set design, along with iconic music from Goblin. It was unlike anything audiences saw back than or even since to this day. While Argento’s original is an attack on the senses, Luca Guadagnino‘s adaptation is more of an assault on your mind.
Both the original and remake basically follow the same premise. A young dancer from America comes to a prestigious dance academy that turns out to be run by a coven of witches. In the original, it was built up as more of a mystery that the lead character later discovered. In this new version we know right away who’s running the school and that they plan to use the young dancer for their devious goals. What that is, I’m not too sure, but it is twisted.
In this adaptation we have the innocent Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) who has come to be trained under Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) for her new dance troupe. After a former member has mysteriously gone missing, Susie takes over the lead role and her path alters very much from the original. The only two people at the school who are suspicious at all are Olga (Elana Fokina) and Sara (Mia Goth). Susie seems to be only interested in Madame Blanc’s latest show and how to jump really high. It’s Olga and Sara’s investigation that leads viewers to some really disturbing moments.
There is also a holocaust survivor named Dr. Josef Klemperer (also played by Swinton) who gets involved with the mystery when Sara comes to visit him. One of his former patients was the same girl that went missing before Susie took over her part. I think Swinton is a fine actress and I had no idea that was her under all that makeup. I just didn’t understand why this character was featured so much in this.
At over two hours and thirty minutes, this version of Suspiria is a much different beast compared to Argento’s one hour and forty minute original. The bold bright primary colors of red, blue and yellow are replaced with muted earth tones to ground this more in reality. Even though it features moments that will certainly make you squirm in your seat. I don’t know if I can fully classify this as being horror even though that is what many will call it because the original was. Horror at least has the potential of having suspense and dread and I never got that with this movie. It’s disturbing in some scenes, but that doesn’t automatically make it part of that genre. While it is beautiful to look at and the acting is great all around, I felt that this is one of those cases where there is just way too much ingredients in this soup.
From it being set when the Berlin Wall was still in place to other actual important political events that took place in 1977 when the original was first released. I thought this was just unneeded filler. It was much more interesting having Susie go down a different path that you really didn’t need all the extra material. After the success of Call Me By Your Name, director Luca Guadagnino‘s next project was met with some initial backlash by not just fans of Argento. But by fans of this filmmaker’s previous works. Why remake something when you can tell something original. To be fair this isn’t the first time he remade a movie. Back in 2015 he remade A Bigger Splash, which also featured Johnson and Swinton in the cast.
If you have never seen Suspiria before, I think this new version will turn off a lot of viewers who won’t be as invested as those who have seen the original. Luca has said that this is a cover version, and he would want you to seek out that before you watch this. As for remakes, it may in time become right up there with some of the greats like The Thing or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But in my opinion a better remake of this movie was Nicholas Winding Refn‘s The Neon Demon.