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“A mother is a woman who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.”
Suspiria is an ambitious re-imagining of Dario Argento’s 1977 cult classic horror film of the same name. Like the original, in 2018’s Suspiria we follow a young aspiring dancer from America named Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) who travels to 1970s Berlin to audition for the Helena Markos Dance Company and its head teacher Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton). As Susie embarks upon her studies at the school, we learn that it harbors many dark and sinister secrets.
While Suspiria has been framed as a “remake” of the 1977 original, the film features a much sturdier narrative structure and character depth than its predecessor while still respecting and drawing upon many of its story elements. Suspiria adds some thematic depth to the story through its examination of shared guilt. In addition to its post-war German setting where the citizenry is working through its responsibility for World War II and its horrors, characters like Dr. Josef Ebersdorf (Tilda Swinton credited as “Lutz Ebersdorf”) deal with their own personal tales of guilt from the war. In Dr. Ebersdorf’s case, it’s his inability to save his wife from being caught by the Nazis before fleeing the country. Collective guilt also plays an integral role in the film’s third act climax, where revenge is sought not just against one guilty party, but also those that collaborated with them in their treachery (more on that in a bit). Characters from the original film like Susie Bannion, Olga, Madame Blanc, Mother Suspiriorum, all return here, but with added backstory and motivations in comparison to their 1977 counterparts. Suspiria pays added attention to the film’s antagonist witches in particular, shifting from an “are they or aren’t they?” plot element in 1977, to one where their nature is clear from the beginning with their intentions being at the center of the film’s intrigue. The character of Patricia in this modern update, as portrayed by Chloë Grace Moretz, sets the tone from the onset of the greater emphasis on narrative. In the 2018 version, the film begins with her manic monologue in the office of Dr. Ebersdorf. This extended monologue is used to set the stage for, and subtly hint at, the intentions of the coven who cloak themselves within the shadows of the dance school. In the 1977 original however, Patricia’s character and her apprehension toward the school’s teachers is portrayed less through dialogue and instead through a bloody and dramatic death scene to kick the film off. This shift is the character’s usage is a microcosm for how director Luca Guadagnino crafted Suspiria to be more of an homage than a shot-for-shot remake.
Susie Bannion is also provided with added depth from her original iteration, to the point of it completely transforming her character. In the original, Susie was more of the typical, virginal, innocent female protagonist of a horror film, although she did display enough assertiveness and investigatory skills to prevent her from being too much of a damsel in distress. But in terms of her background, we weren’t given much to digest about the Susie of 1977 other than her residence of origin, and the fact that her aunt also had a background in ballet. In this updated version, we’re treated with flashbacks of Susie’s young life in an Ohioan Amish community, as her mother dies from an illness. Slowly, we see flashes of a mysterious connection and draw that Susie has toward the German/Polish region of Europe even at a young age. As Susie’s mother dies during one flashback, we see her tell the preacher administering her last rites that her daughter is her “greatest sin.” These small hints and clues all collide into a brutal, artistic crescendo in Suspiria’s third act where we learn that Susie is in fact the reincarnation of Mother Suspiriorum, one of the “three mothers”, powerful ancient witches that predate history. Suspiriorum who has come to usurp Helena Markos (Tilda Swinton) for falsely claiming to be Mother Suspiriorum as well as all of her blasphemous supporters who supported her in her bid to possess and use Susie’s body as a vessel in order to continue her reign over the coven. This clever twist and re-imagining of the character Susie Bannion and the plot of Suspiria itself are part of Guadagnino’s brilliant ability to both highlight and acknowledge the original film but make something that still feels of his own imagination.
Guadagnino’s imprint on the plot and direction are able to inspire a notable performance from lead actress Dakota Johnson. Johnson makes the most of the bulked up role for Susie, convincingly playing a young, naive girl from the midwest ecstatic to embark on what could be her big break in Europe, oblivious to all the turmoil unfolding around her…until she isn’t; turning into an ageless witch with unlimited power hellbent on revenge. Johnson plays the transition perfectly, keeping it hidden from the audience until the very last second and making the switch completely believable. The most incredible performance belongs to Tilda Swinton who plays three very different roles in the film, making each unique in their own right and completely losing herself in all of them. Two of the three, Helena Markos and Dr. Ebersdorf, require full physical transformations as well as transformative performances in movement and vocality, which Swinton masterfully executes. If you go into the film unarmed with the knowledge that Swinton plays these two characters, you may never figure it out (this writer didn’t know she played Markos until the end credits). Her performance is one of the year’s best both in execution and what was required of her. Mia Goth also stands out as Sara, Susie’s classmate and friend who slowly comes to realize all is not right at the school. Chloë Grace Moretz also makes the most of her brief screen time as Patricia, setting off the film on the right foot with her opening monologue.
Luca Guadagnino’s arthouse direction of this film is a departure from the Eurohorror gore of Argento, resulting in a slower, more deliberate pacing in addition to an added depth to both story and character that adds an extra hour of runtime to the film compared to its predecessor. This change was essential in allowing the film to become his rather than a carbon copy of an iconic work that he could never hope to replicate in the first place. Guadagnino’s decision to keep the base elements of Suspiria and craft his own original ideas around them strengthen the film and allow it to reach new heights while remaining respectful of the source material and its fans. While Suspiria 1977 was more straightforward and traditionally horror filled, the new emphasis on methodical storytelling brings a freshness not only to this individual story, but to the genre as a whole. Despite the signature arthouse emphasis on character contemplation and experimentation, Guadagnino does provide the audience with moments of gore but in a way that fits this particular film’s aesthetic and tone. The gory deaths we are shown occur simulataneously during dance numbers performed by the other students in the school. The deaths often move in tandem with the movements of the dancers providing an artistic brutality to the gore we are shown onscreen. This directorial decision really bring to mind how the beautiful and horrific can be so distant yet at times, feel more closely tied together than perhaps we realize. Phenomena like lightning or horror films themselves can make the dangerous or horrifying appear beautiful, and that is how Guadagnino presents his death scenes. He also fills the story with Easter eggs and clues as you try to piece together exactly what is happening and where allegiances lie, whether it’s the tagline at the top of this review which we find out explains Susie/Mother Suspiriorum’s motivations that appears at the very beginning of the film on a household decoration, or the earlier discussed hints from young Susie’s preternatural interest in western Europe. The inclusion of such detail makes Suspiria a film that while still horror, feel like it could play alongside any dramatic Oscar hopeful.
Suspiria is a film that masterfully mixes cinematic art with spine tingling horror. Director Luca Guadagnino honors the 1977 original in totality while also making this modern version something that he can call his own, from the shift in the film’s score from pulsating progressive rock to atmospheric alt-rock, to the film’s cinematography shifting to the post-modern from Argento’s classic vivid technicolor. The film’s narrative improves on that of its predecessor while keeping everything you might have loved about it as well. The slower burn of this version works for it and employs an atmospheric score from the legendary Thom Yorke of Radiohead to perfection. Comparing Yorke’s Suspirium to Goblin’s Suspiria Theme, the shift in feel sonically is evident, yet the quality still feels like a worthy successor to the original, much like the film itself. Suspirium adds yet another Oscar contender for Best Original Song to an already crowded field. Guadagnino is also able to command wonderful performances from Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton, who stunningly transforms herself into three separate characters each their own entity that feels as if they’re played by a separate actor. What Swinton pulls off as an actor is remarkably impressive. Suspiria is a film worthy of the arthouse, but fit to stand alongside its horror classic inspiration; one that time will be kind to and may reach cult classic status in its own right.
Image: Amazon Studios
