We're told up front this is a story in six acts and a resolution but frankly the first two acts could have been completely eliminated. The new Suspiria is a worthy, splashy artistic endeavor but it suffers from too much airy meandering in the name of redundant atmosphere, vague and arbitrary plotting, and poor characters. Italian director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, A Bigger Splash) tempts the unwise with a new version of Suspiria, this time following the exploits of Susie (Dakota Johnson) in Cold War Germany as she is seduced by a private dance company lead by Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) that's really a front for the occult. How could any filmmaker attempt to come close to the Italian master's original? Though that has not stopped Hollywood from remaking other horror classics of yore. The idea of remaking Dario Argento's horror classic Suspiria seems like movie heresy. Catch it on blu-ray or your preferred streaming service if you got the sand. Either way, it's a shame it left theaters so quickly and it deserved better for the all the time and resources that went into it. There are a lot of character actors doing God's (or someone else's) work here and I feel guilty not being able to do them justice. Dakota Johnson has a lot going on in this unconventional role and the odd but rapturing back-and-forth with her obsessive mentor (Tilda Swinton) forms the true meat of the story. It's truly bizarre to go directly from violent street protests to a HELL of a witches' sabbath (that is somehow freakier than the one that ended The Witch) and not seem tonally inconsistent. In addition to centering around women, expressionist dance, and freaky supernatural shit, Suspiria also has a lot to say about the changing face of post-war Germany and generations of guilt. Hereditary made a splash for being a polarizing art horror film with disturbing imagery, but Suspiria honestly one-ups it completely on that front, though in a far messier fashion. This film is fully content to freak you the hell out with the PAINFUL things that it does to human bodies and what it does to our protagonist's mind. Suspiria 2018 doesn't bother much with the mystery of the coven, nor is it interested in jump scares. It is very much a modern European art horror picture, and therefore, not for everyone. But as where the original was a vivid, colorful fairy tale turned nightmare, the remake is a cold, desaturated historical allegory set against the backdrop of the German Autumn of (you guessed it) 1977, during the doomed Red Army Faction uprising. Both focus on a young American ballet student entering a mysterious European dance school that is really a front for a coven of witches. ![]() This time around it's helmed by Luca Guadagnino hot on the heels of his success from Call Me by Your Name. (Or, honestly probably didn't see at all.) Suspiria is a remake of a cult classic 1977 Italian horror film of the same name by Dario Argento. And Tilda Swinton - while a witch here - is my genre goddess. ![]() As it is now, it feels like it is just a twist for twists sake.īut that glorious ending makes up for most of that by going full-tilt bonkers, with blood, guts and body horror galore. The end reveal, while an interesting twist, is so out of left field that I felt like I needed to rewatch it again to see if it's telegraphed in some way. And the story becomes overly complex, with the inner political fight within the coven auspiciously trying to emulate the political turmoil happening outside in 1977 Germany. This is a very slow burn which makes it drag a bit over 153 minutes. It actually reminded me of the Evil Dead remake, a movie that also took the basic beats of the original while doing its own thing and amping up the gore. It takes the basic framework of the original Suspiria and adds its own story and aesthetic while doubling down on the grotesquery. This remake stands up fairly well on its own merit. ![]() I recently became a convert to the Church of Argento and the holy sacrament of Suspiria.
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