Suspiria (2018) [Review by SpecialK]

Suspiria (2018) is not a remake. Yes, at its core the film may be based on the same script as Dario Argento’s 1977 cult classic, and yes, there are delightful cameos and mini-nods to the original, but Suspiria (2018) truly stands alone.

It’s a nightmarish frolic through the instability of the 1970s. It’s a piece of art, unfolded delicately across six very different acts and then wrapped up again with an epilogue that is just as distinct. It’s a deeply-layered, exquisitely-textured film that manages to opine on the relationship between mother and daughter, between dance and emotion, and between madness and peace all at once. It’s greed and vanity and power; blood and lust and gore; and politics and religion and humanity itself. Unlike others who have taken a stab at similar themes and missed, director Luca Guadagnino, of Call Me by Your Name fame, doesn’t bash you over the head with a single allegory for two hours. Instead, he offers something quite messy, confusing, and unapologetic. This film makes you want to bring your most vanilla friend along with you to see it, just to watch their mind explode. It’s madness itself, and I thoroughly enjoy it.

The basic premise of the film is the same as the original—an American dancer travels to Germany in the 1970s to join a prestigious dance academy and ends up staying in a dorm on site. She inexplicably starts to feel quite ill, strange things seem to happen behind hidden passageways, and dancers mysteriously “leave” the company one by one.

But that’s about all the two films have in common.

The 2018 version layers the historical context on thick, and with gratifying results. At the film’s heart, the all-female leadership of the dance academy is struggling with weighty decisions regarding the future of the program, specifically, who will take the reins in the next era. But the film also repeats these patterns of uncertainty and transition, spiraling them out into wider and wider contexts—a family surrounding the deathbed of a matriarch in rural Ohio, a hijacked Lufthansa flight bridging two generations of terrorist groups, a divided Germany struggling to move past decades of war, and age-old refrains of death, memory, and rebirth.

This delicate patchwork of themes is bolstered by hypnotizing cinematography that departs from the original’s delightful romp with colored light. The 2018 version toys instead with intersecting lines, repeating reflections, 70s-style slow zooms, and obtuse camera angles that mimic the dancers’ poses. The film’s wardrobe offers selections from a classic throwback style in a palette of beiges, browns, and maroons, and if you’re anything like me, it will have you digging up online offerings of calf-length camel-colored coats and stacked-heel boots, and yearning for delicate silk robes to lounge around in on the weekends.

Even the acting is a creative departure from the norm—and I’m not just talking about the fact that the young Mia Goth delivers a hauntingly beautiful performance, or that Dakota Johnson isn’t as annoying as usual (even though she yet again seems to be playing some naturally-talented oh-so-meek damsel that I can’t for the life of me manage to root for).

But in an entertaining little twist, the ever-impressive Tilda Swinton outdoes herself all for the sake of fun. Because I so enjoyed figuring it out myself while watching the film, I recommend seeing it first without reading much in advance, but since I’m sure some of you are curious and impatient little things, be my guest, spoil away.

While all the above might make Suspiria (2018) a gem of an arthouse flick, that alone doesn’t make it a film worth this horrorista’s recommendation. That’s where the scares come in, and where I can gladly say that this film checks all the boxes. Admittedly, it does cheat a bit by cramming into dream sequences some of the scarier shots with staying power, but it also offers its own share of unrelenting gore, cringeworthy bone snaps, grotesque creatures, and possessed, crawling bodies. The scares in this film will confuse and surprise you, but above all, they will haunt you well after the house lights come up.

SpecialK Verdict: With little to share with the 1977 original, Suspiria (2018) undoubtedly will not please everyone—its unhinged beauty is mesmerizing, but it’s also a polarizing, deranged little piece of art, and like any modern masterpiece, you’ll simply have to take it in and decide for yourself.

Suspiria (2018) opened Friday, October 26.

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