by Anthony O’Connor
Worth: Discs: 3, The Film: 3/5, The Extras: 4/5, Overall: 7/10
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Chloë Grace Moretz, Elena Fokina
Intro:
… better than a room full of barbed wire.
The Film:
Was there ever a movie in this world less in need of a remake than Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic, Suspiria? Strikingly original, visually audacious and coming in at a disciplined 98 minutes, it was the epitome of the Italian master’s skills and remains an influence on many filmmakers to this day. Did it make a lot of sense? Hell no, this is a Dario Argento film, dammit, but it absolutely slaps as a hypercolourful feverdream of surreal dread and mounting menace. So, when news came out that director Luca Guadagnino was going to have a crack at knocking out a new version of the material, the response, mainly from genre fans, was… muted, to say the least. It’s not that Guadagnino’s a bad director, mind you, he’s objectively very talented, but trying to do anything with Argento’s singular vision felt foolhardy at best. And then, in 2018, the film came out and the response was… actually, it kinda remained muted. There’s a lot to praise about the film, and we did, but there were also a bunch of glaring shortcomings. Still and all, 2018 was (apparently) eight years ago. And there’s this brand new spectacular 4K of the film, so we figured why not give Suspiria another bash?
So, we did. And the result, honestly, remains a little mixed.
Suspiria tells the tale of Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), a talented American dancer who has been accepted at the Markos Dance Academy in Berlin, in 1977. While there, Susie finds the behaviour of her teachers quite bizarre, particularly Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) and is quite concerned about the missing student, Patricia Hingle (Chloë Grace Moretz). Still and all, the dancing itself is sublime, and she learns new moves at an almost supernatural rate. But surely all that talk of witches and curses is just nonsense. Right?
Had Guadagnino’s take on the material remained focused on Bannion’s story, and to a lesser extent the machinations of fellow student Sara (Mia Goth), Suspiria 2018 would have been a far better, and shorter, movie. Unfortunately, Guadagnino decided to add another, interminable plot strand to the proceedings involving aged psychiatrist Dr. Josef Klemperer (also played by Tilda Swinton under mountains of impressive prosthetics). Klemperer’s story of a lost wife during the war and his corrosive guilt over the whole caper frequently feels redundant and protracted to a maddening degree, and while Swinton’s performance is good, it never rings as true as it might have if they’d, you know, just hired an old bloke to play the part. It’s a thematically rich piece of the puzzle to be sure, and it works conceptually, but the reality is that it makes the whole film feel like a bit of a slog at times.
Some of the other plot strands work, including a power struggle between the witches, which is actually pretty interesting. Plus, Susie becoming slowly fascinated with her growing power works well and is a nice wrinkle on a familiar story. However, the subtle and (too) slowly mounting terror is completely abandoned in a goofy and oddly inert climax that exchanges nuance for blood squibs and that most clichéd of modern horror iconography: naked fat old sheilas.
On the plus side, the performances are great. Johnson is an extremely appealing and likable lead, Mia Goth does solid work as always and Tilda Swinton shines in no less than three roles (she also plays Mother Helena Markos, once again from beneath a hillock of silicone and rubber) and there are effectively executed moments, like the scene where a student tries to escape the school to spill her guts and gets turned into a flesh pretzel by the sneaky witches. Also, the dance sequences are genuinely great, something that was (hilariously) almost completely lacking in Argento’s original. You can tell Guadagnino has a real love of the artform and it’s Suspiria’s most striking element.
Still and all, this is a film that cost at least five times more than Argento’s original, is almost twice the length and is barely half as effective. The Italian maestro’s lunatic vision may be senseless, bizarre and obsessive, but it’s much more engaging and memorable than this well-intentioned but bloated and thematically overstuffed endeavour. It’s still worth a watch, mind you, but there’s a reason we’re still talking about the 1977 original nearly 50 years later, whereas this 2018 revision was a bit of a whiff at the box office and doesn’t seem to possess much of a legacy.
We’re not trying to give this film a booting while it’s down, mind you, that’s not the intention of your humble scribe at all. Despite its flaws, Suspiria 2018 is beautifully made art from a talented artist. It’s just that some stories should be left alone, some visions are simply too singular to be reinvented.
The Extras:
There’s a decent sack of extras here, although the quality varies considerably.
There’s an audio commentary by author and academic Miranda Corcoran and a series of very short featurettes like The Making of Suspiria, Suspiria: The Secret Language of Dance, The Look of Suspiria and the Transformations of Suspiria. All fine, but not exactly exhaustive at around five minutes or less a piece.
On the chonkier side of things is Cuts – a longform interview with editor Walter Fasano, Of Witches, Mothers and Death – a video essay from Italian film critic Davide Pulici, Thom Yorke’s Spells: The Music of Suspiria – a video essay about Thom Yorke’s haunting score from film writer Phillip Jeffries, and Suspiria’s Three Fathers: Argento, Fassbinder and Guadagnino – a superb video essay from Australia’s own horror nonna, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. There’s also a bunch of short interviews with most of the cast and Luca himself, along with a few other bits and bobs.
However, best in the bunch is the feature length BAFTA Guru Masterclass with Luca Guadagnino, which is an extensive chat with the bloke about process, remaining open to changes during production and the nature of collaboration in cinema.
The whole package comes in a steelbook, inside a lenticular hardcase (it feels like Dakota Johnson’s eyes follow you around the room!) and bundled with a big ol’ movie poster for wall beautification. Whatever you think about the movie itself, this is a very impressive collection.
The Verdict:
Good intentions, it is said, pave the road to hell and it certainly seems that despite Luca Guadagnino’s best efforts, he crafted a beautiful, original film that doesn’t quite work. Chockers with thematic resonance and simmering subtext, it nonetheless fails to recapture the magic of Argento’s brilliant, bullgoose loony original.
That said, fans of interesting artistic films that don’t entirely work, have a treasure trove of extras to enjoy, a beautiful package to cradle and a lovely poster to ogle. And that’s better than a room full of barbed wire.
