Directed by:
Luca GuadagninoScreenplay:
David KajganichCinematography:
Sayombhu MukdeepromComposer:
Thom YorkeCast:
Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jessica Harper, Mia Goth, Sylvie Testud, Angela Winkler, Malgorzata Bela, Renée Soutendijk, Ingrid Caven (more)VOD (2)
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A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe's artistic director (Tilda Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Dakota Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Lutz Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up. (MUBI)
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Reviews (8)
Well, fuck me! This is something! Kajganich and Guadanino take the original, and relatively simple horror tale and stretch it to the left, right, up and down, and also turn it upside down, and the story about a poor student who realises that her ballet academy is run by a witch clan suddenly becomes a political and philosophical reflection on human histories that are portrayed as a carousel of power struggles driven by false gods and manipulative ideologies that “enchant” their followers. The main motif then is the abuse of power, which blends into several of the twists, and the setting in divided Berlin is not all that arbitrary. The guilt of the corrupted patriarchy versus female power, that’s another layer that’s explored thoroughly. It goes so far, that in the end, the only important male character who tries to be “good” bears the blame on several fronts. And we all know who plays that role… /// After the first viewing, without a Czech translation, I’m not entirely sure if all these motifs fit together completely, but I love digging into them. Formally, the new Suspiria is even better than I’d expected. The dance and dream sequences are absolutely brilliant, intensive, and the atmosphere is perfect. In the end, the ideas prevail over the horror (with all that thinking about what the hell is going on, there’s no time to be scared), which is a bit of a shame, but I’ll take it. For the moment 9/10, but I really want to watch it again – it might go up, or down.
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Horror doesn’t really suit Guadagnino, who takes a sterile and theatrical approach to mystery. He’s a master when it comes to psychology, but that’s not what his Suspiria is about. So, why is it watchable, other than for the acting performances of famous faces? Because it spurs curiosity about what has emerged from this strange, cold form of cinema with its historical roots in 1970s Germany and because of its unconventional portrayal of a clan of witches. Thanks, among other things, to the poetic slow-motion shots like something out of a romantic retro music video by Marika Gombitová, however, it turns out bad beyond all expectations. The witches’ mother, who looks like Jabba the Hut in fashionable sunglasses, is ridiculous.
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Cameraman Mukdeeprom does wonders; each one of his zoom-ins and accelerated close-ups has a chillingly aggressive impact and helps build up a foreboding feeling (in tandem with outstanding music). However, I have to mention the really chaotic editing, which is noticeable from the very first scene and is quite annoying (the director’s favourite editor Walter Fasano collaborated with Dario Argento on his awful flick Mother of Tears, so there’s that). Nevertheless, on the script side of things, Luca Guadagnino and David Kajganich try to expand the original film’s mythology to the historical-political context – which is, however, to the detriment of the horror atmosphere and tension. Baader-Meinhof, holocaust, Theresienstadt… Is it really what we needed and wanted to see about in the new Suspiria? Nearly the whole storyline around Dr. Klemperer – which eats up half of the total length – seemed overly artificial and superfluous. Not to mention that the doctor character implementation is incredibly kitsch and distracting for the viewer. On the other hand, I’m pleased with Tilda Swinton’s performance – she really grabs the whole film for herself. I’m quite confused with this flick’s approach as it was, to me, less interesting and surprising that what I had wished and expected. Maybe a second viewing in the future would prove more satisfying, but for now, I’m disappointed. [Sitges 2018]
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This new Suspiria barely relates to the original. If they'd just tweaked the premise about the three mothers — which is pretty loose here anyway — and set it outside a dance school, it could've stood alone without wrapping itself in the cloak of a 70s horror classic. I was looking forward to a more artsy take, but I never expected it to turn into a heart-wrenching Holocaust love story with witches. I appreciate some moments and the occasionally unsettling atmosphere, but the film is so inconsistent that any interesting parts are quickly overshadowed by tedious or dull scenes. I'm not one to criticize a film's length, but there are so many unnecessary and meaningless scenes that the excessive runtime becomes unforgivable. Guadagnino fails to build up the atmosphere and mystery gradually — the school loses its aura of secrecy too soon, and the film lacks a solid narrative structure. In the end, it feels like an experimental feminist ego trip that misuses Suspiria's good name. The bad taste this left will linger for a while, and I can't help but wish David Gordon Green, who was initially involved before Guadagnino and Kajganich took over, had directed the remake instead.
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The complete opposite of the current trend in horror. A film that doesn't formally distinguish the conscious from the subconscious, the voices sound either whispered or from a distance, the walls talk and the mirrors watch. A horror film that starts with dying and ends with reconciliation. More viewings will be needed to give me a bit of perspective and some unraveling. So on the one hand, the whisperiness and unchanging pace of Suspiria was often distracting, which may have been enough to hide the fact that the film isn't very well edited and Dakota Johnson is still an acting lump. However, the new Suspiria is a film that is more expressive and better the day after viewing than during. And that's one of the essential yet rare qualities of a horror film.
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