Suspiria 2018: The Reimagining We Deserve (Mild Spoilers)

I remember as a 13 year old child staying up late to find programs that would peak my interest besides the content usually spoon fed to me. One of those nights led to my viewing of Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, something I would see air for a least a few Halloweens after. Many of the films on the countdown stuck out to me, but not as much as number 24, with the opening from its trailer showing a twisted lullaby being sung to a skeleton with a terrible wig and flower, followed by the organ shaped text reading SUSPIRIA. Even after finally seeing the film as a whole, the vibrant colors and brutal kills never left my memory and I understood why it was a classic in horror cinema and of Italian Dario Argento's work. I also understood why most fans (including myself for a time) were horrified at the idea of a remake ever being made of the film, but then again at the time Luca Guadagnino wasn't a household name director like he is now.

Guadagnino's version of Suspiria was apparently something he had been wanting to do for years with actress Tilda Swinton, and now it's come to fruition. The film stars Dakota Johnson in the lead, along with Swinton, Mia Goth, Chloe Grace Moretz, and original lead Jessica Harper. The plot follows the same basics as the original, in that Susie is an American dance student who joins an academy in Germany run by a coven of witches, and from there the similarities stop.

While the original is a fever dream of a horror film, even hardcore fans will say it lacks in the story department, only used as an excuse to go from one set piece to another. In Guadagnino's version, we have much more character development from Susie and even a look into the coven's lives and what their long term plans for the dance company are. And even better is the feeling that Susie and Sara's friendship isn't something forced, as Sara feels its her duty to make Susie feel a part of the dance "family" that even the witches themselves treasure, despite how insidious most of their actions are.

I was at first worried about the casting of Johnson as Susie since I had heard nothing but dismal reviews of her performance in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, but luckily just like Kristen Stewart, she proved that bad material was at fault as she has real depth as an eager new dancer here, and works equally well with the always stellar Swinton as director Madame Blanc.

Swinton not only pulls double duty, but triple duty as Blanc, Mother Markos, and male character Jozef Klemperer, who is credited as Lutz Ebersdorf and was promoted as such for awhile, despite the media not completely buying it with Swinton's history of donning excessive makeup for roles. In all three, she continues to show why she is one of the top in her craft, as her Blanc is more active in teaching the students and shows to have a strong kinship with Susie despite what the coven has planned, and as Klemperer shows the agony of going on with life after losing a loved one in World War II (the film is set in 1977, when Berlin was still divided and dealing with the Red Army Faction consistently bombing streets and staging kidnappings).

As for the supporting players, I was pleasantly surprised by Mia Goth's performance as Sara, as she was another promising dancer along with Susie and realistically skeptical of the witch claims until her curiosity got the better of her, sealing her final fate, along with Chloe Moretz's manic and obviously troubled Patricia, who does not share the same fate as her counterpart Pat from the original but is just as equally doomed.

Unfortunately, to say any more about the film would be spoiling major parts of the story (even Jessica Harper's role in the new film has to be a surprise), but I highly recommend giving this new Suspiria a watch. It has the makings of a new kind of horror classic, taking the basics of Argento and making something new ad worthwhile.