Suspiria (2018) [Blu-ray]
Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe's artistic director (Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

Storyline: Susie Bannion is a young American ballerina who travels to Berlin to study dancing at the Markos Tanz Company, one of the world's most renowned schools under Madame Blanc's management. On her very first day, one of the students who had been recently expelled from the school is murdered. As this appalling happening does not seem to be an isolated occurrence, the brilliant new student soon begins to suspect that the school might be involved in the homicide. Her mistrust heightens when Sarah, one of the girls at the school, tells her that Pat, before being killed, confided to her that she knew and guarded a terrifying dark secret. Written by Domingo Alvarez

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, January 13, 2019 It can be treacherous business to remake an iconic film about an apparently naive young woman getting swept into an overpowering conspiracy involving a coven of witches, as most who have seen the 2014 version of Rosemary's Baby may concur. As I mentioned in the Rosemary's Baby Blu-ray review, a certain unavoidable question often accrues when any remake shows up to revisit an earlier outing, namely: Why? Filmmakers had better have a darned good answer to that question, perhaps especially in cases of films that were lionized in their original versions. Why, indeed, tinker with success? What "new, improved" elements could possibly be added? Those "answers" were probably moot with regard to Rosemary's Baby (the 2014 version, that is), since it was such a boneheaded, ham fisted attempt to reshape the legendary Ira Levin source novel. There's something a bit more nuanced at play with regard to Luca Guadagnino's reimagining of one of the more notorious horror films from Dario Argento's long and noted career, 1977's Suspiria. The problem (if indeed it's even considered a problem) with this particular remake may not be in any brainlessness (as in the case of the Rosemary's Baby remake debacle), but in fact in its sometimes overweening intellectualism, which takes the basic conceit of Argento's film (spoiler coming for those who want to avert their eyes), a German dance academy run by a coven of witches, and ups the ante by introducing a whole host of sidebar issues.

The remake more or less announces its blatant theatricality with a title card that describes the work as "six acts and an epilogue in a divided Berlin". Already screenplay adapter David Kajganich and Guadagnino are bringing into play the fractious political environment in the bisected German city, and Germany as a whole, in 1977 (not so coincidentally the year of the original film's debut, of course). The film begins with a couple of vignettes which are only tangentially related to elements in the original film. An obviously troubled young woman named Patricia Hingle (Chloë Grace Moretz) shows up at the home of her therapist, Dr. Josef Klemperer ("Lutz Ebersdorf" — see next paragraph, with the caveat that it contains another spoiler). Patricia is evidently in the throes of some sort of delusional manic episode, and only by piecing together a few clues doled out in fairly disjunctive and discursive dialogue does it become evident that Patricia has become convinced there is something evil at work at the dance academy where she's a student.

(Note: "Lutz Ebersdorf" is in fact Tilda Swinton, in makeup that is never totally convincing. It may be a fatal error for some viewers at least that this artifice is offered up so early in the film, especially since Klemperer turns out to be a rather major character in this version, and everytime "he" appears, certain jaded types may be paying more attention to the latex and prosthetics than to the performance or plot points.)

The film also provides another early and in this case near hallucinatory vignette that shows a woman, evidently part of some kind of religious community, on her deathbed. Ultimately it is revealed that this is a Mennonite group and the dying woman is the mother of main character Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson). While there's really not a ton of information given throughout the film (which may beg the question as to why this particular element was even included), Susie has evidently escaped the clutches of this supposedly repressive group, and has traveled to West Berlin where she has arranged to audition at the Tanz Dance Academy. There are already a number of questions that some viewers may be listing, especially if they're fans of the original film. Among these are how a coven so in control of its members (or initiates) would allow one of them to go to regular therapy sessions to discuss her fears, and another perhaps unanswered issue is how a Mennonite girl from Ohio ever developed "dance skills" impressive enough to get her an audition in West Berlin of all places.

All of that said, anyone who has seen the original Suspiria (which frankly had its own lapses in absolute logic) will know the broad general outlines of this version, though it's in the additions and/or differences that this Suspiria really finds its most unique offerings, though those offerings may not be necessarily supportive of the main tale and therefore not to everyone's liking. There's a whole subtext of religious fervor running rampant through the film, not necessarily limited to your everyday Satanic dance aficionado, but there's also a rather puzzling subplot involving the Holocaust, as personified by survivor Dr. Klemperer, who is still on the hunt for his missing wife who is presumed to have perished in the calamity (original star Jessica Harper shows up for a cameo as this character). There's also more information given over to what Argento himself called "The Three Mothers", but this aspect is presented in so opaque a fashion that it's hard to really glean much meaning from it.

This film does have at least two really arresting set pieces, both of which may afflict those with more sensitive dispositions. A highlight of the film is an insane sequence that sees Susie basically dancing another student to death (unwittingly), as she contorts her body in a dance magically infused by the power of headmistress Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton without prosthetics). Another sequence finds yet a third student experiencing a major injury but continuing to dance on under mind control. The film's absolutely gonzo climax has a certain "reveal" that is nowhere to be found in Argento's original, and which upon any serious examination may lead more analytical viewers into a whole slew of new questions about Susie and her past.

What's kind of interesting about this Suspiria is how it pretty much spills the beans about the coven aspect, as well as some of the "backstage" machinations between various power brokers among the adults, while also darting off into a number of other kind of odd tangents (I haven't even addressed a major through line, a series of terrorist incidents afflicting Berlin). Some of these additions may well strike some fans of the original as either completely needless or at best insufficiently developed and/or woven into the main tale. Still, this film is a riot of ideas and is certainly as stylish in its own (rather different) way as was Argento's original. It may not be a perfect remake, but as those behind the 2014 Rosemary's Baby can probably attest, the devil is in the details.

Suspiria is arguably both overlong and over convoluted, with too many "new, improved" elements added to Argento's original conception. But this is often a challenging new imagining of the basic storyline, one that I'm not sure consistently hits its supposed target, but which deserves kudos for at least trying something challenging. It's a stylistic tour de force in any case, and it features some great performances, though some churlish viewers may be distracted by some of the makeup on Swinton (who also appears as a third character). Technical merits are first rate, and at least for those with an open mind about sometimes questionable remakes, Suspiria comes Recommended.

[CSW] -2.8- This film was long and confused, yet simultaneously a huge artistic achievement. Suspiria was disturbing to watch on multiple occasions, but was beautifully abstract, paying homage to the classic of which it was inspired, as well as being an impressively original endeavor, in its own right. It is certainly not for everyone, but if one can sit through the whole thing, they will most likely come out of it with a healthy respect for what it was trying to do, stylistically and symbolically..
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box
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