Suspiria: A Bloody Masterpiece

Fresh from directing Call Me By Your Name, 2017's moving depiction of young gay romance that was an awards season favourite, Luca Guadagnino took a complete 180 to make Suspiria, a remake of Dario Argento's classic cult horror flick following a coven of witches who run a world-renowned dance academy. While this may sound like a wildly unconventional career path from Guadagnino and one fated for disaster, 2018's Suspiria is a stunning, often shocking, experience that is simply unmatched in its ambition and execution. 

At the core of the film's success lies the brilliant all-female cast, boasting stellar performances from Tilda Swinton (in 3 different roles), Dakota Johnson, and Mia Goth. Swinton, in particular, dominates every scene with her multi-faceted performance, depicting the powerful and incredibly intimidating Madame Blanc (the academy's lead dancer), the fragile Dr. Klemperer (with some incredible use of prosthetics) and a third role that I won't reveal here for spoilery reasons. 

On a technical level too, the film is undeniably stunning. The camerawork is steeped in a fantastically authentic 70s style, with rapid turns and whip zooms used throughout by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (who previously worked on Call Me By Your Name) to maximum dramatic effect. While the film is somewhat of a slow burn during the first couple of acts (divided into 6 acts in total), Guadagnino's ambitious style shines throughout and makes for genuinely riveting viewing. The choreography during the dance sequences is seamless too, each dancer holding a powerful physicality that, during several key performance scenes, emerges into a violently furious but continuously fluid rhythm; much like the film's energy as a whole. 



All of this makes Suspiria an undeniably stylish film in the most twisted way possible. The film's bleak, oppressive vision of 1970s Berlin, drained of warmth and life, makes for a chilling setting but one that oozes such mystery and unease that it is impossible to tear yourself away. While some have taken issue with Guadagnino's decision to film with a deliberately drab colour palette, a sharp contrast from the shockingly vivid colour scheme of Argento's original, I would argue that the dry colour of Guadagnino's remake perfectly complements the oppressive nature of the dance academy and serves to make the nightmarish finale, where an outpouring of colour occurs, that much more shocking. 

But what makes Guadagnino's remake stand out more than anything else is the feeling that, somewhere within the guttural fear the film evokes, there is an intense melancholia weaved throughout the story, adding a powerful human element that is absent from the majority of horror films. And while Guadagnino's last project, the aforementioned Call Me By Your Name is a far cry from this horrific tale of rituals and possession, there are moments in Suspiria that made me think back to the intense emotion of his previous film. You really root for Dr. Klemperer in his struggle to uncover the secret of the academy and settle his troubled past, while we want to see Dakota Johnson's Susie succeed at the school and heal her emotional wounds; something rare in a film of this nature. 

Of course, Suspiria's layer of emotional resonance is in no small part down to Thom Yorke's incredible score. Seeking to outdo his Radiohead bandmate Johnny Greenwood's stellar soundtrack work, Yorke's fragile voice and gorgeously minimal instrumentation lend themselves perfectly to the subtleties of Guadagnino's work and the film's increasingly outright refusal to be analyzed and unpacked. Suspiria is what it is, and its pretty damn incredible. 

2018's Suspiria thrives in its refusal to be a conventional remake of Argento's 1977 original; as Guadagnino himself has said, his film evokes the "powerful emotion" he experienced while watching the original... and it shows. Suspiria is an exquisitely crafted masterpiece that taps into something deep inside you, an indescribable fear. Like the witches of the film, it gets its claws into you and never lets go. It is one of the best films of the year and one of the greatest horror films ever made.