Suspiria review: Taking a sharp turn from quiet character dramas into horror, Luca Guadagnino has perhaps one of the most ambitious tasks of 2018: remaking horror classic Suspiria for a modern age, but also making something that can hold up to the acclaim of the original too.
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Without divulging too many plot details, the film follows Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), an ambitious young dancer, that heads to Berlin in the hopes of making it into an elite, world-renowned all-female dance company. Upon her arrival, she manages to impress the plethora of stubborn looking ladies making up the admission panel – and even gets the seal of approval from the organisation’s head honcho Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) – and is enlisted within moments. However, the excitement is quick to settle when Susie begins to realise there is more than meets the eye to this seemingly innocuous company and their dancing – its walls hiding relentless darkness and nightmare that begins to engulf the young Bannion and everyone else that dare come close.
To say Dario Argento’s 1977 original is a masterpiece is a gross understatement; it’s a horror vision that remains a classic for the sheer audacity and terror it packs into its brisk runtime. Deciding to up the ante, Guadagnino recounts this story in a bloated 153-minute endeavour that might lose a lot of what made the original so striking but certainly more than makes up for it with a lot of modern flairs – in fact, it shares little with its namesake and is thankfully somewhat a new creation. Yes, it’s nowhere near as terrifying – in fact, it’s perhaps easy to dismiss this retelling as a horror film given how it has been constructed – but it has a disquieting, atmospheric core that remains constantly tense and unnerving to watch, albeit never quite frightening. It eschews the genre’s conventions but doesn’t work around it in another way like something like Hereditary does but rather just avoids going down “scary” territory altogether. This isn’t a bad thing. Guadagnino’s approach is purposefully more muted than Argento – in colour, character, craziness – and this slower burning tapestry of evil seems a more fitting suit for it to wear. The growing sense of dread is superbly tooled by Guadagnino and the ambiguity is cleverly orchestrated in a way that keeps the mystery enthralling but never frustrated or bored by any lack of resolution.
Visually, this film is far from Argento as you could get. It puts the hyper-reds and vicious colours to pasture for more polished greys and muddier hues. It’s not always the most sumptuous to look at and you’re perhaps somewhat left missing the trippy aesthetics of the original (although, we do get a lot of the in-your-face reds towards the blood-soaked and absolutely insane finale) but DOP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s cinematography is cold and adds a lot to the uninviting atmosphere we are supposed to feel. It’s also a lot toned down violence-wise. Guadagnino delivers his fair share of mangled bodies and wince-inducing gore but not until the latter stages of the runtime; until then, he soaks us in his complexly constructed narrative and characters. The film is never outright exciting for the first half and the choice for more dialogue-driven scenes may turn many off but it’s fascinating to watch and subliminally performed by its incredible cast, all on top form – Johnson and Swinton, especially, both remain magnetic in such roles: they’re subtly chilling.
Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria is nothing like its predecessor, for better or for worse. It’s a muted, more atmospheric approach that works for it wants to achieve. At times, its narrative can get a little too convoluted for its own good and some of the slower scenes definitely don’t need to be there – this easily could have been trimmed and felt a lot tighter – but it’s beautifully constructed. Technically, it’s a marvel; as far as acting and writing go, it offers so much to be unpacked. It’s a pensive character study that engulfs its audience into its chilling atmosphere and, like Susie succumbing to the dream, will swallow you into this weird an trippy and maddening nightmare. It’s blood-spattered and vicious and not for the faint of heart. That much it shares with the 1977 original. And that’s the most important part. The rest retools this into a modern outing for modern audiences and it will be the most esoteric film of 2018 – perhaps even the decade – but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t thrilled.
Suspiria review by Awais Irfan, October 2018.
Suspiria was reviewed at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival.
