Suspiria

2018

Johnny's comments:

Suspiria is a remake of the 1977 Dario Argento directed horror thriller where Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) heads to Berlin to study ballet at a prestigious school under Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) where something immediately attracts the Madame to Susie. At the same time, company dancer Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz) runs away from the school to her psychiatrist Dr. Josef Klemperer (um, SPOILER OF SORTS: it's quite clearly Tilda Swinton as a man) as she believes that a coven of witches runs the school and they want her for her own nefarious needs. Susie immediately impresses, so much so that she takes over as lead dancer in the next production. She also feels a presence taking over her body as she dances. Another dancer Sara (Mia Goth) befriends Susie but is also worried about the disappearance of Patricia, so Sara does some sleuthing and finds Patricia is a secret part of the school but she is found out. Meanwhile, the Madame and the other teachers at the school believe Susie is ready to help them with their nefarious plans but Susie has a surprise of her own.

I must confess that while I'm a fan of a number of Argento's movies, for some reason I never really got into cult favourite Suspiria, possibly because the plot to the movie is very thin and it's his most excessive exercise in style over substance. The long-in-gestation remake, which is still a very European movie, is about a hour longer and it sure feels a lot longer. That's not to say that it's a bad movie. The last hour is actually very good and far more full on the original with spectacularly edited dance sequences and some decent gore, but boy, does it take it's sweet time getting there. I think I liked this movie better than the original, but I suspect fans of the original will probably hate it. Ah well, you're not going to please

Dakota Johnson film clips (collages below)

Mia Goth and Chloe Grace Moretz film clips (samples below)

unidentified film clip (sample below)