Suspiria (2018) Review
I will start off with the biggest pro: if (like me) you felt that the poster for the original 1977 Argento flick was misleading then, once you hold on to enough patience by the third act, Guadagninoās remake will make you scream āNow THATās what Iām talking about!ā (especially if youāre a horror buff). And thatās just one inspired detail from this version. The entire movie is filmed in 6 segments (including an Epilogue) which demonstrates a bit of a passion project for the director. And in a way the two movies are different yet surprisingly akin in various ways. For one it still takes place in a dance academy the same year the original was released. The music has that classic ambience (even if blurring 50s rock n roll is no longer the leitmotif), albeit bumped to the 80s rather than the 70s unless you count the credits. And, if I am to spoil, itās certainly a reconstruction of Argentoās signature splatter but built up little by little rather than glaring in 50% of the movie, up until the ending that was an homage to so many 70s horror exploitation movies Iām not sure i can mention. Another thing I couldnāt help but admire is that, even as an Italian remake of another Italian film, Guadagnino seems to be a fan of a different 70s horror film that also dealt with possession (as, coincidentally enough, I was also thinking about how the original Suspiria was highly different from American horror films of its decade that dealt with the occult). Of course, besides the poster, another thing it fixes from the original is the way it takes advantage of its 2 1/2 hour runtime to explore different kinds of horror from psychological to that same supernatural. Much like Scream 6 it knows people are aware of the Argento flick that came before yet still aims to update it on more levels than was possible during the previous installment. However, Luca Guadagnino knows that, besides guts, Dario Argentoās version showed heart in ways only a horror movie could show it: disgustingly yet poetically and with as much intelligence, and effort (if not pathos) as his time would permit him. the 2018 version feels like it as much tops it as it does falter in bits that only the original could manage in terms of aesthetic and even scares. Eitherway I remember trying to watch the remake a few years after its release yet being too frightened (as certain scenes lived up to what the reviews describe them as) to continue past the first segment. But Iām glad I ultimately saw this as much as the original and do recommend it for anyone else who also enjoys the genre when it transcends its target emotion.