Film Review: Suspiria (2018)

One might say we live in rather unusual times, at least regarding the American film industry, where drastic breaches of unwritten rules occasionally occur. One of these rules concerned the strict separation between “artistic” and “genre film”, i.e., the widely held belief that no work belonging to “commercial cinema” – such as crime films, sci-fi, or horror – could possess any artistic merit or stand a chance of winning prestigious festival awards. However, 2018 Oscar triumph of the sci-fi film The Shape of Water demonstrated that scorned “genre” works can no longer be dismissed out of hand. A year later Suspiria could have join this trend, perhaps not the best, but certainly the most talked-about and ambitious horror film made in 2018.

The film is directed by Luca Guadagnino, an Italian director who a year earlier received a slew of critical acclaim, prestigious awards, and nominations for his gay drama Call Me by Your Name. The screenplay by David Kajganich, meanwhile, is based on the work of Guadagnino’s even more famous and esteemed compatriot Dario Argento – the 1977 film Suspiria, which enjoys exceptional popularity and cult status among fans of the genre and is considered one of the most striking horror works of the 1970s. The film’s plot is set precisely in that period, in 1977, in Berlin, which was then divided into two parts by the Cold War and the notorious Berlin Wall.

The protagonist is Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), a young American dancer who has come to West Berlin to study at the prestigious Markos Dance Academy. Her arrival coincides with the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student and compatriot, Patricia Hingle (Grace Moretz), who had previously left a notebook with her psychotherapist Dr. Josef Klemperer (Tilda Swinton under prosthetics) suggesting that the staff of the dance school actually represent a coven of evil witches. Susie auditions and succeeds in deeply impressing the school’s director, Madame Blanc (also Swinton), and is immediately accepted as a student and placed in a dormitory where she befriends fellow student Sara Sims (Mia Goth). And while Dr. Klemperer tries to uncover what is really happening at the school, Susie, along with the other students, diligently prepares for a demanding dance performance, largely unaware of the mysterious and terrifying events around her, as well as the fact that Blanc and her colleagues have some dark plans for her, aiming to achieve something they did not succeed in with Patricia.

Suspiria in many ways represents the antithesis of everything that today falls under the label of horror, at least when it comes to mainstream Hollywood production. This can first and foremost be seen in its exceptional length, being an hour longer than the average horror film. Furthermore, Suspiria stands out for content that deviates from today’s genre conventions, primarily because it rejects the religious-mythological parameters of Catholicism and – something even explicitly mentioned in the film – bases its core plot on much more primal, not only “pre-Christian” but even “pre-pagan” roots of occult and supernatural phenomena. PG-13 censorship standards are also unceremoniously discarded; Suspiria returns to its “giallo” roots, to a time when horror film audiences were not spared explicit violence and the spilling of blood and entrails. In the case of Suspiria, Guadagnino demonstrates remarkable talent in showing various innovative ways a human body can be destroyed or damaged, in scenes that are simultaneously extremely unpleasant and disturbing, yet from which many viewers, despite everything, will not be able to look away.

The most lasting impression, however, will be made by the dance scene that unfolds just before the end, which represents a triumph of the creative talents of choreographer Damien Jalet and costume designer Giulia Piersanti, but also of Dakota Johnson’s dedication – she is not a professional dancer – who spent two full years practising to prepare as best as possible and perform her role. Although it is clear that impressive technical and creative resources were invested in the film, that does not mean Suspiria is without numerous shortcomings. This primarily relates to the uncomfortable impression that the film’s setting and period were of great, and one might say excessive, importance to the authors, without much explanation, and at the expense of the core plot. Thus, the viewer is constantly reminded that the protagonist arrives during the so-called “German Autumn”, i.e., the campaign of spectacular terrorist actions carried out in 1977 against the government and leading industrialists of West Germany by the radical left-wing Red Army Faction (RAF); on the other hand, Dr. Klemperer, decades after the end of the Second World War, is tormented by the disappearance of his wife in the Holocaust and his failure to save her. The screenplay could have created a slightly stronger link between all these elements, but it did not happen; the spectacular finale, which interestingly seeks to diverge from Argento’s version, is, however, a bit rushed, too melodramatic, and somewhat confusing for viewers, just as was the case, though to a lesser extent, four decades earlier.

Suspiria attempts to compensate for some of these shortcomings with quality acting, and here everyone stands out, including Johnson, who here tries, and largely succeeds, in redeeming herself for her anaemic performances in Fifty Shades of Grey. She is, however, still overshadowed by most of her colleagues, and fares even worse in comparison with Jessica Harper from the original version, who appears here in a small cameo role.

Despite everything, all fans of the genre, and even those who enjoy more ambitious “art” films, will not have too much reason for dissatisfaction if they surrender to this cinematic experience, which is rather rare today.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)

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