Suspiria (2018)The best families become stronger by nurturing one another; the worst ones exploit the inherent hierarchy, and promote strength as the only virtue. Suspiria (2018) is a horror movie and a remake of the 1977 film of the same name by Dario Argento. Like its predecessor, Suspiria follows the journey of neophyte ballerina, Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), from her simple roots in Ohio to a divided Berlin, where she is inducted into the Helena Markos Dance Company under the matronage of Madame Viva Blanc (Tilda Swinton). Susie soon after becomes ensnared in a diabolical web of intrigue and a schism between two factions within the coven of witches that run the company.
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Susie's past is more integral to the plot of the remake than its predecessor. She has long admired Madame Blanc, sharing with her in private that she came to see her perform three time in New York; she had to hitchhike twice to do it, despite her mother's admonishments. Susie comes from a Mennonite household, and it is implied that she was abused for defying the rigid doctrines of her mother (Małgosia Bela). She is gangly and a bit awkward when she first shows up in Berlin, where she has wanted to visit since she was a little girl--she is so nervous that her map book fumbles out from her hands. Though she was invited by Madame Blanc, Miss Tanner (Angela Winkler) insists that she audition before an official offer is made--one of the first of many petty disagreements between the resident coven. The balance of power within the coven is so convoluted, that one of the girls who fled the company, Patricia Hingle (Chloë Grace Moretz), diagrammed their allegiances into a star-like image in her diary; this is discovered by her psychiatrist, Dr. Josef Klemperer ("Lutz Ebersdorf"). The original film's Suzy was often treated like an outsider and rebel by the dance instructors for perceived sleights, while "Susie" is taken under Madame Blanc's wing as her protégée. Madame Blanc sees potential in Susie as a dancer and as a vessel for Helena Markos, though she is torn between which means more to her. Despite her practice of black magic, Madame Blanc seems genuinely interested in cultivating Susie's dancing talent, guiding her to play the role of the protagonist in her expressive ballet called "Volk". The two women share intimate mother-daughter--a relationship that fills the void left by her biological mother. Madame Blanc teaches Susie French--a rite of passage for dancers in the company--and chooses exercises to train her muscles for the rigors of the craft. When Susie openly contradicts her teacher's rationale behind a series of jumps in one sequence, Madame Blanc resists the lure to chide Susie and instead reasons with her--establishing her authority through wisdom instead of abuse. The irony of showering kindness on Susie is that--unlike the original film--Susie becomes increasingly enticed into the wicked secrets lurking behind the academy's mirrored dance rooms, becoming rooted in its occult framework.
The relationship between power and family is a core theme in Suspiria. The film opens with Patricia visiting Dr. Klemperer and raving about the dance company being overrun by witches; despite being totally right about that, Patricia is perceived as unreliable. It is convenient for Madame Blanc and the others that Patricia was mixed up in the RAF, and her disappearance is easily explained away. Feelings of betrayal have shattered her ability to trust; feeling disenfranchised by the world led her to conspire with a terrorist organization, and her new "family" at the academy literally curses her. Sara Simms (Mia Goth) is Susie's neighbor at the academy's dormitory; she also encouraged Susie to come to Berlin and join her "family". Helena Markos is called "mother" by the coven--a title maintained by popular vote among the witches--and a painting kept in their secret lair suggests that Helena Markos might be Madame Blanc's biological mother. An embroidered wall hanging in Susie's Ohio home reads: "A mother can fill any role, but no one can take the place of a mother"; when the coven chants their fealty to "Mother Markos", they cry out for "death to any other mothers". Family in Suspiria is treated like a cult or a gang--the loyal do the bidding of the matriarch, and heaven help those who speak out in opposition. Sara is one of the most fervent supporters of the "family", though she grows increasingly concerned about the disappearances of her friends and colleagues, Patricia and Olga (Elena Fokina)--the latter became the unfortunate victim of a voodoo-inspired contortion hex. Dr. Klemperer discovers Patricia's abandoned diary, and is surprised at the scope of her delusions, and is subsequently shocked that there might be a grain of truth to it. He attempts to convince Sara to investigate on his behalf, and her reaction to his suggestion that there is anything but love within the walls of the academy is disgust. Sara disregards events that would give most people pause, like how the matrons collect their discarded hair or urine samples; yet the mounting inconsistencies finally compel her to search behind the mirrors for answers from those who brandish love like a weapon.
The original Suspiria is one of the most celebrated cult movies--a bloody, vivid nightmare with striking imagery and intense violence that made Dario Argento a fixture in the horror genre. As a "remake", it is inescapable that comparisons will be drawn between the original film and Luca Guadagnino's re-imagining of the source material. Rather than deliver a derivative update with contemporary elements, or glitzing it up with even more violence or sex appeal, Guadagnino's film expounds on the setting and characters. Like the original, Suspiria is set in Berlin in 1977--a time of political strife, where the Red Army Faction's terrorism was making headlines in German newspapers and in television broadcasts. This violent, ideological conflict--along with the divide between East and West Germany that cuts right through Berlin--parallels the schism between the "Markosites" and the "Blancites" within the dance company, the breadth of which is revealed at the conclusion. The remake becomes an inversion of the original; while it had a bright, over-saturated color palette, this film favors muted earth tones--a metaphorical nod to the "German Autumn" events which took place during the time when the film is set. It is almost always raining in Suspiria--an endless downpour of tears being unleashed; when the weather chills, the rain just turns into unfeeling snow. The original Suspiria made no mention of the "Three Mothers" that would appear in Argento's follow up films, Inferno and The Mother of Tears, they appear in Patricia's diary, and Dr. Klemperer discusses them with Sara after she learns about the academy's secrets. Depictions between characters from the original and the remake are almost completely different, like they came from a parallel universe--something out of the Star Trek episode, "Mirror, Mirror".
There are several mentions to World War II in Suspiria, like the ghost of the Third Reich was still haunting Germany. Dr. Klemperer revisits his home across the Berlin Wall, where he and his wife, Anke (Jessica Harper), once carved their initials into the corner of their house. He remembers being separated from her as they fled from the Nazis in 1943--a bitter pain that gnaws away at him him daily. Some have argued that the RAF rose to prominence in the same way as the Nazis, by decrying the ineffectual government and fomenting discord. (Angela Winkler, who plays Miss Tanner, also starred in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, a German political film from 1975 that connected media exploitation with social anxiety concerning the RAF.) The political backdrop in Suspiria underscores how evil exploits people's fear to deprive them of the agency to question their authority, even turning a blind eye to unconscionable atrocities. Matriarchal power is at the center of Suspiria; one of the matrons even comments that before World War II, German women were the strongest in the world. Almost all of the men in Suspiria are supporting characters at best, and the majority of the film focuses on empowered women--even those empowered by black magic. This gynocentric perspective makes Suspiria reminiscent of the "BRD Trilogy" (i.e. The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, and Lola) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. All three films were made in the Seventies, and feature empowered women as main characters; they also explore feelings of German guilt over the Holocaust and the pervading economic collapse following World War II. Madame Blanc is a competent dance instructor, though her interactions with her students (like Susie) recalls the intense and potentially toxic work relationship from Black Swan--another thriller about ballet. Susie and her dance colleagues are outfitted in a harness with red yarn dangling from it when they perform "Volk"; as they dance, the red yarn whips around like they were spraying blood. There are obvious feminine associations with this costume, but it also emphasizes the theme of power, and how power is maintained by the suffering of others. Their dance is intense and aggressive, like the throes of a grand mal seizure. They "suffer" for the pleasure of their audience and the "mother" of the dance, Madame Blanc, who demands that they perform at this level of physicality. This underscores that Madame Blanc has heretofore only understood power from this narrow point of view, which was no doubt passed along to her by Helena Markos. Madame Blanc's crisis becomes how she chooses to pass along this dark mantle to Susie, whose understanding of family has already become even more twisted than it was been before she came to Berlin one rainy night in 1977.
Recommended for: Fans of a creeping, slow burn of a horror movie, which happens to be a wholly divergent remake of a classic cult horror film. Suspiria avoids an abundance of bloody murders early on, but instead builds to a Grand Guignol-styled climax of blood and chaos, preferring to explore its horror from the point of view of someone gradually enticed to darkness.
The relationship between power and family is a core theme in Suspiria. The film opens with Patricia visiting Dr. Klemperer and raving about the dance company being overrun by witches; despite being totally right about that, Patricia is perceived as unreliable. It is convenient for Madame Blanc and the others that Patricia was mixed up in the RAF, and her disappearance is easily explained away. Feelings of betrayal have shattered her ability to trust; feeling disenfranchised by the world led her to conspire with a terrorist organization, and her new "family" at the academy literally curses her. Sara Simms (Mia Goth) is Susie's neighbor at the academy's dormitory; she also encouraged Susie to come to Berlin and join her "family". Helena Markos is called "mother" by the coven--a title maintained by popular vote among the witches--and a painting kept in their secret lair suggests that Helena Markos might be Madame Blanc's biological mother. An embroidered wall hanging in Susie's Ohio home reads: "A mother can fill any role, but no one can take the place of a mother"; when the coven chants their fealty to "Mother Markos", they cry out for "death to any other mothers". Family in Suspiria is treated like a cult or a gang--the loyal do the bidding of the matriarch, and heaven help those who speak out in opposition. Sara is one of the most fervent supporters of the "family", though she grows increasingly concerned about the disappearances of her friends and colleagues, Patricia and Olga (Elena Fokina)--the latter became the unfortunate victim of a voodoo-inspired contortion hex. Dr. Klemperer discovers Patricia's abandoned diary, and is surprised at the scope of her delusions, and is subsequently shocked that there might be a grain of truth to it. He attempts to convince Sara to investigate on his behalf, and her reaction to his suggestion that there is anything but love within the walls of the academy is disgust. Sara disregards events that would give most people pause, like how the matrons collect their discarded hair or urine samples; yet the mounting inconsistencies finally compel her to search behind the mirrors for answers from those who brandish love like a weapon.
The original Suspiria is one of the most celebrated cult movies--a bloody, vivid nightmare with striking imagery and intense violence that made Dario Argento a fixture in the horror genre. As a "remake", it is inescapable that comparisons will be drawn between the original film and Luca Guadagnino's re-imagining of the source material. Rather than deliver a derivative update with contemporary elements, or glitzing it up with even more violence or sex appeal, Guadagnino's film expounds on the setting and characters. Like the original, Suspiria is set in Berlin in 1977--a time of political strife, where the Red Army Faction's terrorism was making headlines in German newspapers and in television broadcasts. This violent, ideological conflict--along with the divide between East and West Germany that cuts right through Berlin--parallels the schism between the "Markosites" and the "Blancites" within the dance company, the breadth of which is revealed at the conclusion. The remake becomes an inversion of the original; while it had a bright, over-saturated color palette, this film favors muted earth tones--a metaphorical nod to the "German Autumn" events which took place during the time when the film is set. It is almost always raining in Suspiria--an endless downpour of tears being unleashed; when the weather chills, the rain just turns into unfeeling snow. The original Suspiria made no mention of the "Three Mothers" that would appear in Argento's follow up films, Inferno and The Mother of Tears, they appear in Patricia's diary, and Dr. Klemperer discusses them with Sara after she learns about the academy's secrets. Depictions between characters from the original and the remake are almost completely different, like they came from a parallel universe--something out of the Star Trek episode, "Mirror, Mirror".
There are several mentions to World War II in Suspiria, like the ghost of the Third Reich was still haunting Germany. Dr. Klemperer revisits his home across the Berlin Wall, where he and his wife, Anke (Jessica Harper), once carved their initials into the corner of their house. He remembers being separated from her as they fled from the Nazis in 1943--a bitter pain that gnaws away at him him daily. Some have argued that the RAF rose to prominence in the same way as the Nazis, by decrying the ineffectual government and fomenting discord. (Angela Winkler, who plays Miss Tanner, also starred in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, a German political film from 1975 that connected media exploitation with social anxiety concerning the RAF.) The political backdrop in Suspiria underscores how evil exploits people's fear to deprive them of the agency to question their authority, even turning a blind eye to unconscionable atrocities. Matriarchal power is at the center of Suspiria; one of the matrons even comments that before World War II, German women were the strongest in the world. Almost all of the men in Suspiria are supporting characters at best, and the majority of the film focuses on empowered women--even those empowered by black magic. This gynocentric perspective makes Suspiria reminiscent of the "BRD Trilogy" (i.e. The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, and Lola) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. All three films were made in the Seventies, and feature empowered women as main characters; they also explore feelings of German guilt over the Holocaust and the pervading economic collapse following World War II. Madame Blanc is a competent dance instructor, though her interactions with her students (like Susie) recalls the intense and potentially toxic work relationship from Black Swan--another thriller about ballet. Susie and her dance colleagues are outfitted in a harness with red yarn dangling from it when they perform "Volk"; as they dance, the red yarn whips around like they were spraying blood. There are obvious feminine associations with this costume, but it also emphasizes the theme of power, and how power is maintained by the suffering of others. Their dance is intense and aggressive, like the throes of a grand mal seizure. They "suffer" for the pleasure of their audience and the "mother" of the dance, Madame Blanc, who demands that they perform at this level of physicality. This underscores that Madame Blanc has heretofore only understood power from this narrow point of view, which was no doubt passed along to her by Helena Markos. Madame Blanc's crisis becomes how she chooses to pass along this dark mantle to Susie, whose understanding of family has already become even more twisted than it was been before she came to Berlin one rainy night in 1977.
Recommended for: Fans of a creeping, slow burn of a horror movie, which happens to be a wholly divergent remake of a classic cult horror film. Suspiria avoids an abundance of bloody murders early on, but instead builds to a Grand Guignol-styled climax of blood and chaos, preferring to explore its horror from the point of view of someone gradually enticed to darkness.