Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) is accepted to a prestigious dance academy in Berlin. Since the film takes place in 1977, it is in West Berlin. She is excited to work with the famous Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) who sees something special in the girl. Unfortunately for Susie, that isn’t the only thing special about the academy.
A girl named Patricia (Chloe Grace Moretz) was the favored dancer before, but now she’s gone missing. The last one to see her was Dr. Josef Klemperer (Swinton again!), and he is obsessed with finding out what Patricia’s ranting about “witches” really meant. He enlists the help of another dancer Sara (Mia Goth) to do some digging. Will Sara and Susie discover the supernatural truth hidden in the academy, and does it all tie back to the ancient name Mator Suspieriorium?
Good Points:
- Impressive acting by Johnson and Swinton
- Some eerie and disturbing sequences
- Attempts to retell the story in a new an interesting way
Bad Points:
- Is never able to sustain its dread, or horror for every long
- The attempt to fuse the historical events of 1977 Berlin with witches doesn’t come together
- Never reaches a good flow, and ends up slogging quite a bit
Overall:
The original Suspiria is a film I admire, but don’t really like all that much. So I was excited to see it getting a remake treatment. I think there was a lot of interesting material to explore in the original. While Guadagnino takes everything in a new direction, the whole conceit never really gels into an engaging film. He attempts to draw many thematic ideas into the film using the setting of 1977 Berlin, but it feels at odds with the personal horror at play. There are some excellent performances, and some disturbing visual sequences for sure. In the end it didn’t quite work. I’d dare say I actually like the original film a bit more.
Scores (out of 5)
Visuals: 4
Sound: 3
Acting: 4
Script: 3
Music: 2
Direction: 3
Entertainment: 2
Total: 3
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I like Dakota, Chloe, and Tilda, so I teetered on watching this, but ultimately the trailer didn't quite tempt me over the edge. My reaction to the older Suspiria is similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteYeah it is hard to recommend. A couple of my friends really liked the new approach, but I think just doing something unexpected with the story doesn't make it better. It just makes it unexpected. Because the horror doesn't really mesh with the historical horror, the movie just never works in the way I think they were going for. Its a shame, because there was a lot of potential there.
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