Suspiria (2018)

1 November 2020

It's been a few years since I saw the original (and I'm going to watch it again soon to remember it). Learning about this version I had two concerns: first, that it was an hour longer than the original; second, that Tilda Swinton gave herself multiple roles in this film which triggered a bunch of "here comes a strange film" alarms in my head.

General premise of Suspiria is that a woman joins a dance troupe that happens to be a front for a witches coven - and hilarity ensures of course (just kidding, this is a horror film).

It's a little tough to track everything happening in this story, because the war subplot goes in and out and is kinda confusing and superfluous (I don't remember the war theme in the original telling). The effects are graphic and disturbing, and the cinematography is solid. Acting is a bit less so, because it's very spread out across the film. If you have screen time in the film for 90 minutes, but half that time it's walking and staring, I'm not sure I can praise your skills on this one.

But a lot of effort was placed in the film and it shows, with winter pastels across the film, Thom Yorke's soundtrack, or Dakota Johnson's dance preparation. I don't know if it'll hold its own against the original, especially with the longer runtime, but it was a different enough film with enough dedication around it to be an interesting retelling. 7/10