[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Suspiria (2018)

Dario Argento's 1977 film has long been my favourite of his work and indeed in my top two Italian films of all time so it was with a touch of trepidation that i approached this new version of Suspiria. I mean, Argento's film was one on it's own right? Not a film anyone could competently remake, well at least not Blumhouse anyway, with it's shocking acts of violence and vivid use of colour which are as iconic as say the luscious colours used by Roger Corman for his wonderful Poe cycle of films in the late fifties and sixties. Then there's Goblin and that soundtrack, haunting, terrifying and so utterly memorable. There's no way anyone could remake this film.

Is there?

Well, in my opinion director Luca Guadagnino has made a damn fine attempt at it.

Clocking in at almost an hour longer than the original this new version isn't an easy watch. Gone are the stark visuals to be replaced with downbeat shades of grey, brown and more grey. The lush reds' greens and blues are nowhere to be seen here in this winter set film. Radiohead bore Thom Yorke came up with the soundtrack. There was no way he was going to match Goblin so he didn't even try. His score is hardly to the films forefront except in pivotal dance scenes. It's these stark contrasts to the original that immediately embedded them selves in my head. The main location is the Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori in Varese, Italy, which served as the Markos Dance Academy in which Suspiria mostly plays out. It's both Gothic and grandiose and partly completely out of time as well and fitting of it's 1977 time frame.

The story itself is essentially the same. It's a tale of a Berlin dance academy run by a coven of witches but Luca Guadagnino keeps things subtler. The idea of the coven and the Three mothers (Mother Tenebrarum, Mother Lachrymarum, and Mother Suspiriorum) plays out nicely towards a finale that really took me by surprise. Don't expect a recreation of the classic murder scenes that made Argento's film such a masterpiece. The deaths are certainly here but play out somewhat differently.I'll say no more except to say the first one is limb crackingly scary.

The dance scenes of which there are a few are superb. Wonderfully choreographed they are in your face confrontational, daring and frighteningly violent. Dakota Johnson who takes on Jessica Harper's role of Susie Bannion is a revelation. Physically up to the role, i thought she was superb, the same goes for Tilda Swinton as the dance school's artistic director and creator of the witchcraft / dance routines.

I'm unsure as to whether the political subplots enhance or takeaway from the film. Perhaps a second viewing will enlighten me further and the finale did make me think of Argento's own third film in the Mothers trilogy Mother of Tears in it's lurid OTT orgiastic spectacle.

Suspiria comes across as different enough to Dario Argento's film to make it a proper film in it's own right rather than a cash grab with no ideas of it's own, and i for one really enjoyed it.