Suspira
‘Suspiria’ is a film that has vastly polarised critics and audiences alike and is an example of a weirdly hypnotising film, whether it be good or bad.
‘Call Me By Your Name’ director Luca Guadagnino’s homage to the 1977 ‘Suspiria’ is a film that has vastly polarised critics and audiences alike and is an example of a weirdly hypnotising film, whether it be good or bad.
Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) has always felt a pull to top choreographer Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton). This desire takes Susie to Berlin where she quickly grows accustomed to the methods of Blanc, other madams and their front as a dance school slowly disappears to reveal them as a chorus of witches.
The whole look of this update to the Dario Argento original doesn’t go down the usual glossier redo but keeps the film in bland, bleak tones of browns, greys and whites which make any bursts of red all the more alarming. The entire feature has this odd pull; like it’s drawing you into a state of hypnosis which nicely mirrors the inexplicable connection Susie has always had with Madame Blanc.
Guadagnino utilises neat shots and clever style choices throughout this film. Whether the frame rate is slowed down or cameras suddenly crash zoom toward someone, this strange horror is presented with a flair of confidence and compelling curiosity.
Near the end, this creepy dance-school coven shows off a beastly display of blood that is so over the top it’s very nearly unintentionally amusing. ‘Suspiria’ does have other flaws, a major one lies with the screenwriter’s choice to present the narrative with too much room spent on the aftermath of the Berlin divide and post-war anxieties and grief. This theme is fine but on the whole it drastically takes away from what could have been a more focused look at just the dance academy and its witches.
Johnson definitely knocks back anyone who says she can’t act because her turn as Bannion is a fantastic journey of passion, training and a personal discovery of unsettling change. Swinton is as strangely magnetic as always and the likelihood is she also plays two other characters, one being an aged male doctor which further proves what a brilliant chameleon she is as an actor.
‘Suspiria’; to the uninitiated really goes into unexpected places you won’t expect and is like a slow descent into hell. It’s often drab and floaty but has great attacks of visual horror.
5.5/10
