Suspiria

Horror doesn’t really suit Guadagnino, who takes a sterile and theatrical approach to mystery. He’s a master when it comes to psychology, but that’s not what his Suspiria is about. So, why is it watchable, other than for the acting performances of famous faces? Because it spurs curiosity about what has emerged from this strange, cold form of cinema with its historical roots in 1970s Germany and because of its unconventional portrayal of a clan of witches. Thanks, among other things, to the poetic slow-motion shots like something out of a romantic retro music video by Marika Gombitová, however, it turns out bad beyond all expectations. The witches’ mother, who looks like Jabba the Hut in fashionable sunglasses, is ridiculous. (03.04.2024)

Well, fuck me! This is something! Kajganich and Guadanino take the original, and relatively simple horror tale and stretch it to the left, right, up and down, and also turn it upside down, and the story about a poor student who realises that her ballet academy is run by a witch clan suddenly becomes a political and philosophical reflection on human histories that are portrayed as a carousel of power struggles driven by false gods and manipulative ideologies that “enchant” their followers. The main motif then is the abuse of power, which blends into several of the twists, and the setting in divided Berlin is not all that arbitrary. The guilt of the corrupted patriarchy versus female power, that’s another layer that’s explored thoroughly. It goes so far, that in the end, the only important male character who tries to be “good” bears the blame on several fronts. And we all know who plays that role… /// After the first viewing, without a Czech translation, I’m not entirely sure if all these motifs fit together completely, but I love digging into them. Formally, the new Suspiria is even better than I’d expected. The dance and dream sequences are absolutely brilliant, intensive, and the atmosphere is perfect. In the end, the ideas prevail over the horror (with all that thinking about what the hell is going on, there’s no time to be scared), which is a bit of a shame, but I’ll take it. For the moment 9/10, but I really want to watch it again – it might go up, or down. (15.01.2019)

Luca Guadagnino is undoubtedly a talented Italian director, but his previous work consisted mainly of romantic dramas, so to remake the famous Suspiria was a big task, but he managed to pull it off. Argento’s original was mesmerizing with its hauntingly eerie music, impressive visuals, elaborate murders and dense atmosphere. The remake goes in completely opposite directions and they don't have that much in common, and yet this journey has something going for it. It should be stated right off the bat that Suspiria is definitely not for mainstream audiences, frilly teenage girls, and people craving entertainment. The film will especially please Art fans of bizzare and obscure oddities and those who are addicted to 70s horror, as the new Suspiria seems to have fallen out of that era. Retro as fuck. It has it's flaws, but it also has distinct positives. The downside is the running time of two and a half hours, with more boring passages than there should be (why is German and English spoken in an Italian director’s film, I have no idea), but if you can get past that you'll get a well-deserved reward. Upside: the gorgeous Dakota Johnson finally shows up naked, Tilda Swinton is again excellent (though she looks so freaky that no normal guy would climb on her), all the dance scenes are interesting and the final number is solid – the gory dance scene is already iconic and I've never seen anything more gnarly and horrific. The disturbing dream visions are also amazing, and then there’s the finale, where absolute hell ensues with hectolitres of blood and exploding heads, Argento's red filter, and one heavily decomposing and moldy disgusting granny that will haunt my dreams for a long time to come. It's hard to rate the film because the horror scenes are great but the filler in between is a bit lame, yet the finale and the heartbreaking dance scene make it worth seeing. 70% (15.01.2019)

Mukdeeprom hace maravillas detrás de la cámara, cada una de sus incursiones y los primeros planos acelerados son escalofriantemente agresivos y ayudan a construir una sensación ominosa (junto con una música lograda). Por otro lado, tengo que mencionar el montaje caótico, considerable ya en la primera escena y que distrae bastante (el montador confianza del director, Walter Fasano, trabajó con Dario Argento en su terrible La madre del mal, será eso). Sin embargo, unas palabras sobre el guion: Luca Guadagnino y David Kajganich intentan ampliar la mitología de la película original con un contexto histórico-político, y hay que decirlo que es a costa de la atmósfera de terror y el suspense. Baader-Meinhof, el Holocausto, Terezín: ¿es esto lo que realmente necesitábamos y queríamos ver en la nueva Suspiria? Prácticamente toda la línea argumental en torno al Dr. Klemperer (ocupa la mitad de todo el metraje) me pareció muy artificiosa y superflua. Por no hablar de que la actuación del doctor es increíblemente cursi y distrae al espectador. Sin embargo, me inclino ante la actuación de Tilda Swinton, que realmente se lleva toda la película para ella. Estoy bastante confuso con el concepto de esta película, me ha parecido menos interesante y sorprendente de lo que quería y esperaba. Un segundo visionado puede ser beneficioso con el tiempo, pero por hoy es bastante decepcionante. [Sitges 2018] (05.10.2018)

De la historia de terror original sobre un estudiante, que revela una trama oscura dentro de la escuela de baile, todo lo que quedaba era un torso colocado sobre su cabeza, innecesariamente complementado con una segunda línea narrativa, en la que un psicoanalista alemán de 80 años investiga por su cuenta la desaparición de uno de los bailarines y busca a su esposa perdida desde hace mucho tiempo. La dualidad de la historia también está simbolizada por el entorno de Berlín dividido en dos partes en 1977 (cuando Suspiria estaba originalmente en los cines), donde la historia se movió debido a las referencias sobre el terrorismo de la RAF y la ideología posnazi. El resultado es un videoarte artístico confuso y mal editado, que permuta los motivos de la película original a su manera y, por lo tanto, difiere significativamente de la original, incluido el tono general. El fondo de color quemado de la escuela de la versión de Argento fue reemplazado por un gris aburrido, solo esas secuencias son visualmente impresionantes, en las que Guadagnino intenta conmocionar al público, y esta vez ni siquiera recordará la música. La nueva Suspiria es una película sobre el despertar de la feminidad y el poder de la mujer, que sirve para humillar a los hombres y luchar por la supremacía en una comunidad matriarcal, en la que el personaje masculino principal es interpretado por una mujer, y donde la danza es igual a la experiencia sexual. Pero se ahoga en una historia innecesariamente diseminada y floja, en la que la tensión y la ansiedad crecientes gradualmente se alternan entre la brutalidad y la franqueza llamativas y no construidas, manifestado también por el hecho de que la película definitivamente no intenta ocultar cómo son los profesores de la escuela de danza, y juega desde el principio con las cartas dispuestas. (05.10.2018)

The complete opposite of the current trend in horror. A film that doesn't formally distinguish the conscious from the subconscious, the voices sound either whispered or from a distance, the walls talk and the mirrors watch. A horror film that starts with dying and ends with reconciliation. More viewings will be needed to give me a bit of perspective and some unraveling. So on the one hand, the whisperiness and unchanging pace of Suspiria was often distracting, which may have been enough to hide the fact that the film isn't very well edited and Dakota Johnson is still an acting lump. However, the new Suspiria is a film that is more expressive and better the day after viewing than during. And that's one of the essential yet rare qualities of a horror film. (06.05.2019)

Suspiria from Luca Guadagnino is a different film than Suspiria from Dario Argento. It is in fact a good film. Actually, I think it's a shame that the filmmakers tried to ride the coattails of the legendary film at all costs, because this new film deserves to stand on its own, to have its own story, not to be promoted as a remake. It's good enough to pull it off without this crutch, which kind of undermines the great legacy Argento has. (25.01.2019)