Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, director, writer, and producer, helms Suspiria (Italy/USA, 2018), a witchcraft-driven horror that pays tribute to the 1977 original, itself rooted in Thomas de Quincey's Suspiria de Profundis (1845). Much like Dario Argento before him, Guadagnino offers his own interpretation of Our Lady of Sighs, one of the figures featured in De Quincey's work (alongside Mater Tenebrarum and Mater Suspiriorum), building on a new screenplay by David Kajganich.
In Suspiria, the connections to the 1977 film are limited to surface elements, the period setting, the dance academy, and the names of the main characters. Guadagnino's version deliberately moves in a different direction, reshaping the material into something new.
Presented in a markedly different tone, the film becomes an intense exploration of its protagonist, Susie (played by an outstanding Dakota Johnson). Through a structure that weaves together flashbacks and present-day events, it gradually unveils the unsettling layers of a character who is complex, ambiguous, and deeply compelling.
Suspiria also stands out for its meticulous sense of period and its ability to strike an emotional chord, framing love as something that can just as easily conceal, or become, a form of evil. The film moves through different shades of feeling, drawing power from situations that intensify them: a dying parent, illness, choices that involve rejecting one’s mother, a longing for death born out of pain, guilt, and gestures of compassion. All of this is heightened by a haunting, almost ethereal score that underscores the film's most mournful moments.
Guadagnino's take also fully embraces the horror dimension, with scenes of twisted and broken bodies, figures suspended on hooks, decapitation, and a surge of blood that defines an unusual finale, one that lingers precisely because of its extremity. These supernatural horrors unfold against the backdrop of real-world terror, with a Berlin shaken by political violence framing the story.
Elegantly directed and elevated by a flawless mise-en-scène, Suspiria stands as a remarkable piece of cinema where Guadagnino's vision merges with striking, unforgettable cinematography, creating an atmosphere that feels suffocating, diseased, and constantly permeated by evil. Every detail exerts a hypnotic pull, drawing the viewer in and casting a spell through rituals, sabbaths, and hidden covens that corrupt innocence and turn dance into an instrument of destruction and death. Magnetic.
Guadagnino leads an outstanding international cast, including Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton (Constantine, Only Lovers Left Alive), here taking on three roles: Madame Blanc, psychoanalyst Josef Klemperer, and Helena Markos.
The cast of Suspiria also features Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey), Chloë Grace Moretz (Let Me In, Carrie), Renée Soutendijk, Sylvie Testud, Mia Goth, and Jessica Harper (Suspiria – 1977).
Plot: American dancer Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) is accepted into a prestigious Berlin dance academy led by Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), one of its instructors. On the very day of her arrival, however, a member of the company mysteriously disappears. From that moment on, Susie begins to suspect that the school’s leadership is hiding something dark and deeply unsettling.
Suspiria has been available on DVD and Blu-ray since April 17, 2019, released by Eagle Pictures. Both editions include a collectible card.
The film was previously released in Italian theaters on January 1, 2019, distributed by Videa.
Technical Specs DVD:
Format: 16:9 1.85:1 anamorphic
Audio: Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 DTS, Original 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: Italian, Italian (SDH)
Extras: Interviews with Luca Guadagnino, Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Thom Yorke; Transformations: Makeup; The Look of Suspiria; Trailer; Photo Gallery
Disc: DVD9
Region: 2
