Suspiria | Movie Review

Italian director, screenwriter and film producer Luca Guadagnino signs on to direct Suspiria (Italy, USA - 2018), the witchy horror film that pays homage to the 1977 film of the same name and is in turn inspired by the novel Suspiria De Profundis (1845) by Thomas de Quincey. Like Dario Argento, Luca Guadagnino also gives his personal vision of Our Lady of Sighs, a figure featured in the 1845 novel (along with Mater Tenebrarum and to Mater Suspiriorum), based on the new script signed by David Kajganich.

In Suspiria, the references to the 1977 film are related solely to the 1970s setting, the location (dance school) and the names of the main characters. Guadagnino's film thus distances itself from them and, dressed in a new light, offers a stunning excursion into the soul of the protagonist Susie (played here by an excellent Dakota Johnson), of whom, between flashbacks and situations related to the present, he provides an in-depth analysis revealing puzzling details of a complex, ambiguous and extremely fascinating character.

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Suspiria
also stands out for an impeccable reconstruction of the past and gets right to the heart by exploiting situations in which love is understood as a shell or mask of evil. In fact, the film leans on various forms of feeling by giving space to a series of circumstances that inflame them: the dying parent, illness, choices involving the repudiation of the mother, the death wish triggered by grief, remorse and acts of compassion. All this is then enhanced by a poignant and in some ways even celestial soundtrack that accentuates the phases of greatest sorrow.
Luca Guadagnino's film also nourishes the horror side with broken, deformed or lifted bodies with hooks, a beheading and a lot of blood that floods an unusual ending but one that, thanks to its distinctiveness, will remain imprinted for better or worse. Supernatural horror elements, these, that go hand in hand with the horror of the reality (Berlin shaken by terrorism) that forms the backdrop of the story.

Stylistically well shot and enhanced by perfect staging, Suspiria results in a great example of cinema in which the Italian director's talent blends with masterful and unforgettable cinematography that brings to life an oppressive and unhealthy atmosphere in which evil perpetually throbs. The beauty sprung from every detail of Suspiria invests the viewer by bewitching and "bewitching" him or her, thanks in part to evil spells, sabbaths, and witches' lairs that undermine the purity of life and turn dance into an instrument of destruction and death. Magnetic.

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Guadagnino directs a top international cast including Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Constantine, Only Lovers Survive) here in a triple role (Madame Blanc, psychoanalyst Josef Klemperer and Helena Markos).
In the cast of Suspiria there are also Dakota Johnson (50 Shades of Grey), Chloë Grace Moretz (Blood Story, The Look of Satan - Carrie), Renée Soutendijk, Sylvie Testud, Mia Goth and Jessica Harper (Suspiria - 1977).

Plot: American ballerina Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) is admitted to the prestigious Berlin ballet school run by Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), one of the institute's teachers. On the very day of her arrival, however, a girl from the dance company mysteriously disappears. From that moment, Susie begins to suspect that the principal harbors a dark and terrifying secret.

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suspiria-dvdSuspiria  is available on DVD and Blu-ray from April 17, 2019 thanks to Eagle Pictures. Both versions contain 1 collector's card.
The film debuted in Italian theaters last January 1, 2019 thanks to Videa.

Data sheet 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 NU
Extras: Interviews with Luca Guadagnino and Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Thom Yorke; Transformations: Makeup; The look of Suspiria; Trailer; Photogallery
Disc: DVD9
Area/Region: 2

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Barbara Torretti
Barbara Torretti
Editor and moderator of the DarkVeins community. Passionate about horror cinema, I also do reviews and interviews pertaining to the film, music and art circuit.

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