Suspiria (2018) Fancy a blood soaked Satanic horror in a coven of witches?
“Why is everyone so ready to think the worst is over?”
I’ve led a rather late and circuitous route to the films of Italian born filmmaker Luca Guadagnino. Three years ago I was introduced to his then latest film Bones and All, a disturbing cannibal love story starring Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet set to the music of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (plus a wonderfully eclectic mix of songs from the likes of Kiss, Duran Duran, A-Ha and New Order among many more) and whilst I have no wish to watch 2024’s Challengers (a tennis drama starring Zendaya) I recently watched and almost loved Daniel Craig as a creepy, overbearing and infatuated trawler of young men in Mexico City in last year’s Queer.
So working backwards we now have Suspiria and a film I’ve wanted to see for many years if only for my own obsessive infatuation for the music of Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame and for the scant details I’ve remembered over the years of this being a remake of the Dario Argento horror film of 1977. I knew very little more than this before watching for the first time on a Satanic Saturday night entering a shocking early Sunday morning and a tale I couldn’t begin to describe to you fully even with my left hand to God and a right hand glued to a stack of his holiest scripture. For a contemporary reference I’d cite Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan but there are so many influences here as to be washed away in a flood of Cronenbergian blood and in urgent need of an exorcist. Above ground we have the city of Berlin in 1977 and a heightened sense of the era and street violence amid the bombings, terrorism and civil war of a post war Germany and a wall still splitting the country in two. Cold, raining, or more often than not snowing, dour grey buildings dominate the exterior setting of the film and of a city on the edge of malevolence mirrored within the confines of the city’s prestigious dance academy and from above ground we now venture below ground and into the catacombs of the very pits of a Satanic hell drenched in blood, the occult, Masonic rituals and a highly sexualised, highly charged coven of witches casting spells, invoking death, and through the director’s constant and rapidly changing and jarring camera angles heightens a supernatural horror that is horribly dark, disturbingly grim, and a film that had me picking my jaw from the floor in horrifying astonishment.
How’s that for a recommendation!
Deviating slightly from the norm of my usual film reviews I’m going to concentrate specifically on three scenes whereby the film merges magnificently with the music of Thom Yorke and commencing here, with the opening credits of the film:
Scene 1 — Opening Credits (“Suspirium” by Thom Yorke)
Following a frantic beginning to the film and a warning from “Patricia” (Chloë Grace Moretz) to her startled doctor “Josef Klemperer” (credited as Lutz Ebersdorf but legend continues to suggest it was Tilda Swinton) that the local dance academy is run by a coven of witches and “there’s more in that building than you can see” we finally cut to the somewhat plain and simple opening credits accompanied by a full rendition of “Suspirium”, and first a muddy farm track leading to a cottage in the distance and then a close-up on a small framed patchwork hanging on the wall and “A mother is a woman who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take”. From a close-up of the farmhouse we cut inside and first to two solemn looking gentlemen sitting in chairs just outside out of a bedroom where two young ladies are attending to the needs of a bedridden older lady figuratively and literally lying on her death bed, struggling to breathe. Still in the bedroom, we now see a close-up of a distressed young lady wiping tears from her eyes before in varying cuts we move outside of the bedroom and to a pair of hands holding a small bible, another even smaller patchwork in a frame and this time “Praise the Lord”, to a pile of clothing and more clothing hanging in a wardrobe, books, a close-up of a gentleman’s hands and after returning to the wheezing, struggling to breathe older lady laying in bed, we see the gentleman in full now and not just his hands as we leave the cottage for the first time and a working tractor in a field in the background and two horses happily grazing in the foreground.
Returning inside the cottage we find two young ladies washing the hands and arms of the bedridden older lady, her struggles for breath sounding like loud snores as a third young lady enters the bedroom and we exit for the kitchen and next the worried looks of a gentleman as we cut back to the young ladies covering the bedridden lady with fresh sheets and blankets before sitting in chairs around the bed. A brief cut back outside to the tractor in a rain filled and muddy field is quickly followed by a view from the kitchen as a blue car approaches, a doctor perhaps, and after entering the kitchen we return to the older lady in bed, a slow zoom capturing her struggle for breath and her eyes partially open, vacant of life.
Scene 2 — Rehearsal (fragments of piano pieces by Thom Yorke)
A frantic, high intensity daytime rehearsal is brought to a halt by the protagonist of the dance group “Olga” (Elena Fokina) as she exclaims in frustration “this is shit” but not so much a reflection on the rehearsal itself but more a growing angst for her missing friend and fellow dancer Patricia. “You can’t even be bothered to respect your lies” she screams at the head of the academy “Madame Blanc” (Tilda Swinton) as gasps from fellow students and instructors fill the rehearsal room. Holding her dancer’s hands, Madame Blanc states coldly that Patricia has gone and no-one knows where or why and perhaps she’s found her own inner peace working within the revolution taking place in the city outside. Growing ever more distressed, crying now and unconvinced by the words coming from Madame Blanc, Olga is bitterly angry at the older lady she accuses of lying to her about her friend and fearing a scene developing that will disrupt the rehearsal, she asks a fellow instructor to take Olga back to her room. Crying uncontrollably, Olga resists both Madame Blanc and her assistant in restraining her and as she angrily begins to depart from the rehearsal room states that she’s going to pack her things and “get the fuck out of this box of rabies” before smashing a small music box onto the floor and storming out of the room.
Lighting a cigarette and after exclaiming calmly to the remaining dancers in the room “it’s a hot thing we do”, Madame Blanc then asks several dancers in turn if they wish to replace Olga as the protagonist and with no-one willing to take her place, newest member “Susie” (Dakota Johnson) eagerly offers to take the role as she professes to have seen the role and required dance moves many, many times and has somewhat memorised the role. Murmurs of discontent circle the room as Madame Blanc is slow and hesitant to agree but with an “alright”, Susie begins to disrobe and prepare herself for the dance routine and as Thom Yorke’s scattered piano pieces of music become prevalent, we cut to Olga preparing to leave the academy.
Descending the winding staircase, Olga first stops at a large window looking out on a rain filled Berlin before a reverse camera angle from outside catches the vague outline of Olga standing at the window and now, back to the rehearsal room and Madame Blanc coaching Susie on the earliest steps of the routine. We cut to an overhead shot of Madame Blanc pressing her thumbs into the palms of Susie’s hands, leaving distinct white patches in her hands when she lifts her thumbs and descends to the top of Susie’s feet where she places her hands firmly and quickly, to Susie now rehearsing her routine solo. We cut to two young ladies cackling with laughter as they ascend the staircase of the academy before stopping in front of a distressed Olga as one asks “alles klar?”. Discordant and discombobulating sounds now fill the air as we cut back to the rehearsal room but quickly and more importantly back to the questioning student on the staircase, now staring intently at Olga and without a trace of humanity or empathy despite her question. Both young students now resume their loud cackling laughter as they continue to ascend the staircase as Olga descends a few steps before stopping, her eyes now streaming with water. Olga was upset and distressed leaving the academy but not crying. Now her eyes, cheeks and face are full of water as she rushes down the remaining few steps of the staircase before running into a dark corridor, knocking against a cabinet or pillar on the right, losing her bag, and stumbling uncontrollably into a fully mirrored, and instantly locked, rehearsal room. Water streaming from her eyes, Olga claws at where she believes the door must be that led her into the rehearsal room, but firmly sealed and locked shut, she seemingly has no escape.
With the resumption of Thom Yorke’s simple yet beautiful piano pieces we cut to Susie in the upstairs rehearsal room and as she begins a frantic and energetic dance routine, so Olga mirrors her movements in her own mirrored dungeon, her body thrown forcibly against the walls as every move is seemingly a mirror of Susie above her. But where Susie is clearly impressing everyone in the rehearsal room, Olga’s violent and mirrored movements of her now see her body quickly disintegrating into an ugly and grotesque distortion as her bones fracture, her jaw displaced as she’s slammed against the mirrored walls and soon, a drooling mess of contorted and broken body parts crumpled on the floor. Her hip pokes awkwardly out of a body bent backward as she’s repeatedly hurled around the mirrored rehearsal room like a rag doll as drool and urine flood the floor. Susie meanwhile is revelling in her energetic routine in the rehearsal room above as the horrific juxtaposition is finally complete. With an exhausted and near sick Susie collapsing to the floor and quickly congratulated on almost finishing an exacting routine by Madame Blanc clearly high on the sexual energy created by her dancer, to Olga, a broken and contorted bloody mess, arms and legs bent double behind her back, drooling on the floor and clearly near death.
Scene 3 — Performance (“Volk” by Thom Yorke)
Before the public night time performance we cut to “Sara” (Mia Goth) staring intently at her new academy best friend Susie talking earnestly with Madame Blanc in the rehearsal room and now, Sara warning her friend in the corridor outside of the rehearsal room that all is not what it seems and “You’re making some kind of deal with them”. Susie assures her friend that nothing whatsoever is wrong, there is nothing to worry about and she’s comfortable within the academy and with Madame Blanc before walking away from her friend. Cutting to an elongated sequence of stock footage of the time and news reports of the Baader-Meinhof Group or Red Army Faction of West German terrorists, we now return to patrons slowly entering the academy ahead of the night’s performance of “Volk” and to an excitable group of dancers backstage all clad in blood red outfits. Asking where Sara is, Susie applies a thick band of white face paint across her mouth and forehead as we cut once more to the patrons now filling the auditorium and “Act Five: In the Mutterhaus (All the Floors are Darkness)” and backstage once more and a bell signalling one minute to the start of the performance. Susie is noticeable in two quickly edited shots, face painted, pensive, worried, and seemingly all alone even among her gaggle of dancing friends.
We cut to the darkness of the catacombs and the dark underbelly of the academy and with the creaking open of a door we find Sara, dressed to perform, but all alone in the darkness. We now return backstage to the dancers stretching ahead of their performance and quickly into a huddle, but without Susie, and back to her friend alone in the dark downstairs. Seeing a naked body huddled in the corner, Sara immediately and instinctively knows that it’s Patricia and turning her slowly to face her sees that she’s badly deformed and seemingly near death. “I’m sorry” Sara cries, before adding “What did they do to you?” and “I’ll get you out” before another naked body in another corner of the darkness appears and as someone calls “Sara”, she screams and finding a door, leaves the basement room.
Cutting to chattering patrons inside the auditorium, an overhead shot displays the layout on the stage floor: multiple intersecting triangles appear to show equally numerous pentagrams as we now cut backstage again as the dancers line up to file into the auditorium and a gap in the line where Sara should be, stood in front of her friend Susie. We return once more to Sarah, running, panting (and with a breathing or lack of breath similar to the older, bedridden lady in the film’s opening credits) trying to find her way in the dark, and back to the dancers backstage for a final time as the house lights are dimmed, the dancers file onto stage and the stage doors are locked shut. Downstairs in the dark of the catacombs, Sara is feeling her way along the walls in the dark as the first of many camera shots from below and looking up, show Madame Blanc in the dark of the wings of the auditorium, expressionless, cold and distant. Back to Sara, still struggling in the dark. Back to the dancers on stage taking their places and quickly, illuminated as the dance begins. A final return shot to Sara sees her fall partially through multiple holes in the floor she can’t see in the darkness, shattering one leg, screaming out in excruciating agony. As Susie begins an energetic and vigorous dance routine, so Sara mirrors her movements, contorting her body in line with her dancing friend in the auditorium above her. Screaming in agony and unable to free her shattered and broken leg, three barely seen ladies attend to her in the darkness, one of whom wipes her hand across her clearly shattered leg, instantly setting the broken bone poking out of the skin and repairing her leg, leaving just a barely visible red mark where once was a broken, protruding bone. The same barely visible lady now wipes her hand across Sara’s face and she falls silent.
Returning to the auditorium, Madame Blanc is again shown from an awkward camera angle, looking up at her as she watches the performance on stage as a repeating pattern of edits and cuts return from the dancers enacting their routine to Madame Blanc watching from the wings as Sara, in no pain and no sign of physical injury to her leg, raises herself to her feet in the darkness of the catacombs. Constant cuts and edits now: of the dancers and Madame Blanc watching, to overhead shots of the dance routine barely illuminated on stage and the audience in the dark, enraptured with the performance. The stage doors creak open and calmly walking through and onto the stage is Sara, a simple bandage over the previously shattered leg but expressionless, without emotion, hypnotized almost or certainly in a trance-like state. Frenetic cuts return: of the dancers, Madame Blanc watching, Susie and Sara dancing perfectly in rhythm with one another and, for the first time, the doctor is now framed watching from the audience, barely able to take his eyes away from Sara dancing aggressively, emotionless, until she collapses in agonising screams to the stage floor. We cut again to the doctor now leaving his seat and walking towards the stage, transfixed on Sara as Susie also tries to rush to her aid as the house lights come on, the performance over, and Sara convulsing on the floor yet looking directly at the doctor to the side of the stage.
The scene ends with Madame Blanc looking at Susie, her protagonist returning her icy stare, the doctor looking at Sara and the bone protruding from her leg once more, to watching it being snapped back into place. To Susie now staring at the doctor. To Madame Blanc staring at the doctor.
And Susie, exhaling twice, now looking at no-one…
There’s a Part 4 or Scene 4 I could have included here but my goodness, even I’m not brave enough to tackle the final scene! The only way I can describe it succinctly is a blood soaked death ritual as a new Mother Goddess is anointed, and that’s all you need to know for now.
So that’s Suspiria, a blood soaked Satanic horror in a coven full of witches.
Good luck everyone!
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon