Last Updated on August 3, 2021
A remake of Dario Argento's 1977 classic SUSPIRIA spent some time in development hell, and many fans hoped the project would never emerge from that hell, because how could a remake possibly live up to the unique style Argento brought to his film? When the remake was finally made with Luca Guadagnino at the helm, it was actually received reasonably well, largely due to the fact that Guadagnino didn't make any attempt to replicate what Argento did on the original. He took his own approach to the concept. Now Guadagnino's SUSPIRIA is available to be viewed on Amazon Prime (you can check it out at THIS LINK), so this seemed like the perfect time for an Original Vs. Remake Face-Off between the SUSPIRIAs.
Dario Argento wrote SUSPIRIA with Daria Nicolodi, crafting a sort of modern day fairy tale which Argento then brought to the screen with a stunning visual style, soaking the imagery in colorful lighting. The film is set at a dance academy in Freiburg, Germany, where strange things are happening and people associated with the academy keep turning up dead. The story is a mystery, with the lead character gradually piecing together memories and whispered clues to figure out what's going on at the academy. The nightmarish tone and logic may make the story hard for some to follow, but the mystery remains intriguing throughout and it isn't until the final moments that all secrets are revealed.
Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich took Argento's fairy tale and grounded it in our reality, moving the setting to 1977 Berlin and mixing the supernatural with reports of real world hostage situations and memories of World War II. The mystery is almost non-existent this time around; this SUSPIRIA is very open about the fact that the dance academy faculty is made up of witches who have sinister plans for one of the dancers. We just don't know how exactly that plan is going to come together… and the movie takes its time showing us. An hour longer than its predecessor, it's so padded out that watching it feels like binge watching multiple episodes of a mini-series.
Jessica Harper plays our heroine Suzy Bannion, an American girl who has come to Freiburg, Germany to perfect her ballet studies. Suzy isn't exactly one of our most interesting horror heroines, she's pretty much a blank slate and spends most of the movie feeling lethargic from an illness that may be caused by the food she's eating at the dance academy. It takes her a while to take charge, but she still manages to foil a coven of witches in a rather simple way.
The Susie Bannion played by Dakota Johnson is given more back story; she's from Ohio, was raised a Mennonite, and has a rocky relationship with her ailing mother. These details don't amount to much. This Susie was drawn to the dance academy, and is a skilled dancer without having much experience. She's also a very odd girl, who can see a sight like teachers toying with immobile, naked police officers and just smile about it.
There aren't a lot of deaths in this film, but the ones that are there are memorable. A man has his throat ripped out by his loyal dog, a girl drops into a room full of razor wire. The most spectacular is a stabbing that happens early on, as Argento includes a shot looking through the victim's chest so we can see as the knife pierces their heart. This person is then dropped through a stained glass skylight – and the falling glass claims another victim.
Although the remake has a higher body count than the original film, almost all of the deaths come at the very end. Before then, there is a notable sequence in which a woman is magically tethered to the movements of a dancer, so the dance moves taking place in one room are throwing this lady around, twisting and breaking her body, in another room. The climax of the movie is an entertaining bloodbath, but I didn't find it as satisfying as the kills in Argento's movie.
Suzy doesn't just have to contend with an illness and the fact that people are dying around her, she also has to deal with a whole lot of strange things like maggots pouring from the ceiling and a blind pianist's seeing eye dog turning violent. A shady servant is openly mocked by a teacher because he doesn't understand the language she's speaking, there's talk of a Directress who is never seen by the students, the students act like they're much younger than they are (because they were written as being younger in the script). There are hidden rooms, and a room that just happens to be filled with razor wire. SUSPIRIA doesn't always seem to be making sense.
The dance academy collects hair and urine samples from the students, all of the girls are plagued by nightmares of disturbing and disgusting images, and people are horrifically injured by magical spells… but the weirdest, most unexpected thing about this take on SUSPIRIA may be how much of the running time focuses on the investigation being carried out by an elderly doctor who still mourns the wife he lost thirty years earlier. This old man just happens to be played by Tilda Swinton, who also plays a prominent teacher at the dance academy, and while he brings an emotional element to the movie he also proves to be completely worthless.
SUSPIRIA was the first film in Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, which deals with a trio of powerful witches. This one introduces us to Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, whose real name is Helena Markos. She founded the dance academy in 1895, but was so unpopular with the locals who realized she was a witch that she faked her death in 1905. More than seventy years later, the hideous old woman still lives within the academy, protected by her coven / faculty. Anyone who gets close to finding out about the Mother of Sighs is killed. When Suzy confronts her, Helena Markos proves to have the abilities to turn herself invisible and to resurrect a dead girl as a knife-wielding zombie.
You might not expect a remake to dig into the broader Three Mothers stuff, but Guadagnino and Kajganich included talk of all three of the witches in their film. They handle the reveal of the Mother of Sighs much differently, though. Throughout the film it is made clear that Helena Markos is Mater Suspiriorum, and the old, diseased lady is kept hidden in the academy while the coven tries to find a dancer worthy of transferring the Mother's consciousness into. However, there are witches who doubt Helena's abilities, and they're right to. Someone else is the Mother of Sighs, and they're powerful enough to raise demons and cause instant death – often by making heads spontaneously explode.
Both versions of SUSPIRIA are quite weird, and the remake does present a Mother of Sighs who seems more dangerous and powerful than her predecessor – but in the end, those two categories are the only ones in which I feel Guadgnino's SUSPIRIA can compete with Argento's SUSPIRIA. I've never been a big fan of SUSPIRIA, I don't have much of a connection to it, but the 1977 film still works a lot better for me than the 2018 version.
Do you agree with the outcome of this Face-Off, or do you think the SUSPIRIA remake is capable of putting up more of a fight? Share your thoughts on these films in the comments section below. If you have suggestions for future Face-Off articles, you can send them to [email protected].
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