Chloe Grace Moretz swims away from Little Mermaid toward Suspiria remake

October 4th 2016, 2:27pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

So, it's come to this.

Now, look, I'm not anti-remake or anything. I'd argue that many of the best films, especially horror films, have been remakes. David Cronenberg's THE FLY, John Carpenter's THE THING, the 1978 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, etc. The list goes on and on, especially if we don't count horror films (THE MALTESE FALCON was actually a third remake, and WIZARD OF OZ was like the twelfth).

However, there are certain films that seem to be part of a singular vision. Like, it'd be hard to not be skeptical of someone wanting to do a remake of ERASERHEAD or HOLY MOUNTAIN or something. They just seem so indebted to the idiosyncrasies of their respective creators, that to do a remake would seem to be an entirely different thing altogether, so why try? This would seem to be the case for Dario Argento's 1977 gallo-masterpiece SUSPIRIA, with its bright, saturated colors and surreal dream logic. It's a truly unique experience.

Anyway, Chloe Grace Moritz has just left Universal's LITTLE MERMAID project to star in the SUSPIRIA remake from Amazon studios. She'll be playing (if the plot – what little there was – is anything like the original) a young ballet dancer who joins a presitigious dance academy that turns out to be haunted, leading to murder and horrific visions.

Moritz will be joined by Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton, which is actually a pretty impressive cast. And this remake seems to be a passion project for director Luca Guadagnino, so at least its coming from a place of love and (hopefully) clear vision, and not some Platnum Dunes hack doing it for a paycheck. That doesn't make it a good idea (Gus Van Sant's PSYCHO was a passion project too), but at least it's something.

Anyway, I'm of course skeptical, but I'm also open-minded. At worst it'll be forgotten and never talked about (like Mortiz's previous horror remake, CARRIE), or at best it'll be a superior remake that takes the ideas of the original and expands or adapts them to a new purpose. We'll just have to wait and see.

No release date has been set, but you can next see Moritz in NOVEMBER CRIMINALS and BRAIN ON FIRE, each coming out later this year.