Suspiria (2018)

November 3, 2018 7:49 AM

A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
posted by Strange Interlude (16 comments total)

Holy shit. This movie was insane. Sooo good!
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:31 AM on November 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed this too. My only disappointment was that I read the screenplay and there was a scene involving the dance students attending a David Bowie concert. The scene isn't in the final film but how great would it have been if Tilda Swinton played Bowie during his Berlin period singing "Helden."
posted by cazoo at 7:23 PM on November 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

This absolutely knocked my socks off and far exceeded any expectations I had. I left the theater in a kind of shellshocked daze, having witnessed what I feel was a profound (and utterly horrifying) work of art. I can't stop thinking about it.
posted by treepour at 2:22 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I watched the movie five days ago on Halloween, and I still can't quite form coherent thoughts about it. I spent the whole 20 minutes of Chapter 6, right up to the epilogue, with my mouth wide open in a silent scream. I'm not certain I breathed.
posted by Strange Interlude at 3:50 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I had every intention of seeing this this past weekend, have been looking forward to it for months. I was about to text some friends on Saturday to see if they wanted to go, opened up fandango to check showtimes, and... not playing anywhere near me. I didn't realize it wasn't getting a wide release. I'm so disappointed! I hope it's not too long a wait before it hits streaming services.
posted by Roommate at 8:15 AM on November 6, 2018

Famously, the original is a very good movie that begins with fifteen positively mind-blowing, world-beating, holy-shit-what-did-I-just-fucking-see minutes. This version flips that around.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:01 PM on November 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I hope it's not too long a wait before it hits streaming services.

The movie's distributor is Amazon Studios, so I have a feeling it'll be up on Prime within the next three or four months. I was glad to have gotten a chance to see it on a big screen, and wish Amazon had the desire and gumption to go wider with this movie instead of trickling it out to only those places that have their own indie/art theaters. It's a challenging movie in many ways, mainly in terms of presentation, but I don't think it's inaccessible to the sort of filmgoers who might have dug It Follows or The Witch or Hereditary.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:14 AM on November 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm about halfway to a theory that the film is a fairly complex meditation on national guilt, but I need to see it again.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:00 AM on November 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

One thing I am not clear on is where Suzy Bannon's Mennonite timeline fits in. Because it seems entirely possible, given the semi-timeless nature of Mennonite culture that Bannon's flashbacks are to a period of time many, many years ago.

So is she a much older witch than she looks who came to bring justice onto the woman who was falsely claiming her title? Or is Mother Suspirioum more like a presence that took a young woman contemporaneous to the rest of the story, Suzy Bannon over to achieve her goals?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:45 AM on November 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

But wasn't there an exterior shot during the Mennonite sequence in which a contemporary (~1970s) pickup truck pulled up outside of the house?
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:45 PM on November 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Roommate: "I had every intention of seeing this this past weekend, have been looking forward to it for months. I was about to text some friends on Saturday to see if they wanted to go, opened up fandango to check showtimes, and... not playing anywhere near me. I didn't realize it wasn't getting a wide release. I'm so disappointed! I hope it's not too long a wait before it hits streaming services."

Yeah, frustrating. I was looking forward to seeing it in the theater but it never opened here.
posted by octothorpe at 1:33 PM on November 16, 2018

Or is Mother Suspirioum more like a presence that took a young woman contemporaneous to the rest of the story, Suzy Bannon over to achieve her goals?

That was my take. The whole dance academy thing was about giving up personal agency for the sake of the coven or the political resistance it represented. I thought that was made very explicit by the (incredibly disturbing, in fact one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen in my life in a fictional film) marrionette sequence. Markos was too corrupt of a vessel. Madame Blanc was too human. The incredibly talented and ambitious Susie was ready to become what anyone made of her, so long as it put her in the center of the world she was so enamoured of.
posted by treepour at 11:18 PM on November 25, 2018

Suzie is the sin spread onto the world, by a sighing woman, so there's that
posted by eustatic at 12:53 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is now free on Prime in the UK.

Highly, highly recommended. I have a pretty strong tolerance for horror imagery but there stuff in this that will stay with me. The marionette sequence is one of the most incredible horror scenes put to film.

I think the most striking element of the film (having finished it mere minutes ago) is that it matches the original’s confidence while being a different beast entirely. I’m not sure I fully understand it all but the film itself knows exactly what it is and everything on-screen supports it fully. The music, the cinematography, the performances, the choreography, the writing etc. all feels laser-focused and just so deliberate and cohesive.

While I understand the divisive critical reception, I was enthralled.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:04 PM on April 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

lots to view on re-watch, like the little subplots, like Miss Griffith. Hers was the deciding vote, she sensed that it was the wrong choice, and took it out on herself early
posted by eustatic at 6:26 PM on November 29, 2019

I really don't understand what I just saw. I really, really don't.

I'm so confused and overwhelmed.
posted by meese at 8:53 PM on October 16, 2020