As I’m sure everyone knows by now, there’s a Suspiria reboot coming our way this year. It’s slated for a November 2018 release. Fans of the 1977 original will also know that it’s not something to be messed around with. Given Hollywood’s reputation for making pointless remakes, which usually seems to be based on adapting foreign-language films into English or updating classic American films for the modern age, the first question a lot of people are going to ask is, ‘what’s the point?’
And they’d be right. From the completely soulless remake of Ringu to the extremely mediocre rehash of The Magnificent Seven, all of those adaptations seem to lack what made the originals so good to begin with: creativity.
There are people working in Hollywood who are creative, of course, but while watching big-budget remakes or franchise films, I can’t help but feel like they were a business move first and an artistic endeavour second. But despite all of that, I have hope for the Suspiria reboot, and here’s why.
Finding The Right Director
Luca Guadagnino is on-board as the director, the man behind last year’s Call Me By Your Name, which is his best film to date. For the past few years, his work has been something that comfortably straddles the line between the arthouse and the mainstream.
Films like A Bigger Splash are too risky creatively to be widespread hits, but it also has an A-List cast: Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson, and Tilda Swinton, among others. Guadagnino is a man who can get committed performances from his stars, but he also has uncompromising artistic sensibilities. It’s stuff that’s worlds away from Fifty Shades of Grey.
Dakota Johnson will star as Susie Bannion in the reboot, and she’s not the only frequent Guadagnino collaborator returning. Tilda Swinton is starring as Madame Blanc, the school’s intimidating leader, and David Kajganich (who wrote the screenplay for A Bigger Splash) is putting pen to paper again. It’s hard to imagine a film with that kind of pedigree being bad – but, of course, it’s always possible to make a flop.
The Aesthetic of Suspiria
When it comes to Suspiria, most people agree on one thing, which is that the film is incredibly thin on plot (it’s effectively this: woman goes to ballet school, school is owned by witches). But the same people who say that also don’t watch it for the layered plot, but the emotion of it. When people talk about ‘high art’ (which is a term I hate, but that’s for another article), they call a film with emotional resonance but very little plot a ‘mood piece.’ Lots of films fall into that category; Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, and Charlie Kaufman‘s Synecdoche, New York.
They’re all films which either have very little plot, or in some cases no plot at all, but they’re also films that captured the public imagination. It’s not something people are necessarily used to in horror cinema, but Argento pulled it off better than most people could with Suspiria. But more important than the fact that he pulled it off is how he did it.
The first thing everyone remembers about Suspiria is the score by progressive rock band Goblin, which is now so famous that it’s performed in music venues worldwide. I’d go so far as to say that the film wouldn’t be half as effective without the soundtrack, but it is a two-sided coin, and the second side is the amazing cinematography in the film, which I think has influenced cinema more than people would realise. It’s present in every type of film, from the low-key psychological thrillers of Nicolas Winding Refn to high-budget action films like Atomic Blonde.
Capturing emotion through music and cinematography is a hallmark of Luca Guadagnino’s style, and it’s what makes A Bigger Splash and Call Me By Your Name so captivating. Few cities have been realised as vividly on film as Crema and Bergamo in Guadagnino’s la t est, not to mention the glamorous villa Elio lives on with his parents. It’s a skill which must have served him well while directing the Suspiria reboot.
Updating Suspiria for a Modern Audience
I don’t believe someone with such a distinctive style as Guadagnino will settle for a simple rehash of the 1977 version of Suspiria. He hasn’t given us a reason to either; the action of the film has been relocated from the German countryside to modern day Berlin, and judging by the response to recent teasers for the film, it’s going to be a visceral experience and (although the original is fairly nasty), the gore will be turned up to eleven.
The change of location allows for a lot of creativity. I doubt we’ll be seeing a lot of the classical architecture or wide-open courtyards that dominated the original. I don’t think we’ll be hearing a lot of progressive rock either. Instead, I can see the film being typified by claustrophobic back alleys, stylish street art, and a soundtrack consisting entirely of lo-fi Industrial Techno and the dark synth-heavy rock which dominated the city’s underground music scene in the eighties.
The horror genre is uncharted territory for Luca Guadagnino, but he’s a director who’s only getting more skilled the further he gets into his career, and it’s this writer’s belief that he most definitely has the chops to take on a project like Suspiria. In a world full of soulless remakes, this is one that has the potential to be fresh, exciting and unique. I’ll be keeping an eye out.
What do you think? Will Guadagnino’s reboot sink or swim? Let us know in the comments.
Does content like this matter to you?
Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.