Suspiria (2018)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Screenwriter: David Kajganich
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Chloë Grace Moretz
Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 Suspiria is easy to overlook. It underperformed at the box office and occupies a quieter place in popular memory compared to its cult following, yet it represents a bold reinterpretation of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic. Coming on the heels of Guadagnino’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name, this remake surprised audiences who wondered whether the director could successfully rework a film many regard as a genre masterpiece.
Rather than attempting a scene-by-scene copy, Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich take a different tack: the remake functions as an homage that borrows the premise and certain motifs while largely reinventing the narrative. The setting remains Germany and the year stays 1977, but Guadagnino relocates the action to Berlin and reshapes character dynamics and thematic emphasis. The core premise persists—Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), an ambitious young American dancer, arrives at a prestigious dance academy that conceals a coven of witches—but much else is reimagined.
Kajganich’s involvement is central to the film’s distinct identity. Unlike a straightforward fan remake, he intentionally distanced himself from the original Argento script and pursued a grounded, procedural approach to how the coven operates within the academy. This practical focus pays dividends: it deepens the film’s internal logic and gives the supernatural elements a tangible, institutional texture. The result is a version of Suspiria that honors the spirit of the original while standing confidently on its own creative terms.
Guadagnino seizes this freedom to stamp the film with his own stylistic signatures. He alters pacing, visual language, and atmosphere in ways that align with his previous work yet push into darker territory. Where Argento favored saturated primaries and delirious color, Guadagnino adopts a more muted palette—primary colors are present but desaturated, lending the film a bleak, elegiac beauty. That choice creates a different kind of visual intensity: less garish, more haunted, and intimately cinematic.
The film’s editing and cinematography form a complementary partnership. Guadagnino’s other films are known for lingering, lyrical takes, but here the editing is frequently abrupt—shorter shot lengths and economical cuts create a disquieting rhythm that suits the film’s themes. The cinematography captures both the formal discipline of the dancers and the insidious choreography of the coven, often juxtaposing exquisite movement with visceral moments of horror. These juxtapositions—grace and brutality, beauty and pain—are among the remake’s most potent accomplishments, producing moments that are visually stunning and emotionally punishing.
Dance takes on expanded importance in this version. Choreography is emphasized not only as performance but as a language through which power and possession are negotiated. The filmmaking frequently shifts attention between the grace of the corps and the grotesque outcomes of the academy’s secret rites, forcing viewers to oscillate between admiration and revulsion. That deliberate tension heightens the film’s impact and distinguishes it from the original’s shock-driven aesthetic.
One potential criticism of Guadagnino’s Suspiria is its density. At nearly an hour longer than Argento’s film, it packs considerable narrative, psychological, and thematic material into a demanding runtime. Almost every scene feels freighted with significance, which makes the movie rich but occasionally overwhelming. Viewers may find themselves lingering over small details, momentarily losing track of the larger arc. Still, Guadagnino and Kajganich’s control of tone and momentum generally reins the film back into clarity when needed, demonstrating their command over this ambitious reinterpretation.
While it may not have matched commercial expectations, the 2018 Suspiria succeeds on artistic terms. It reframes a beloved horror classic through a modern auteur’s sensibility—sharpening the psychological underpinnings, deepening the institutional logic of the coven, and aligning visual style with thematic weight. For those concerned about comparisons with Argento’s original, the remake should be approached as a different creature: not a replacement, but a rigorous and provocative reimagining that extends the life of the story in new directions.
Score: 20/24
