Written by: David Kajganich
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth
IMDb Link
I'm not entirely sure what I watched. Suspiria is stylish, and has its fair share of genuine moments of unsettling horror, as well as engaging dance choreography and wonderfully subtle performances from Johnson and Swinton, but I lost the point of it all somewhere in the layered metaphors.
A coven of witches in 1977 Berlin, masquerading as a prestigious dance company, use the bodies of young recruits for rituals to keep the rulers of the coven living forever; their newest target (Johnson) is ambitious, quick to learn, and forms a complicated connection with the dance choreographer (Swinton). Meanwhile, an old man (also played by Swinton, an absolute chameleon), stricken by grief and a therapist of one of the previous recruits (Chloe Grace-Moretz), begins to investigate the dance company after her disappearance.
The film fluctuates like an odd nightmare, at times drawn out for emphasis, executing every step with time offered to take in every detail, and no emphasis placed on any point, giving it a strangely detached feeling, and at other times focused so keenly on something that it isn't immediately clear what, and only becomes apparent by the time the film's regular evocation of paranoia sets in. At times the effect didn't hit me as intended; the inevitability of so many events that should have filled me with dread were sometimes as likely to leave me bored enough for my mind to wander. However, this is a film that is ambitious enough to try so much that a shot that lingers far longer than it should, or a reveal so plain it's a wonder why it took so long to be fully realised, is often immediately replaced by the sharp pull in to focus of something so horrifying it's hard to look, and so cold in how it gazes that it can be morbidly fascinating. I didn't always experience the intended reaction, but the film held me long enough that when it was finally ready to show everything is had in its finale, I couldn't look away no matter how hilariously disgusting it got. There's such a mix style in its approach to everything, from its meticulous composition of shots to the choreography of its dances that shifts between flowing, primal and yet robotic, one reveal after another trying to find nuance in its vague and broad existence. I found it to be messy, but undeniably interesting to watch pan out.
The consistency within this fickleness is the key performances from Johnson and Swinton. Johnson shows subtle, forceful ambition beneath a persona of vulnerability and innocence, moving piece of the film around in ways that don't become apparent until later. Swinton pulls double duty as both witch and psychotherapist (and triple duty as another character whose existence would be a spoiler to mention here). Her role as Madame Blanc is a perfect complement to Johnson's own, the strange, artificial, austere motherhood slowly dissolving in to a much more real version of itself. As the therapist, Josef Klemperer, she is utterly unrecognisable in her old man makeup, and completely believable as the man who assumes he knows more than he does, only to find out too late how little is in his control; the grief is real, too, simple moments of misty eyes an a nervous thank-yous betray the haunted being he hides behind his intellect. The two of them are performed so well that it's easy to forgive how unfocused much of the film's latter half feels.
The Short Version: It definitely isn't for everyone, but Suspiria offers a paranoid, slow burn horror experience that spirals out of control as it reaches its mind-blowing conclusion.
Rating: 6.5/10
Published November 11th, 2018
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