SUSPIRIA is one of my favorite horror movies. It is a crazy mix of visuals, colors, and the addictively haunting score of Goblin. It is a visual mood horror film that I love to watch over the years and I was curious about the remake that director Luca Guagagnino had been trying to make for ten years. The remake takes a different take on the material instead of trying to remake the Dario Argento directed cult classic. Tilda Swinton (in at least two roles of a dance company choreographer and an old male German psychotherapist), Mia Goth, and Chloe Grace Moretz (plus a cameo from the original movie's star Jessica Harper in a cameo) help round an interesting cast except for the woefully miscast Dakota Johnson who plays the lead sole of Susie Bannion very flat for most of the movie (where every other actor is more interesting than her). This interesting remake is a mostly successful adaptation (and what the director says is more of a homage to the original). Argento's original has lots of bright colors where this new version has bleak winterish colors, but this remake also delves deeper into the various characters and the coven more than Dario Argento's style over substance ever did. The plot of the new movie does share some elements with the original, but there are a few changes where Susie joins a dance company (where you have free room and board) instead of a dance academy (like in the original). You do have the elements from the original in there like the mysterious Mother Markos that no one sees and girls who disappear (and meet grisly fates). It makes mention of the Three Mothers (Mater Suspiriorum, Mater Tenebrarum, and Mater Lachrymarum) where this remake/ homage focuses on Suspiriorum and makes you wonder whether Markos is one of the Three Mothers or not.

The 2018 version of SUSPIRIA does explore the themes of motherhood (within Susie's life and within the coven itself), abuse of power (as the coven is within its own internal power struggle for who should have control), and national guilt (as a look at how people just let Nazi Germany rise to power while doing nothing to stop it). It gives a different perspective on life in West and East Germany during 1977 against the backdrop of the Bader hostage crisis. Tilda Swinton is great in her multiple roles as is Mia Goth as fellow dance company dancer Sara. I know Luca Guagagnino has ideas for a prequel and sequel, but I rather see his take on remaking INFERNO and THE MOTHER OF TEARS (the other two movies in Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy).

SPECIAL FEATURES:
THE MAKING OF SUSPIRIA is a brief promotional featurette
THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF DANCE goes behind-the-scenes of the dance sequences in the movie and Dakota Johnson wanting to learn much as she could for the role
THE TRANSFORMATION OF SUSPIRIA- the special make-up effects of the remake

Trailers for YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, BEAUTIFUL BOY, and COLD WAR

FINAL ANALYSIS: Luca Guagagnino wisely decides to reinvent SUSPIRIA instead of it being a slavish remake of Dario Argento's classic. It isn't a perfect movie, but it is one of the better remakes I have seen. I do wish there were more detailed extras on this movie, but hopefully this remake will find an audience on blu-ray, DVD, and digital that Lionsgate/ Amazon Studios decides to revisit it with a special edition on blu-ray.

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