# Suspiria (2018 film)
*Suspiria* is a 2018 supernatural horror film directed by [Luca Guadagnino](https://www.edgepedia.org/luca-guadagnino) and written by David Kajganich, reimagining [Dario Argento](https://www.edgepedia.org/dario-argento)'s 1977 Italian horror classic of the same name. Set in divided Berlin in 1977, it follows the young American dancer Susie Bannion ([Dakota Johnson](https://www.edgepedia.org/dakota-johnson)), who joins the Helena Markos Dance Company and rises through its ranks while the company's female directors conceal a coven of witches.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) The film premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival and was distributed by Amazon Studios.[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Luca Guadagnino; screenplay by David Kajganich[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) |
| Source | Reimagining of Dario Argento's 1977 *Suspiria*; Guadagnino called his film a "cover version" rather than a remake[3](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/suspiria-review-whats-the-point-of-this-classic-ho/1100-6462041/) |
| Setting and structure | Divided Berlin, 1977, during the German Autumn; six acts and an epilogue[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) • [4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather) |
| Principal cast | Dakota Johnson (Susie), Tilda Swinton (Madame Blanc, plus two other roles), Mia Goth (Sara), Chloë Grace Moretz (Patricia), Jessica Harper in a cameo[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) • [2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) |
| Music | Score by Thom Yorke, including the piano theme "Suspirium"[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/suspiria-2018) |
| Release | Premiered in competition at Venice 2018; limited US theatrical release October 26, 2018; streaming January 15, 2019; US gross $2.5 million[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) |
| Reception | 65% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 335 reviews; 72% audience score from more than 2,500 ratings[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and setting
Susie Bannion, a young American dancer, arrives in 1970s Berlin to audition for the Helena Markos Dance Company. After she is elevated to principal dancer, the dancer whose place she takes suffers a breakdown and charges the troupe's female directors with practicing witchcraft. Meanwhile an inquisitive psychotherapist and a member of the troupe uncover sinister secrets in the studio's hidden underground chambers.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018)
Guadagnino and Kajganich set the story in the specific political climate of 1977, the year the original film was released. The still-divided city is gripped by the [Lufthansa Flight 181](https://www.edgepedia.org/lufthansa-flight-181) hijacking and violent [Red Army Faction](https://www.edgepedia.org/red-army-faction) activity, and the film's structure is divided into six acts plus an epilogue.[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) Reviews note copies of *Der Spiegel* with "TERROR" on the cover and punk riders on the U-Bahn as part of this atmosphere of the [German Autumn](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-autumn).[6](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/suspiria-review-horror-remake-cult-luca-guadagnino-tilda-swinton-cast-a8586411.html) • [4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather) Susie arrives just as another student, Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz), vanishes after telling her elderly psychologist, Dr. Jozef Klemperer, that the school is run by a coven of witches; Klemperer, haunted by his wife's disappearance in the closing days of the Second World War, investigates her story.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather)
## Relationship to the 1977 film
The two films share a setting, a few character names, and the basic premise of a prestigious German dance academy that fronts for a witches' coven; the critic Christy Lemire described Guadagnino's film as less a remake than a "seriously insane (and seriously serious) expansion on the original."[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/suspiria-2018) Guadagnino himself preferred the term "cover version."[3](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/suspiria-review-whats-the-point-of-this-classic-ho/1100-6462041/) Where Argento's film runs about 100 minutes, the remake adds roughly an hour of runtime filled with scene-setting, side plots, and new subtext.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather)
The remake also discards the original's signature style: Argento's vivid color cinematography and the percussive score by the Italian group [Goblin](https://www.edgepedia.org/goblin-band) give way to a muted palette and [Thom Yorke](https://www.edgepedia.org/thom-yorke)'s quieter music.[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) • [3](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/suspiria-review-whats-the-point-of-this-classic-ho/1100-6462041/) Guadagnino and Kajganich remain wedded, however, to the narrative lore Argento developed across the loose "Three Mothers" trilogy with *Inferno* (1980) and *The Mother of Tears* (2007): three ancient figures, Mater Suspiriorum (Mother of Sighs), Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears), and Mater Tenebrarum (Mother of Darkness), the first of whom is served by the Markos academy coven.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather) • [7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/02/very-witchy-suspiria-is-supposed-be-radically-feminist-movie-how-so/) [Jessica Harper](https://www.edgepedia.org/jessica-harper), star of the 1977 film, appears in a cameo.[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/)
## Cast and performance
Dakota Johnson plays Susie, reinvented from the original's naive heroine into a Mennonite-raised dancer with what one review called "big Martha Graham dreams," whose raw talent impresses the head instructor Madame Blanc ([Tilda Swinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tilda-swinton)).[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) • [6](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/suspiria-review-horror-remake-cult-luca-guadagnino-tilda-swinton-cast-a8586411.html) Swinton plays three roles: Madame Blanc, the ancient matriarch Helena Markos, and, uncredited under heavy old-man makeup and billed as the fictional actor "Lutz Ebersdorf," the psychiatrist Dr. Jozef Klemperer.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather) • [6](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/suspiria-review-horror-remake-cult-luca-guadagnino-tilda-swinton-cast-a8586411.html) The production framed the casting of a female lead for the film's only substantial male character as a way of preventing the intrusion of the male gaze in an otherwise female-dominated cast.[8](https://www.framerated.co.uk/suspiria-2018/) The supporting cast includes [Mia Goth](https://www.edgepedia.org/mia-goth) as fellow dancer Sara, and veteran German performers Angela Winkler (of *The Tin Drum*) and Ingrid Caven, one of Fassbinder's muses, which reinforced for critics the sense that Guadagnino was paying homage to German cinema and dance history beyond Argento alone.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) • [6](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/suspiria-review-horror-remake-cult-luca-guadagnino-tilda-swinton-cast-a8586411.html)
## Dance and choreography
Dance is the film's main vehicle for storytelling, replacing the original's style-led approach.[3](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/suspiria-review-whats-the-point-of-this-classic-ho/1100-6462041/) Guadagnino said he wanted to step away from the idea that this is "a movie about ballet," and the dance sequences were designed to cast a spell on the audience so that the dancers' movements seem imbued with a primal, powerful force.[9](https://archiv.polyfilm.at/Suspiria/Presse/SUSPIRIA%20PRESS%20NOTES.pdf) Screenwriter David Kajganich cited Mary Wigman's choreography "Witch Dance" as a touchstone.[10](https://rue-morgue.com/exclusive-interview-suspiria-2018-screenwriter-david-kajganich-talks-about-the-male-gaze-and-female-bodies/) A dance studies analysis of the film argues that it "breathes back" the history of German modern dance through the horror genre: in one sequence Susie removes her ballet flats, rejecting the bourgeois nineteenth-century dance form and becoming more grounded with the floor, in keeping with modern dance's emphasis on gravity, authenticity, and the production rather than reproduction of movement.[11](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/dance-research-journal/article/breathing-back-the-history-of-german-modern-dance-through-the-horror-film-genre-in-luca-guadagninos-suspiria-2018/C2CBDB87F4BF29A8B385D1A066A1BB7D)
The film's most gruesome set piece fuses dance and sorcery: Susie is led through a demanding routine while a spell is cast on a seditious student hidden in a mirrored room a floor below, so that every spin and kick twists, bends, and contorts her colleague to breaking point.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather) Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom prepared the dance sequences and the violent set pieces the same way, in a huge open area in which the actors could perform freely without obstacles.[12](https://www.moviemaker.com/horror-cinematographers-2018/6/)
## Themes: witchcraft and feminism
Guadagnino wanted the film to be seen as a feminist horror movie, telling interviewers that "true feminism is something that doesn't shy away from the complexity of the female identity."[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/02/very-witchy-suspiria-is-supposed-be-radically-feminist-movie-how-so/) Kajganich said the screenwriters' interest in understanding the coven as a practical culture led them to include actual history and events, treating the witches as real people with their own questions about how to amass power.[13](https://www.fandango.com/movie-news/interview-suspiria-writer-and-original-star-discuss-remaking-a-horror-classic-753418) The film also carries an undercurrent of motherhood and draws on the Three Mothers mythology.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/02/very-witchy-suspiria-is-supposed-be-radically-feminist-movie-how-so/)
Scholarly reception of this claim is divided. Lindsay Macumber of Saint Mary's University, writing in the *Journal of Religion & Film*, argues that the film's incorporation of the connected myths of witchcraft and goddess-centered matriarchal prehistory lays bare their misogynistic origins and perpetuates, rather than subverts, patriarchal power structures.[14](https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol28/iss1/63/) Other critics noted a disturbing undercurrent of misogyny in the film's frequent nudity and violent objectification of women's bodies, and one critic, [Emily Yoshida](https://www.edgepedia.org/emily-yoshida), lamented only that the film was not made by a woman.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/02/very-witchy-suspiria-is-supposed-be-radically-feminist-movie-how-so/) • [15](https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/84475/1/84475.pdf) The film's historical texture extends to Germany's Nazi past: one analysis reads the coven's folklore as an overt reference to the exploitation of folklore to reinforce the Teutonic heritage mythology of [Nazi Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/nazi-germany).[8](https://www.framerated.co.uk/suspiria-2018/)
## Craft
The production team included cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, production designer Inbal Weinberg, and costume designer Giulia Piersanti, whose late-1970s wardrobe of tall boots, belted coats, and billowy tunic dresses drew specific praise.[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) Mukdeeprom's camera work, with nostalgic glides and crash zooms amid the mirrored surfaces and pentagonal lines of Weinberg's production design, was highlighted by [Mark Kermode](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-kermode), alongside the mournful strains of Yorke's score.[16](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/18/suspiria-review-mark-kermode-film-of-the-week) One technically noted sequence uses 360-degree pans shot in a fully mirrored room without visible crew or equipment.[17](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/suspiria-2018-film-review-by-stuart-crawford) The film is rated R for disturbing content, bloody images, graphic nudity, and ritualistic violence, runs 2 hours 32 minutes, and was shot in English with [Dolby Atmos](https://www.edgepedia.org/dolby-atmos) sound in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018)
## Reception
The film divided critics from its Venice premiere onward. Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 65% Tomatometer from 335 reviews and a 72% audience score, with a critics consensus calling it "daringly confrontational, and definitely not for everyone."[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) Positive reviews called it "horror as high art" and "a breathtakingly inventive remake," with *The Atlantic* predicting it was destined for the long-lasting cult status already enjoyed by the original.[6](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/suspiria-review-horror-remake-cult-luca-guadagnino-tilda-swinton-cast-a8586411.html) • [18](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/suspiria-2018/critic-reviews/) Negative reviews found it bland, overstuffed, and not frightening; *Time* called it "bland, grisly, boring and silly," and *Sight and Sound* judged it "overstuffed" and never as freaky, fascinating, or frightening as its inspiration.[2](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) • [4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather) Mark Kermode placed a decent 90-minute dance-driven art-house shocker struggling to get out of its 152 minutes.[16](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/18/suspiria-review-mark-kermode-film-of-the-week)
Commercially the film grossed $2.5 million in the United States.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018) Its afterlife has been stronger than its box office: the remake renewed international interest in Argento's film and triggered new restorations of the 1977 original, and it has since been released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in a limited edition.[19](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/suspiria/)
## References
1. [Suspiria (2018), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/suspiria_2018)
2. [Stephanie Zacharek, "The Suspiria Remake Isn't That Scary," Time, September 1, 2018](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/)
3. [Rafael Motamayor, "Suspiria Review: What's The Point Of This Classic Horror Remake?", GameSpot, November 14, 2018](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/suspiria-review-whats-the-point-of-this-classic-ho/1100-6462041/)
4. [Michael Leader, "Suspiria first look: Luca Guadagnino makes heavy weather of Argento's horror," Sight and Sound, September 6, 2018](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/suspiria-luca-guadagnino-2018-remake-dakota-johnson-berlin-heavy-weather)
5. [Christy Lemire, "Suspiria movie review & film summary," RogerEbert.com, October 26, 2018](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/suspiria-2018)
6. [Geoffrey Macnab, "Suspiria review: A breathtakingly inventive remake of a cult horror movie," The Independent, November 15, 2018](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/suspiria-review-horror-remake-cult-luca-guadagnino-tilda-swinton-cast-a8586411.html)
7. ["What exactly is 'Suspiria' trying to say about witches and feminism?", The Washington Post, November 2, 2018](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/02/very-witchy-suspiria-is-supposed-be-radically-feminist-movie-how-so/)
8. ["SUSPIRIA (2018)," Frame Rated](https://www.framerated.co.uk/suspiria-2018/)
9. [Suspiria press notes, Polyfilm](https://archiv.polyfilm.at/Suspiria/Presse/SUSPIRIA%20PRESS%20NOTES.pdf)
10. ["Exclusive Interview: SUSPIRIA (2018) Screenwriter David Kajganich Talks About the Male Gaze and Female Bodies," Rue Morgue](https://rue-morgue.com/exclusive-interview-suspiria-2018-screenwriter-david-kajganich-talks-about-the-male-gaze-and-female-bodies/)
11. ["Breathing Back the History of German Modern Dance through the Horror Film Genre in Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria (2018)," Dance Research Journal](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/dance-research-journal/article/breathing-back-the-history-of-german-modern-dance-through-the-horror-film-genre-in-luca-guadagninos-suspiria-2018/C2CBDB87F4BF29A8B385D1A066A1BB7D)
12. ["Looks That Kill: Eleven Horror DPs Reveal the Tricks and Tech Behind the Year's Scariest Shooting Schemes," MovieMaker Magazine, November 30, 2018](https://www.moviemaker.com/horror-cinematographers-2018/6/)
13. ["Interview: 'Suspiria' Writer and Original Star Discuss Remaking a Horror Classic," Fandango](https://www.fandango.com/movie-news/interview-suspiria-writer-and-original-star-discuss-remaking-a-horror-classic-753418)
14. [Lindsay Macumber, "Radically Feminist or Monstrously Feminine?: Witches and Goddesses in Guadagnino's Suspiria (2018)," Journal of Religion & Film 28(1), 2024](https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol28/iss1/63/)
15. [Allison Craven, "'Suzy, we always knew you': The timeless terror of witches in old and new Suspiria"](https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/84475/1/84475.pdf)
16. [Mark Kermode, "Suspiria review, dancing on the grave of a horror classic," The Guardian, November 18, 2018](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/18/suspiria-review-mark-kermode-film-of-the-week)
17. [Stuart Crawford, "Suspiria (2018) Movie Review," Eye for Film, November 15, 2018](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/suspiria-2018-film-review-by-stuart-crawford)
18. [Suspiria (2018) critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/suspiria-2018/critic-reviews/)
19. [Suspiria, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/suspiria/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Shared-title version families › Horror and monster shared-title families*
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