The Interesting Horror Film Suspiria In Two Versions

In the 70’s, the Italian filmmaker Dario Argento surprised the audience with the interesting horror film Suspiria, which was the first part of what later became known as the trilogy of the three mothers.

Argento is known for his horror movies, especially his giallo movies. If you do not know the term giallo, it is a special form of Italian crime film, which is known to be quite extreme.

Argento’s work both surprised and frightened the audience for several years. If you were to choose a color to characterize Argento as a director, it would have been blood red.

His films take you to an aesthetic dimension of terror and violence.

In Suspiria, Argento shows us a more supernatural and mysterious type of horror filled with symbols. He co-wrote this script with his wife Daria Nicolodi, and chose to let the viewer fantasize about the film’s plot.

The audience is given the task of reconstructing the information that the film contributes. They have to imagine the shocking things that are happening behind the walls of Marko’s dance school.

A new version of Suspiria

2018, a number of years after the first film, another Italian filmmaker chose to give new life to this script.

He imagined that as the viewer might have interpreted, Argentos broadened the universe, and even added some contemporary elements.

Guadagninos Suspiria differs from the original version, but it does not forget its roots. We occasionally see glimpses of Argento’s terror. The film gives us two different ways to understand the horror, two ways that tell the same story.

WARNING: This article contains “spoilers” about the action.

The interesting horror film Suspiria: a female universe

In other articles, we have discussed how it has taken a long time for women to have significant roles in films.

For many years, the female roles were usually supporting roles and the only female characters seen were “traditional” female roles: motherhood, beauty, housekeeper, etc.

For many years, men were the heroes on the screen and also behind the cameras.

Diario Argento not only worked with his wife when he wrote the Suspiria script, but he also used female actors to break with traditional film norms.

Suspiria takes us to a fine German dance academy that is almost entirely run by women. There are male characters, but most of them are secondary. Argentino turned the gender roles upside down.

In fact, one of the most important male characters is Mark, played by a very young Miguel Bose. Mark is a dancer who submits to female leadership at the academy

He has very feminine character traits, but the main character Susie becomes interested in Mark. Mark uses this type of character development to break with the traditional gender stereotypes.

Susie is a young woman from the USA who goes to Germany to study Markos Tanzgruppe. What she does not know, however, is that school is actually a form of witchcraft.

All the protagonists and antagonists are women, so the screen is filled with female energy.

The context of modern feminism

In the midst of the #metoo movement and the return of feminism, Guadagnino takes it a step further. His film honors all these movements. Tilda Swinton plays three characters, including a man.

Some people might say that it is not necessary for Swinton to play a male role, that it would have been easy to hire a man for such a role.

Whether it is necessary or not, it was a conscious decision to let a woman play a male role. The idea was that the women would regain their place on the screen.

For many years, female roles were played by men who dressed as women. Many of William Shakespeare’s roles were played almost entirely by men.

In the Suspiria version from 2018, the male presence is even less important. Witchcraft is something that everyone associates with women, but it tends to have negative connotations.

Guadagningo chose to make a feminist film that gives women this space by declaring that they can play any role.

Nowadays, we have several examples of witchcraft in film and television. Series such as American Horror Story and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina have already shown that witchcraft can be used in a feminist way.

Guadagnino uses the historical-political background to establish a parallel with the instability within the government of the witch confederation. It is a kind of dichotomy between the historical patriarchy and the matriarchy within the union.

Guadagnino’s version is an update of the values ​​that already existed in Argento’s film.

Two ways to understand fear

The interesting cultural and historical aspects of Suspiria do not make one forget that the films are basically horror films.

In the original version, Argento left many of the mysteries behind closed doors.

The music and colors of the film indicate that something strange is happening, but the viewer almost never sees exactly what kind of evil is hiding.

Susie’s arrival in Germany says it all. Argento shows us the airport which is a well known place. The realism within Susie’s environment as she walks towards the exit is a sharp contrast with images of the exit itself.

It’s an exit straight into the dark, along with Goblin’s fantastic music that seems to indicate something evil, fantastic and unknown.

The taxi journey to the dance school is even gloomier. All the different colors distort reality, the music gets louder and everything outside the taxi looks scary.

What the viewer knows, but what Susie does not know, is that she should go back to the airport and never set foot in Marko’s academy.

In the modern version of Suspiria, Patricia, one of Marko’s students, verbalizes the presence of evil during a visit to a psychologist. She tells the psychologist about the paranormal activity that is going on at school.

There are two possible explanations for what happens: the rational one, which is the psychologist’s version, or the paranormal one, which means believing in Patricia.

Not to leave anything to the imagination

Guadagigno’s version is even more realistic than Argentos’. He does not distort reality, there is no scary music.

Instead, he uses special sounds, dancing and shaking bodies. The color red, which is very important in the original version of Suspiria, occurs only in the color of Susie’s hair.

Red hair has often been associated with witchcraft. In Guadagnino’s film, Susie’s hair becomes even more relevant as the witches decide to cut it. However, she does not lose her strength as Samson.

Susie instead becomes even more powerful and becomes Mother Suspiriorum. During the film’s climax, the scenes turn red once again. Guadagnino gives us a bloodbath and returns to the film’s roots.

Fairy tales versus modern horror film in the interesting horror film Suspiria

Guadagnino chose to show the hidden details of the witch confederation. He shows the things that his predecessors often chose to omit. Hans Suspiria is looking for a connection between dance and witchcraft with a scary and uncomfortable scene.

Argento, on the other hand, wanted to scare the viewer with a surreal, paranormal and strange atmosphere. He originally wanted his film to be told as a fairy tale with child protagonists.

When he could not do this, he let certain elements in the film connect to that child-like perspective in the midst of all the horror.

We then get a scary tale in contrast to a modern horror film that leaves nothing to the imagination. The two versions of the interesting horror film Suspiria do two different things with the same script.

Both are interesting and scary, but we prefer Argento’s original film. What do you think?