Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Suspiria

January 29, 2019

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Suspiria

Suspiria earned good reviews, but not reviews that were good enough for most limited releases to thrive. Then it opened with a theater average of nearly $100,000. At that point, I thought it could be a surprise box office hit. Unfortunately, as soon as it tried to expand, its audience collapsed and it quickly exited theaters. Is the film as good as its opening weekend theater average? Or is there a legitimate reason it collapsed so quickly?

The Movie

The film takes place in West Germany in the 1970s, which was a troubling time involving kidnapping, hostages, and terrorism. It begins with us following a girl, Patricia, who is clearly trying to escape from someone. She’s running to Dr. Josef Klemperer, her therapist. She’s in bad shape. She’s rambling for the most part, but becomes strangely coherent when she says, “I was right. They are witches.” After more ranting, wanting to warn Sara and Olga, and especially about someone named Mother Markos, she leaves.

We are next introduced to Susie Bannion, who has just arrived in Germany at the Markos Tanz Akademie, a ballet school where she hopes to attend. She auditions for Miss Millius and Miss Mandel, both of whom think Susie doesn’t belong there, because she lacks any former training. Despite Madame Blanc not being there at the start of the audition, she can sense the passion of Susie’s dancing and shows up in time to see her finale. With that, Susie is accepted into the school. Sara, the start pupil, helps her get settled into to the school and soon she’s training with Madame Blanc.

This is a dream for Susie, but we’ve already seen troubling signs. Patricia has gone missing and this distresses some of the dancers, especially Olga. Madame Blanc says she’s had ties with some of the terrorists and likely went into hiding, but Olga remains unconvinced. Furthermore, we’ve seen hints of something even more sinister going on at the school, but that’s clearly in spoiler territory.

Remakes, like prequels, have an inherent problem they both share. With prequels, you know how it will end, because you know how the original begins. With remakes, you know a whole lot more than just how it will end. Because of this, it is especially hard to remake a thriller / suspense film, which is what Suspiria is. Because a lot of the audience will know the basic plot of the film, it will have trouble generating the tension needed and the pacing will seem slow as a result and I think this is part of the reason it failed to connect with audiences.

Suspiria is also just a weird movie. After all, how many movies can you think of that use magical dance as a murder weapon? If you are willing to deal with the remake issue I mentioned above and are interested in a slow-burning very strange film, then there’s a lot to recommend here. Tilda Swinton tops this list. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie with Tilda Swinton in it where she wasn’t one of the best things about the movie, if not the absolute best thing about the movie. The film is also overflowing with style. Granted, sometimes this style comes at the expense of substance, but I was drawn into the movie enough that this wasn’t an issue.

In the end, Suspiria is just too weird to have mainstream appeal. However, those looking for a slow moving thriller should be happy with the film.

The Extras

The only extras on the Blu-ray are a trio of making of featurettes and a trio of short featurettes. The total running time is just twelve and a half minutes. Granted, this isn’t bad compared to most limited releases, but I was hoping for more.

The Verdict

Suspiria has issues, including a slow pace, style over substance, and the fact that it is a remake of a suspense film. That said, I still recommend checking it out. The Blu-ray doesn’t have much in the way of extras, so maybe start with a rental.

Filed under: Video Review, Suspiria, Chloë Grace Moretz, Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Mia Goth, Elena Fokina, Alek Wek, Jessica Batut