A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
The notion of remaking Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece Suspiria seems perverse — the original has only the skimpiest of storylines and is remembered for its overwhelming style. It’s a prog rock symphony of horrors, with vibrant colour effects and pounding music, but its script is less sophisticated than the throwaway 1973 TV movie Satan’s School For Girls which has more or less the same plot. Argento’s Suspiria is not only matchless, as most up-for-a-do-over cult horrors are, but unapproachable. In the cycle of remakes, only Gus Van Sant’s Psycho seems as demented an endeavour as Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, which is perhaps the most admirable thing about it. (Kim Newman, Empire Online 2018)