November 12, 2021

A perfect pairing of sound & vision - Suspiria (2018)


Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake of Dario Argento's Suspiria is considered inferior in every way to the original. There's a lot to be said for that argument but one scene really stands out. A scene that once seen might just stay with you forever.

Susie Bannon has just arrived in Germany from Ohio to dance with the Markos dance company. The school is a strange, unsettling place and just as she arrives another student, another American student at that, has gone missing after accusing the people who run the school of practicing witchcraft. Her friend Olga is understandably freaked and lashes out in anger at the teachers, blaming them for her friend's disappearance. Susie, who's dancing skill has been noticed by those in power is chosen to be their vessel for their revenge on Olga.


Traumatic isn't the word. An astonishingly brutal moment soundtracked by the gentlest music you can imagine. The actress playing Olga is Elena Fokina, a trained dancer and practicing contortionist who, aside from the obvious special make up effects, pulled off this entire scene on her own, lending it a queasy, crunching physicality that CGI could never come close to, really selling the terror that comes with the loss of bodily autonomy. Everything about it works, the editing, those quick cuts back to Susie's dancing that give us a reprieve before cutting back and rubbing our faces in what happens when you dare speak out against Mother Tenebrarum, Mother Lachrymarum, and Mother Suspiriorum.

Say what you will about the rest of the film but this pairing of sound and vision is true horror.

Previous pairings

Beetlejuice
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