Suspiria (2018) : Witches, Dance, and Brutal Womanhood Spoilers

Although I wasn’t a huge fan of the 1977 version of Suspiria, I couldn’t help but be curious about its modern adaptation. After all, the first film was quite unique, focusing on pure horror without any plot, and I wasn’t sure it would translate to modern audiences. Unfortunately, I’ll never know whether or not modern audiences would enjoy the film, as 2018’s Suspiria is very different from the original, keeping many of the elements but adding a lot to the story. That doesn’t mean the film was bad, though. In fact, I quite preferred it to the earlier film for one reason : I’m a fan of witches, and there’s no better way to capture them than Suspiria’s depiction of brutal womanhood through dance.

The brutality I am using here is not a brutality defined by violence and evil. Instead, it’s one of savagery, a feeling of animalistic freedom and closeness with nature. Women have often been associated with nature throughout Western history. Whether it be because they tended the fields, because they used plants as village healers, or because earth is associated with giving life and motherhood (another major theme in the film), women and nature are inherently intertwined in Western thought. Women aren’t simply seen as being more connected to nature, though; they’re also seen as being part of it in many ways as they have historically been treated as less human than men, seen as irrational, instinctual, and emotional in contrast with men’s apparent “logical” nature. They are also more closely defined by their bodies, which represent a kind of dangerous temptation. In short, the brutality of womanhood that I refer to is the animalistic, natural, sexual, and dangerous aspect of femininity.

The modern version of Suspiria captures this version of womanhood more subtly and beautifully than I’ve ever seen before. My favourite change from the original work, and one which was necessary to convey the idea of brutal womanhood, was that the lead character Susie, doesn’t study ballet but rather a dance style rooted in contemporary dance with some expressionist and Indonesian elements. It may seem like an insignificant change, but it has an enormous impact. Ballet as an art is inherently patriarchal, which is reflected in part in the dance’s emphasis on control and beauty above all else, even at the cost of the pain pointe shoes often cause female dancers. In contrast to ballet’s emphasis on precision and aesthetics, contemporary dance emphasises creativity and freedom. The style draws on ballet and is still quite technical, but contemporary dance ultimately conveys a more unpredictable and disordered feeling. Mixing this with expressionism then lends the dance more emotional weight while the Indonesian influences convey a feeling of ritualism. In the end, then, this dance style reflects the natural and emotional aspects of womanhood.

The brutal feminine mood also requires a sense of sexuality and animalism, though, which is only achieved by the characters' interaction with and performance of dance. Susie is the best example of this, with two small details which particularly stood out to me. First, she always removes her footpads before dancing. This not only highlights the more natural and animal nature of the dance, it also reminds the audience how far this dance is from the restriction of ballet's pointe shoes and the long, precise lines they create. Secondly, Susie attempts to change the choreography to have groundwork instead of jumps, further echoing the association of the ground and lowness with femininity.

More obvious than these small details, though, is the sharpness and muscularity of Susie’s dance, which evoke a feeling of savage power. Her breathing, too, is often emphasised, and when coupled with her sensual movements, it conveys a sense of rising ecstasy that peaks as the dance ends. The parallels to sexuality are obvious and only heightened by the pseudo-bondage costumes worn during their final performance, though it's notable that the preparation all happens far from the male gaze. Even as the dancers perform for the audience, the camera doesn’t focus on the reactions of male audience members because they aren’t what the dance is about. The dance is not for the sake of men’s visual pleasure but for the sake of expressing raw, uncontrolled feminine energy.

Altogether, the dance is a perfect representation of brutal femininity - which, in turn, is at the core of why Suspiria’s witches are so good. In the Western consciousness, witches, too, are connected with nature, living in small forest cottages; they, too, are animalistic, able to communicate with animals and familiars. And, while they might not always be sexual, they, too, have a power we can’t help but see as dangerous, sneaky, controlling, and manipulative in the same way many see female sexuality. Suspiria captures all of this nuance of how we see both women and witches, but what makes the film truly special is that its witches are not demonised and shown to be a broken form of femininity. They certainly can be evil - anyone can. But Mother Suspiriorum is, in the end, the Mother of Sighs, a soft release for pain and grief. Her methods might be hard to accept, killing people and wiping their memories, but in the end, we understand that she is doing what is needed for peace.

As tentative as I was after watching 1977’s Suspiria, I’m glad I took a chance on the 2018 version. Its witches are far more thoughtfully designed, not only compelling but capturing the essence of what witches are in our society, making it the best witch film I’ve watched so far. It’s beyond disappointing that it didn’t perform well at the box office - if it had done better, the director, Luca Guadagnino, might have been able to develop a series just as the original Suspiria did. As it stands, though, 2018’s Suspiria is still a deeply disturbing and entertaining film and definitely deserves to become a new Halloween classic.