Suspiria (dir. Guadagnino, 2018) is a remake of the 1977 horror film of the same name. Both follow an American dancer who joins a prestigious company in Germany, which turns out to be a cover for a coven of witches. I chose to watch the 2018 version because it places more of an emphasis on the female body. The newer version also alters the story drastically, changing Suzy’s role from one of an innocent girl roped into the acts of a murderous cult to one of the Three Mothers reclaiming her throne. This changes the ramifications of Suzy’s physical form to one that is also metaphysical; this makes for a much more interesting examination of the themes of body within Suspiria.
The opening credits are accompanied by a haunting melody composed by Thom Yorke. The first lyrics This is a waltz thinking about our bodies / What they mean for our salvation, already prepares the audience to consider how bodies will be portrayed within the narrative. Dance and dancers also play a large role in the film, so obviously the strength and grace of the female body is on display. The intention of ballet and other styles of dance is to look as if one is not putting any effort into the incredibly challenging feats of athleticism they are doing. Metaphorically, this relates to the challenge of everyday women to look as though tasks are not strenuous and repressing emotional strife to avoid being called weak. Women, and dancers, are the very opposite of weak, and this film does well in portraying that strength. The dancers of the Markos Tranzgruppe are lithe, muscular, and regularly display incredible ability in the intricate choreographies of Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton).
The female body controls the narrative, most famously in a dance sequence that cuts between Suzy (Dakota Johnson) and Olga (Elena Fokina). Madame Blanc presses her hands into Susie’s hands and feet before her performance of the Volk choreography, imbuing them with a glowing light. This newly given power ties Susie and Olga’s bodies together - when Susie twists her body in artful ways, Olga’s is twisted in horrible, painful ways. She is thrown across the room filled with mirrors, her body contorting, breaking, and snapping in grotesque fashion. A particularly chilling sequence involves Olga’s jaw being distended and her teeth popping out as Susie spins intensely. This is perhaps the most horrifying scene of the film. The female body is a powerful force--but a force not always used for good. On first watch, it seems that Suzy is simply lost in the dance, and has no idea of any connection between her movements and Olga’s torture. On second watch, however, knowing that Suzy is Mater Suspiriorum, the scene takes on a sickening quality. We can presume that Suzy is aware of every last break of Olga’s bones, and relishes it. This is the scene with the most body horror in the film, depicting bones protruding through flesh and warping of Olga’s body. Knowing that this is the seemingly perfect body of a female dancer being tossed around the room like a ragdoll is even more sickening- she loses control over what she previously had the most control over.
Power is drawn from the female body and the bodies of others. Multiple times throughout the film, powers are taken away from an individual and given to Suzy. Madame Blanc takes the opportunity to jump from another dancer, Caroline, who then has a seizure when that power leaves her body and is transferred to Suzy. This mimics the artificiality of the image of the perfect woman in today’s society, which is manufactured and built off the labor of other people. Nearly every celebrity influencer is backed by a team of make-up artists, stylists, and even plastic surgeons. This creates an unrealistic image as even the perfection of the ideal woman is a falsehood.
Throughout the film, the witches of the coven are prepping a suitable host for Mater Markos (also Tilda Swinton), whose body has been ravaged by disease. She is covered in mutations, with vestigial hands dangling from her elbow and stomach. Bodies that do not conform to the societal ideal of perfection are no longer a commodity and are no longer considered desirable, therefore they must be replaced. Tilda Swinton plays multiple characters in the film through the use of prosthetics, which also has implications about how bodies are valued in society. While it does explore the bounds of what the human body and prosthetic technology can do, it also says a lot about modern society that an actor could not be hired that more accurately represented Mater Markos’ body. Tilda Swinton is thin, white, and able-bodied, and doesn’t have problems getting roles in Hollywood. For her to play multiple characters in a film is at once incredibly innovative and incredibly reductive.
Horror movies involving the female body often use supernatural events as a metaphor for sexual awakening, and Suspiria is no exception. Suzy is a Mennonite from Ohio, and comes to the coven very sheltered in a multitude of ways. She sheds this innocence the second she begins to dance, writhing on the floor in an overtly sexual manner. Later in the film, in the final ritual, the dancers are all nude and dancing viscerally and sexually, swept up by the fervor of the event. None of this is oversexualized, which is honestly a little surprising from a male director such as Guadagnino. Throughout the film, I wondered what the film would’ve been like had it been directed by a woman. The film is of course still good, and male filmmakers should be encouraged to create stories about women. A film with such in-depth examinations of femininity, motherhood, and the female body, however, might have benefitted from a female director, writer, producer, editor, or director of photography, of which there are none. It is paramount that marginalized individuals be able to tell their own stories, from behind the camera and in front of it.
The film also invokes the idea of the metaphysical body, as Suzy is revealed to be Mater Suspiriorum, and therefore is a witch who has been around for centuries. This changes the way that her body is portrayed - she is beyond physicality, able to open her chest in obviously ionic imagery. Her abilities are supernatural, even in dance. She is therefore beyond the standards of perfection society, being that she is not from it. The film does not delineate whether or not this body has been Mater Suspiriorum’s for all time, or if this Suzy is simply a host, leaving open the possibility for the body to decay like Markos’ and start the cycle of seeking perfection all over again.
Written by: Gracelyn Barmore-Pouley
Art by: Alice Madrigal