'Suspiria' Reboot Trailer Looks Like Retro Horror in the Creepiest Way
Dario Argento's 1977 classic film comes back to life from Amazon.
by Eric FranciscoTo horror fans, the thought of rebooting Dario Argento’s 1977 classic Suspiria might be scarier than the movie itself. But things are off to an excellent (and very creepy) start, based on the new film’s atmospheric, retro-inspired trailer.
On Monday, Amazon Studios released the trailer for its remake of Suspiria, which hits theaters on November 2. Directed by Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Dakota Johnson as an American ballerina in Berlin who learns her school is a front for an occult. The movie also stars Chloë Grace Moretz and Tilda Swinton, who fulfills the late Joan Bennett’s role as Madam Blanc, the tortured vice-directress of the ballet school.
Without pandering to the decade like Stranger Things might, the trailer for Suspiria remarkably captures the aesthetics of 1970s horror, from the jagged edges of the letting to the montage of context-free creepy imagery. (It also helps that Guadagnino’s remake is a period piece set in 1977, the same year Argento’s original came out.) The trailer recalls a period of horror in which a fascination for Satanism and the occult dominated the genre before Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger took over.
Amazon has also released a new poster featuring a bloody “S,” a kind of climax to a series of teaser posters released online during the weekend.
Although the original movie generated lukewarm reviews upon release, it’s now regarded as a cult classic and an exemplary entry in European horror. Interestingly, Argento’s Supsiria is the first in a semi-connected universe, called “The Three Mothers” trilogy. Centered around a family of ancient witches, Argento’s Suspiria tie into two of his other movies, Inferno (1980) and The Mother of Tears (2007), both of which earned less acclaim than Suspiria.
Suspiria will be released in theaters on November 2.