Luca Guadagnino's “Suspiria” doesn't look to have a showing at TIFF this year, which is a real shame. It might even be absent at Telluride. As it stands There is only one festival showing for "Suspiria" and that's at the Venice Film festival. By all accounts, Guadagnino had in fact screened the film to Cannes head Thierry Fremaux, but who knows what happened after that. Guadagnino has his side that he's telling people and that's that.
This latest endeavor for Guadagnino, who is mostly known for sunshine-filled Italian romantic fantasies, is a remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror film. Yup, Guadagnino playing outside of his comfort zone.
The premise on paper seems to be the same as the original: A young beautiful dancer (Dakota Johnson) travels to Germany to learn ballet at a very high-end school, but then some weird stuff starts to happen, involving witchcraft and other inexplicable things.
The 152 minute remake, or re-imagining if you will, is almost a whole hour longer than the original. Thom Yorke of Radiohead wrote the music for the soundtrack. Sign me up! Then why is this not screening anywhere except Venice? I really think what we have here are the makings of a very divisive film, at least by the accounts I was given of people that have actually seen it. Maybe this year's 'mother!'?
“Suspiria” will be released in the U.S. on November 2, 2018.
I actually find that number optimistic. Tickets for “Digger” go on sale next Tuesday, and presales will give us a better picture of how bad it’s looking.