That Suspiria Remake

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Put it this way, I doubt that it will be any worse than Argento's recent output. This will need some great reviews to make me watch it though.

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Put it this way, I doubt that it will be any worse than Argento's recent output. This will need some great reviews to make me watch it though.

Totally agree with both of these points.
Also agree it was the style of Suspiria that elevated its rather flimsy storyline....

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Put it this way, I doubt that it will be any worse than Argento's recent output. This will need some great reviews to make me watch it though.

I think it would be a helluva an achievement to make something worse than his Dracula picture or Card Player or Mother of Tears.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Suspiria is it's look. Very hard to duplicate.

I think that's the big problem with the film for me. It's all look. Granted, it looks fucking beautiful but that's it. Aside from the fucking amazing soundtrack and two fucking amazing murder sequences. That's all it has going for it.

I think the Suspiria is the most overrated of all the great Italo Horror pictures.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I remain one of the only people I know who liked the Card Player.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Jason Goes To Hell is better than Card Player.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

SUSPIRIA is the "Ace of Spades" or "Whip It" of Argento movies - are either of those songs by Motorhead or DEVO their respective best? To many they are and arguably both of those tunes can be seen as the epitome of what each band is about...and most of their fervid fans will tell you those aren't their favorites and that you have to dig deeper into their catalogs to get to the real good stuff (for the record my fave Motorhead song is "Iron Fist" and for DEVO it's "Girl U Want". Not exactly deep cuts so when I'm being snobbish I'll tell people "Sacrifice" and "Golden Energy")

I had seen DEEP RED and PHENOMENA prior to seeing SUSPIRIA - this was before the Magnum/Image laserdisc came out in the US - and the film was spoken of with such reverence by those that had seen it on the big screen or had the Japanese version that it's glory and importance was locked in my brain without seeing more than stills and clips from DARIO ARGENTO'S WORLD OF HORROR. The first viewing for me was like being baptized into a religion and I watched (and listened) very intently, waiting for all the juicy moments I'd been reading about for years. At the time I felt like it was Argento's crowning achievement - still do in some ways - but these days I would say that DEEP RED and BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE are better films over all, but SUSPRIA is still a fucked up, insanely beautiful, frustrating, one-of-a-kind experience. It's fallen out of favor with me at times but then I'll have a viewing that is like seeing it with an untarnished mind and it's crazy radiance burns bright again.

The point of all this is to say that tons of bands have covered "Ace of Spades". When that happens the fundamentals of the tune may remain but without Lemmy the essence is gone. You take Argento (and Goblin) out of SUSPIRIA and it's even more inessential. Without Dario it's just a movie about ballerinas and witches.

"But you haven't even seen it, Toyboy. How do you know?"

I know. We all know.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

The song comparison is right on the money, dude. By the time I watched Suspiria I had already seen Phenomena and Tenebre (my favorite Argento pictures), Inferno, Deep Red, and a good chunk of the Fulci and Bava catalogs. Plus a whole bunch of Italo horror both awesome and awesomely bad. I'm not saying Suspiria is bad but I don't see it as an ever-lasting perfect masterpiece that the critics who trip over their dicks proclaim it to be as.

I'll address this one point:

The point of all this is to say that tons of bands have covered "Ace of Spades". When that happens the fundamentals of the tune may remain but without Lemmy the essence is gone. You take Argento (and Goblin) out of SUSPIRIA and it's even more inessential. Without Dario it's just a movie about ballerinas and witches.


I know. We all know.

But then you have covers that are better or on par with the original song. House of the Rising Sun was not an original song by the Animals and was covered many times before they knocked it out of the park. And then you have NIN's Hurt and then Johnny Cash's amazing cover. Marilyn Manson hit it out of the park with Sweet Dreams and you could argue the original is just as good. Gary Jewels and Michael Andrews cover of Mad World completely destroys the original. And some people like that Taken By Trees cover of Sweet Child of Mine.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

I certainly get having a preference for something new and different and I even think that DEVO's cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is more enjoyable than the Stones'. You can always take something and twist it, flip it and turn it into something cool and new and sometimes, when the stars are aligned, better than the original but you cannot recreate the essence of a work of art for the simple reason that the remake/cover will forever be tied to the original which is where that essence was evolved. Some of the time what goes into that evolution is accidental or pulled from the subconscious mind. In the case of SUSPIRIA I just feel like there are too many essentials that will be missing in order for the remake to be a success. To me remaking that film would be like someone trying to remake ERASERHEAD.

Now, that's not to say you can't take a film's fundamental elements and add to them or subvert them in order to create something interesting or possibly as good in it's own way. The most commonly sited (or plain overused, which I'm guilty of) examples of this being Carpenter's THE THING, Cronenberg's THE FLY and Kaufman's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. The general consensus with each of those is that while as good as the original movies are the new guys came in and updated and changed them in ways that made them stand on their own to where they almost felt like wholly original films, only tethered to the past by title. I would also argue that those three source films did not have the signature style and voice that SUSPIRIA has. Again, the basis of Argento's film is "a coven of witches run a ballet school". Simple enough and potentially ripe for various takes on the subject...BUT, Argento's hand prints are all over that movie. People do not hold it in high regard because of the basic plot - they dig that movie because Argento crafted it. Take him (and Goblin) out of the equation and you lose 90% of what makes that movie what it is, in my opinion. Take Kurt Neumann out of the orginal FLY and you're talking 20% maybe? I'm sure there are fans of the 50's version that think Neumann was crucial to the concept working or that the 80's version is a crime so I won't argue that line of thinking too much.

I will say this though: When the EVIL DEAD remake came out I thought it was garbage. Later I heard a guy on a podcast say that before watching the remake he had never seen Raimi's films so he went back to watch the first one and hated it. He slammed it for being amateurish and goofy with horrible special effects, etc... It's highly likely that there will be plenty of people who see the SUSPIRIA remake cold and really dig it so they grab the original and think that it's horrible. In the end it doesn't matter to me so I'm trying not to get too worked up about - Chloe Grace Meritz being in it deducts major points for me and I think Tilda Swinton is too obvious a choice for her role. With that said if it ever pops up on Netflix I'll give it a shot...maybe. You couldn't pay me to watch the CARRIE remake.

What I really want is that 4K scan bluray we've been promised, dammit.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I will say this though: When the EVIL DEAD remake came out I thought it was garbage. Later I heard a guy on a podcast say that before watching the remake he had never seen Raimi's films so he went back to watch the first one and hated it. He slammed it for being amateurish and goofy with horrible special effects, etc... It's highly likely that there will be plenty of people who see the SUSPIRIA remake cold and really dig it so they grab the original and think that it's horrible. In the end it doesn't matter to me so I'm trying not to get too worked up about - Chloe Grace Meritz being in it deducts major points for me and I think Tilda Swinton is too obvious a choice for her role. With that said if it ever pops up on Netflix I'll give it a shot...maybe. You couldn't pay me to watch the CARRIE remake.

That's the kind of person who hates B&W films or movies with subtitles. You can't take their opinion seriously.

I'm completely neutral when it comes to remakes. I don't care if Clockwork Orange is remade or Fulci's The Beyond is remade. I really don't. So long as a George Lucas situation -where the original unaltered version is hidden away- doesn't happen.

And a remake can work. There's three other really good remakes that came out in the last couple of years (oddly, all of them are slashers):

Maniac. And I think this was better than the original.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown. I am not a fan of the original and really dug this picture.

And the Friday the 13th Remake.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Tilda Swinton in old age makeup from the set.

http://people.com/movies/tilda-swint...role-suspiria/

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Better than any remake will ever be:

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Thom Yorke from Radiohead is scoring this thing.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

Odd that it isn't Johnny Greenwood who has done so many excellent scores. I love SUSPIRA but do agree that BIRD and DEEP RED are better films but SUSPIRA is just so odd and dreamlike.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Thom Yorke from Radiohead is scoring this thing.

Wiiiii-iiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiii-iiiiiiiii-ii-iiiiii-ii-tch!

<dogs howl and run away>