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Fantastic Fest 2018: ‘Suspiria’ Is Sensual, Savage Filmmaking-Sorcery

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Suspiria

Argento’s original Suspiria is undoubtedly one of his finest and stylistically gorgeous films to date. A remake announcement ruffled a few feathers of fans who held the original highly on the alter of fandom. But, rest assured that this remake is a masterpiece on its own terms using its own legs.

We are introduced to Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) a young student of dance who arrives at a world-renowned Tanz dance company in Germany. Much like Jessica Harper’s Bannion, she arrives with dreams and hopes intact and with hungry eyes. These two versions of Bannion are rarely ever so comparable in any other instance in this film, but it’s was nice that it starts in familiar territory.

Susie takes on the role of the student under the watchful gaze of her instructors, but begins to find more than she bargained for in both Stanz and in herself leading us down a hell of a path filled with well-choreographed dance, intense gore and twists along the way.

Suspiria takes place against conflict and unease of 1977 Berlin, and the soon to be changed face of Europe. A whole lot of connotation is placed on that timespan including the Baader-Mienhof bombings being mentioned in TV chatter, as well as the politics of the dance studio and their rank. A false democracy and power grab are at work in both arenas and it’s a really intelligent ideal to put the narrative inline with.

A ritual featuring an ousted member of the dance studio being bent, broken and violently contorted, is one of the first real reveals of how much more this film is going for the witch thing. It isn’t subtle and this sequence, edited together with a beautiful dance sequence is intensely brutal and sets the precedent of how this film is going to handle the dark magic aspects, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

Whereas Argento’s Suspiria teased the idea of what the films narrative truly was within the surreal, outside of a cringe worthy moment of Udo Kier over exposition, this one doesn’t dance around with the mystery whatsoever. You are fully aware that this is a coven, and even the idea of The Three Mothers is revealed fairly early on. It allows for exploration into other areas of interest that on some volumes are far more interesting.

Dakota Johnson and cast are a terrific ensemble and perfect to move Luca’s dark magic in new and macabre ways, taking a few twists and turns in terms of familiar character direction. A very unexpected detour of direction in particular pushes Mia Goth in new and interesting ways, further setting this version apart from Argento’s film.

Director Luca Guadagnino’s vision is years in the making and absolutely sings its own wonderful song. The film is gorgeous in its own special way, this vision focuses more on muted tones, rather than big gel lit set pieces. Guadangnino isn’t interested in big slasher set pieces either, instead he focuses on emotional resonance and the violent elements of the supernatural.

Thom Yorke’s score worked for me, carrying a grounded, haunting weight to Guadagnino’s dance. Yorke even adds a few vocal tracks into the mix, creating a chilling atmosphere right from the intro. The sounds combine hints of Radiohead with tons of synthesized queues built off of 70’s heady horror.
Suspiria is sensual, savage filmmaking sorcery. It pushes the envelope into new directions and features a finale that finalizes the love that I already felt for this film. It does exactly what a good remake has to do in order to transcend outside its predecessor’s shadow, it takes its own path, dancing and blazing the entire way.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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