Spencer’s review published on Letterboxd:
I've been putting off watching this for almost a month now. It came out in Atlanta during one of the first weeks it opened limitedly. I was working a ton so I never got the chance to see it. Finally got to see it at an art house in Maine for one of the two showings it has a day. Nathan Cram (https://tinyurl.com/ya45nc4y) told me about the 1977 Suspiria about a year ago and I checked it out. It was a super weird colorful Italian film that was very violent and had some crazy concepts. This remake I heard was extremely different but more a distant cousin of a remake.
Here's the thing.. this was 2.5 hours and I honestly thought it flew by. Maybe a 2hr runtime would have been a much tighter movie while telling the same story but the length it was didn't bother me. There were many slow moments throughout this movie but a lot of the times they were quite riveting and you felt invested. The editing of the movie deserves some recognition because it's very well done. Performances were great all around, Tilda Swinton with her few roles and Dakota Johnson went all out it was nuts. I thought this was going to be much more of a horror film but its played out like a psychological thriller with some horror elements.
What I didn't really like was how the story unfolded. I thought it could have been told a bit faster or used more over the top scenes rather than save it for one crazy third act reveal. Also, I thought it would have been a cool nod to really utilize the cinematography of the first one more, although there were times where it did and the camera work has some instances. But for the most part it was kinda just a dark, gray looking film while the original was a very vibrant and colorful. Maybe it was completely intentional though.
Overall, I gotta say I admire this remake and give it respect. It's ballsy and really goes for it at times. It's pretty slow for the average movie goer but our theater was surprisingly busy and nobody walked out because it does keep you invested and leaves you to sit in your chair afterwards and contemplate the last five years of your life.
3.5/5