There was once a week where the Cult Film class of Alfred University was told to watch the original version Suspiria that was released 1977 and this film had a lot of expressionism in it and was one of the last films to use technicolor and it made the film look beautiful. But in the year 2018, Amazon released a new, updated version of Suspieia, that was very different from the original in many different ways. However, these differences never would affect the overall quality of both films.

Now that I told my story, let me just say that I have wanted to watch the original Suspiria ever since I watched the new one in 2018, and I can say that I wasn’t disappointed in the film. I loved every minute of it and it was very different from the new one, which is a very good thing. I will say that I watched the original film at night, which is how I believe horror movies should be watched, and I believe that this made the film even better for me. I loved every minute of it and even though I knew who the witches were, it didn’t detract from the horror aspect of the movie, in fact it made it better because I didn’t know what the witches were going to do next. The article this week that stuck out to me was “Expressionist Use of Colour Palette and Set Design in Dario Argento’s Suspiria” by Giulio L. Giusti and I will explore the reasoning.

Both films have unique color styles and music that greatly impact the experience of both movies. The original Suspiria is inspired by German expressionism, which is what the article discussed, and this can be seen in the set design and the way that the film looks. The new Suspiria has no expressionism in it and it isn’t as colorful as the original, but this never impacted the film, in fact, it made the film even better and made the film different from the original. I rewatched the new one this week, late at night, and after watching the original, I can say that I am glad that the new one has no expressionism in it and that is because I don’t like it when a remake tries to be a carbon copy of the original. I love both of the films for many different reasons and one of these reasons is that one film has German expressionism for its style, while the other film seems more bleak and depressed, which helps the new one greatly.

Now in order for me to continue, I have to spoil the new film through the blog and also through a video. Seriously, if you don’t want the new film to be spoiled, just skip past the video and you will be good. I have warned you.

The new film is very different in the way it handles the end of the film. The new film puts a twist on the common horror movie ending that you are expecting by making the main character the final monster, or in this case, the mother witch. This ending really makes this remake different from the original where in the original the main character destroys the whole dance academy and destroys the coven of witches. Now, I can continue talking about all of the differences between the two films for another 500 words, but I found a video that best sums up everything that I have to say about the two films. Now the video includes spoilers as well that I haven’t mentioned, watch at your own risk.

Now in order to sum up this tale of two Suspirias I will say that the difference between the two films make them both great and unique as well. One thing that I have always remembered about the new film is the whole plot of the film and all of the disturbing deaths that happen in the film. The one thing that I will always remember about the orignal is the amazing music, it is one of the best soundtracks I have heard for a horror film, not as good as Doctor Sleep in my opinion, but it is good.