Final Girls Week: Suzy Bannion, Suspiria
“There are two things that dance can never be again: beautiful and cheerful. Today, we need to break the nose of every beautiful thing.”
Suzy Bannion, the unconventional heroine and statuette of virtuosity, first introduced to us in Dario Argento's 1977 chromatic horror classic Suspiria, stands as a poetic allegory to sexuality, power and dance as a vessel for witchcraft. The original cult film sees Suzy (Jessica Harper) as its leading protagonist, faced with the perils of uncovering unearthly secrets accounting for the disappearances and murders of her classmates at a prestigious school for ballet in Freiburg, Germany.
Argento's portrayal of Bannion effortlessly fills the shoes of many a final girl foregoing, in aspects of behaviour and beliefs, characteristics that imply a reserved nature. Final girls in the history of film are often used instrumentally as part of a sadomasochistic fantasy, with the use of the female body being viewed as something “monstrous” which was explored in Klaus Rieser's Masculinity and Monstrosity as:
“The idea of female sexuality being something that needs to be punished or come with negative consequences. It shows that once a woman acts in a sexual way she will be killed.”
Often depicted as introverted, studious or naïve, a final girl will usually be envisioned as innocent or virginal, with redeeming factors being that of level-headedness and strong will. Not often ones to misbehave, this doesn't distract characters of the opposite sex from setting their sights on winning them over. These stereotypes aside, Harper's Suzy remains quick-witted and determined throughout Argento's film, and we soon see her toppling the mystic figureheads within the coven's Matriarchy, causing their insidious plans to come crashing in on themselves. The purity and intensity of colour used in each scene play a huge part in the psychology of the original. We are bathed in a flood of primary colour and manipulation of light left reverberating off the walls of each sequence, not just as a feast of visual delight, but as a key to depicting the emotions of Suzy and the film's other characters.
The use of dance as a depiction of evil or as a vessel for witchcraft and the supernatural is a theme in horror dating years back. Choreography has been used in a long list of films to mirror the malevolent or depict the occult, from the 1948 masterpiece of The Red Shoes to more recent modern horror such as Gaspar Noé's Climax or Jordan Peele's Us. Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake of Suspiria looks deeper into this aspect, and we witness a newly reborn Susannah Bannion bending the mold of the final girl trope. This time with Dakota Johnson taking the lead, the film becomes unquestionably focused on the power of the feminine, rejecting repression of the female body and explores the closeness of female relationships rather than as mere subjects of the male gaze. A reversal of power is seen, and in place of where once a final girl stood submissive to her fate, the film appears to almost mock this facade, with Susannah on a path set to burn all previous conceptions at the stake. Luca Guadagnino's film additionally has a near all-female cast, which is something we also love to see.
Guadagnino's version also treads into new territory when it comes to style and visual direction. In place of vibrant colour schemes, we are greeted to the bleak and stark reality of the Cold War era at the height of the German Autumn, and a dampened-down palette reflected in both costume and the setting throughout. The film offers a retrospective glance at 16th century witchcraft and traditional Puritan practices and delves into the deep-rooted origins of such mythologies seen within pagan folklore and depictions of occultism.
Although both versions of Suzy are seen to have a heightened level of curiosity into the unknown, Guadagnino's Susannah has a greater sense of self-control and remains unabashed throughout her journey exploring her own origins and identity. As the film draws towards its closing scenes, we no longer see Suzy desperate to escape and retreat back to normality, we see her accept and indulge her newfound power and drag herself willingly, deeper and deeper into a world enshrined in darkness and death. We are no longer seeing the Matriarchy as something to topple, but as something to empower and overthrow, to continue and strengthen as time moves forward.
In some ways, this could be seen as reflective of the progress in both intersectionality and feminism in modern-day, with women finally set to reclaim the trope of the final girl. As Tilda Swinton's Madame Blanc proclaims, “When you dance the dance of another, you make yourself in the image of its creator. You empty yourself so that her work can live within you.” Perhaps there needs to be a little of Susannah in us all, minus the murderous intent of course.
