Movies
Remake Plants Seeds for Potential ‘Suspiria’ Sequel
Last night, Fantastic Fest surprised everyone with a secret screening of Amazon Studios’ Suspiria remake, which will eventually hit theaters on November 2 (Meagan says it, “…casts a hypnotic spell that’s sure to divide audiences.”). After the screening, writer David Kajganich took part in a Q+A where he confirmed what was previously known – that they hope to make a sequel. While some sites are reporting a followup as “confirmed”, that’s far from the truth as Kajganich instead stated that they had planted some seeds in the off chance that a sequel was to get made. Other details came out of the Q+A that are spoiler heavy so we’re opting to omit it from this report. Instead, let’s wait and see if Amazon can successfully release Luca Guadagnino‘s divisive remake of Dario Argento‘s classic.
In the new film:
“A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe’s artistic director (Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.”
The cast includes Dakota Johnson, Chloe Grace-Moretz, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Sylvie Testud, Renée Soutendijk, Angela Winkler, Małgosia Bela and Lutz Ebersdorf. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke composed the score.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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