BEVERLY HILLS – Luca Guadagnino is getting ready for the American release of his “cover” of “Suspiria,” but the story may not end with the film’s striking epilogue. In fact, it might not even truly begin in 1977 where the latest incarnation is set.
The Oscar-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” director is enjoying mostly strong reviews for “Suspiria” (74 on Metacritic, 72 on Rotten Tomatoes). It was also a labor of love for Guadagnino who became obsessed with Dario Argento’s original “Suspiria” as a child. His version of the film features many of the same characters including Susie Bannon (Dakota Fanning), Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), Sara (Mia Goth) and Helena Markos (also Swinton), the longtime leader of the witches’ coven that is central to the story.
During an interview on Wednesday, Guadagnino revealed he has many backstories for these characters and one, in particular, that could be part of a second “chapter” of “Suspiria” he’s teased previously.
“I have this image in my mind, and this is an exclusive for The Playlist,” Guadagnino says. “I have this image in my mind of Helena Markos in solitude in the year 1212 in Scotland or in Spain. Wondering through a village and trying to find a way on how she can manipulate the women of the village. I have this image. I know she was there, I know it was six to seven hundred years before the actual storyline of this film.”
To be frank, Guadagnino hasn’t formally begun work on what could constitute another “Suspiria” (he doesn’t like the word sequel), but he notes at one point the current film was going to be titled “Suspiria Part One.”
Note: Minor spoiler below.
“This because this is a movie layer in times and space,” Guadagnino says. “When Patricia [Chloë Grace Moretz] is in that undead situation she says to Sarah, ‘She shows me things.’ What? What kind of thing? Where is she? What is she saying? It’s very fertile what [screenwriter David Kajganich] came up with. So I think, depending on how this movie plays out in theaters we may revisit or once to see. I think this movie particularly is in a way not necessarily something that need to be progressed in advance. A companion piece this could something better deals with different layers of time. Not just the arrow that point the future.”
That prompted the obvious question, “But might it still involve witches?”
“Of course,” Guadagnino replies smiling. “It all about witches.”
“Suspiria” opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.