WARNING: This Review May Contain Spoilers
So, you know how I’ve said before that I wasn’t doing anymore remake articles that were based on books? Well, I find it rather interesting that these films are actually based on an essay by Thomas De Quincey from 1845. Now, the 2018 remake is considered to be “inspired” by the original 1977 film by Dario Argento and his wife Daria Nicolodi. Is that the new way of saying “loosely based on”?
Run Time
This was actually quite interesting to me as the 2018 remake is a whole hour longer than the original film. Now, it does state at the beginning of the film that some frames of the original film are missing but had been fully restored by its 40th Anniversary. Even for release in America, only 8 minutes were cut so where does the additional hour come from? Maybe part of this is the expansion of Pat’s character as we are introduced to her straight away in the remake instead of just the small moment in the original before she is murdered. They also seem to use this time to formulate an investigation into the dance school and the disappearance of Patricia as well as adding a deeper backstory to Susie’s character.
A Discovery of Witches
This was treated as a big reveal in the original film, a gradual build-up until the end as different things are discovered about the teachers at the school, including Sara’s suspicions of where the teachers go each and every night. However, in the remake it is mentioned in the first couple of minutes that Patricia believes the teachers at the ballet school to be witches. This gave me the hope that maybe they had decided to go in a different direction with what was taking place at the school, however there are clear scenes that tell me they are following exactly the same storyline but are making it slightly clearer earlier that there is something witchy going on. Add to that, when Ms Blanc touches Susie she seems to pass on some sort of power before she dances and something supernatural is quite clearly done to Olga.
The Strange Case of Susie
From my understanding in the original film, Susie is supposed to be the lead character – the potential final girl if you will. Especially as the original film opens with her arrival, whereas the remake, as already mentioned, opens with an introduction to Patricia. In the remake however, even though Susie is still somewhat of a main character, with the film broken down into acts it feels that are at least trying to give a little more of the runtime to other characters including the fact that we see more of Patricia at the beginning and even have at least one scene of just the teachers.
What is strange for me in the original film, is that it isn’t clear as to why the teachers are so interested in Susie – are they scared of her or did they want her as part of their coven (given what we discover about them at the end)? In the remake however, it is clear from the beginning they need her for something as a private conversation makes it obvious that she has been what they have been looking for all along.
The Use of Music
I actually find this can be extremely key to a horror film. Take The Exorcist for example, Tubular Bells freaks me out every time I hear it and even the main instrumental for Halloween sends shivers up my spine. The music used for the original film, even from the moment Susie is getting into the cab at the beginning, the music Dario has produced for this film is chilling to say the least. Now, I won’t say that there isn’t any instrumental music in the remake because it is very good at setting the tone of the scene however it’s not as chilling as in the original film.
Death Toll
The interesting thing about the original film is the fact that following the opening deaths of Pat and the young woman who takes her in when she escapes the dance school, there are no more until that of Daniel and then of Sara much later on in the film. I think this a subtle reminder that you don’t need a huge death count for a film to be considered scary or a horror. Of course this is not including those killed by Susie in the final showdown of the original film. In the remake however, Patricia seems to die off-screen or at least this is what I assumed as her being missing and something being done to her is only referenced by other characters. The deaths are also much more graphic in the remake than they are in the original – especially the death of Olga, the first to take place. So much so that it actually made me feel a little bit sick.
The Death of Daniel
This is possibly the most disturbing scene in the original film for me. At first you start to think that there’s something supernatural, almost vampiric happening in the scene – especially as there is a shot that follows a flying creature. However, what actually happens catches the audience by surprise as there seems to be no trigger for his dog to attack him the way he does. Unfortunately, with the lack of male characters in this film this scene is not replicated in the remake but as already mentioned it is slightly replaced by other disturbing deaths.
In Conclusion
I’m not going to say I don’t like the remake because that wouldn’t be true at all, but with the longer run time it struggled to hold my attention on the first watching. However I did enjoy both versions of the film but felt there was more added to the remake that was not necessary for the overall story – like making the fact that the dance school was run by witches so obvious, keeping it a secret in the original film added to the suspense.
