Aspiring American dancer Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) arrives in 1977 Berlin with a hope to enrol at a prestigious all-female academy led by famous choreographer Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton). A prodigious talent, Susie quickly rises to Blanc's challenges, while other students begin to mysteriously disappear or become gravely injured. One of the missing is Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz), last seen by her psychiatrist Josef Klemperer (Swinton as Lutz Ebersdorf) who tries to pass a warning to her classmates about Patricia's beliefs that the academy is a front for a dangerous coven of witches.

Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, I Am Love) rightly describes this as a "cover" and not a remake of Dario Argento's original 1977 cult classic Suspiria; it is an almost wholly different beast. The casting is impeccable and full of surprises (including the original's star Jessica Harper in a cameo), the production design is evocative of that particular time in German history (shades of Fassbinder!), and the film does not shy away from the grotesque. Set against the politics of the German Autumn of 1977, this Suspiria is a constantly astonishing film that builds on themes of radicalism, abuse of power, motherhood, trauma, and – of course – witchcraft.