Plot: A young and ambitious dancer arrives at a world renowned dance company to find a dark secret behind its success.

For quite some time, I have been aware of the 1977 original by Dario Argento. But it wasn't until last year when I heard that it was being re-made by director Luca Guadagnino who was at the helm of the brilliant Call Me By Your Name.


That obviously prompted to check out Argento's version to see what's what. I felt the story to be pretty solid and the look of it to be very stylish with many intense imagery. While I think the story never felt totally fulfilled, I remained excited as I know Guadagnino has a style that I feel can make this memorable viewing.


Was it memorable? Definitely. However, like the original, there were still aspects missing for it to be the total package that I feel this story could be.
From the beginning, I could tell the production was of the highest quality. The image looked gorgeous, I was enjoying many of the performances both from its dialogue and from its psychical aspects and throughout I was seeing many evocative images and scenes with disturbing results.
However, the story was losing me. While it may have added a somewhat unnecessary sub-plot, it managed to further lose its way with the story.
It starts off well with laying the foundations and the at-time graphic imagery really helped the narrative move along. But the longer it went, the weirder it got and more the story was losing me. In the end, I was just appreciating its style more than anything else.


Other positives I wanted to mention were the performances and dance sequences. It was great seeing Dakota Johnson continuing to do well after the Fifty Shades trilogy. First Bad Times At The El Royale, and now this. Her performance was pretty solid on the whole and her physicality she put in was terrific to see.
Another strong performance worth mentioning is Tilda Swinton, who as usual can do no-wrong. That sense of mystery she gave to her character really made her very watchable. Plus, it turns out Swinton played two other characters. I wasn't surprised with one, but the other totally fooled me and I reckon everyone else.
I also have to mention the efforts of Mia Goth, especially in the final act. Her physical side of her acting contributed beautifully to the ending.


As for the dance sequences. They are totally worth checking out. With the added camerawork, editing and production design, these moments during the film were pretty atmospheric, evocative and unsettling at times.


I think in the end we have a clear case of style over substance. Thankfully, I'm partial to fair amount of that. But with my excitement being pretty high for this, I did end up being disappointed with this.
Technically, it's terrific. The cinematography and editing made for quite the atmosphere for the majority of the film.
But I think the just-over 2hrs 30mins duration emphasized the narrative problems it had and forced me to downgrade my enjoyment of it.


I think if we had the story structure of the original and the look, style and performances of this one, we may have the film I am still waiting for.


Rating: 7/10