Suspiria (2018)
A young American dancer, Susie Bannion, arrives in 1970s Berlin to audition for a renowned dance company that is secretly run by a coven of witches. As she rises quickly through the ranks, the company’s hidden darkness begins to surface. Meanwhile, a psychotherapist and another dancer investigate mysterious disappearances and the academy’s sinister underground secrets. The film blends psychological horror, occult imagery, and political tension into a story of power and transformation.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
In 1977 West Berlin, Susie Bannion, a young American from a strict Mennonite background in Ohio, arrives at the Markos Dance Academy after being invited to audition, while another dancer, Patricia Hingle, has already vanished after warning her psychotherapist, Dr. Josef Klemperer, that the academy is run by witches.
Turning Point 1
Patricia’s journals, which Klemperer reads after she disappears, describe the Three Mothers—Mater Suspiriorum, Mater Tenebrarum, and Mater Lachrymarum—and convince him that Patricia’s warning may be true, even as he remains doubtful and files a missing-person report.
Turning Point 2
At the academy, Madame Blanc notices Susie’s extraordinary talent and admits her; meanwhile, Susie befriends Sara Simms, and both women begin to suspect something is wrong after they notice traces of Patricia and Olga Ivanova being erased from the school’s records and spaces.
Turning Point 3
During a rehearsal of Volk, Susie and Madame Blanc perform in a way that physically mirrors Olga’s movements in a sealed room, and Olga is brutally mangled by invisible force until the matrons drag away her broken body with hooks, proving that the dance itself is being used as a weapon.
Turning Point 4
As Susie rises quickly through the company and becomes Blanc’s protégée, the matrons hold an election over the coven’s leadership; Mother Markos is chosen over Madame Blanc, and the internal split exposes the academy as a hierarchy of witches competing over control of the body that will host their power.
Turning Point 5
Sara investigates further and discovers the hidden underground chambers beneath the school, where the coven has been concealing its rituals and the fate of missing women, while Klemperer continues piecing together Patricia’s claims and grows more alarmed by the academy’s supernatural influence.
Turning Point 6
On the night of the performance of Volk, the witches use the event as a ritual culmination; Klemperer attends, Susie’s dance becomes increasingly charged and ominous, and the academy’s true purpose becomes clear as the coven prepares for the transfer of power to a new vessel.
Ending
Susie is revealed to be the incarnation of Mater Suspiriorum, not a mere recruit, and she enters the coven’s chamber, summons Death, kills Mother Markos and her loyal matrons, spares Madame Blanc and those devoted to her, and then mercifully visits Klemperer in his home to release him from the guilt and trauma of his past before departing into the dark with the survivors’ fate left transformed.
Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.