Mia Goth, Elena Fokina and Chloë Grace Moretz appear in supporting roles as students, while Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Sylvie Testud, Renée Soutendijk and Christine LeBoutte portray some of the academy's matrons.

It was given a limited release by Amazon Studios in Los Angeles and New York on October 26, 2018, where it grossed over $180,000 in its opening weekend, marking the highest screen-average box-office launch of the year.

Blanc, meanwhile, resumes the rehearsal, during which Susie performs an aggressive dance; her movements begin physically afflicting Olga, ravaging her body and damaging her organs and bones.

"[5] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post links the film's theme of motherhood (characterized alongside its "discontents" as being "chewed on like a vulture tearing at a carrion") with ethnic nationalism, though he states that "neither subtext goes much of anywhere".

"[7] Matt Goldberg of Collider interprets a perfidious form of motherhood as a core theme of the film, as he notes the matrons merely pretend "to be motherly towards the students, [but] they're actually just using them for their power.

[8] Film Crit Hulk, a pseudonymous writer for The New York Observer, interprets Susie's character arc as the discovery of her shadow self: "Initially she seems just a fresh-faced girl from Ohio, eager to make strides into this esteemed dance company.

[8]While Susie/Mother Suspiriorum shows no mercy for Markos and her followers, Goldberg asserts that she is capable of compassion, citing the fact that she grants the physically devastated Sara, Olga, and Patricia "the sweet release of a gentle death rather than obliterating them.

"[14] Whalen characterizes the coven as "a working alternative to the patriarchy falling apart outside [the] doors—financially autonomous, beyond the reach of the police...  and deeply, powerfully collectivist, both materially and spiritually.

[15] These events occurred in the wake of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, a period referring to Germany's national reflection on their culpability in World War II and the Holocaust,[16] which "echoes constantly throughout" the film.

[17] While Goldberg[8] has pointed out correlations between the coven's inner workings and the national events occurring outside of it, others, such as Simon Abrams of The Hollywood Reporter, view them as "surface-level parallels between historic signifiers" that "have the odd effect of subordinating those female-centered themes to a blandly familiar grab bag of sensationalistic headlines.

[28] The film begins shortly after the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181, in order to hint at "larger thematic concerns", specifically the response of the youth of the era to the denial by their parents' and grandparents' generations of German culpability in World War II.

[28] Kajganich used the political tumult of the time as a means of contextualizing the central plot surrounding the Markos dance academy, "where an American is getting her education in a way in how a modern kind of fascism might look.

[30] Guadagnino was also enthusiastic in response to Kajganich's setting of the film, remarking: "Dario's movie was a sort of self-contained box of fleshy delicacies, which was not in relationship with the moment it was made.

"[35] Swinton, a friend and frequent collaborator of Guadagnino who had also co-starred in A Bigger Splash, was cast in three roles: Madame Blanc, the lead choreographer of the academy; Helena Markos, its decrepit matron; and Dr. Josef Klemperer, a psychologist who becomes embroiled in the coven.

[47] The film's casting director and executive producer Stella Savino responded to IndieWire, saying, "the character of Dr. Klemperer has been played by Professor Lutz Ebersdorf, a psychoanalyst and not at all a professional actor.

"[48] Writing for Vanity Fair, Joanna Robinson reported that when the film screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, on September 23, 2018, the audience was certain that the role of Klemperer was played by Swinton.

[51] While some filming took place at the Palazzo Estense in December 2016,[52] the central shooting location was the Grand Hotel Campo Dei Fiori in Varese, Italy, which served as the Markos Dance Academy.

[60][61] Approximately two weeks were spent in Berlin, during which filming of the street and U-Bahn sequences took place, as well as those occurring at the police station, which was shot in an abandoned office building in Mitte.

[62] The hotel, which had been abandoned for several decades, had been adorned with cellular towers on the rooftop;[4] Guadagnino recalled a "constant signal coming from the antennas that made all of us very weak and tired", while Johnson stated "there was electricity pulsating through the building, and everyone was shocking each other.

[70] The witches' sabbath that serves as the climax of the film was technically complicated due to Swinton's portrayal of three roles, each of which required their own unique and extensive makeup effects, as well as full-body prosthetics.

[76] Johnson also studied the work of Wigman, and listened to various musical acts of the 1970s, such as The Carpenters, Jefferson Airplane, and Nina Simone, artists she felt would have informed her character's instinctive movements.

"[113] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote a favorable review of the film, concluding: "The first time I saw Guadagnino's Suspiria, I came out pretty much covered in gore, and confounded by the surfeit of stories.

"[118] Slant Magazine's Greg Cwik praised the cinematography, but expressed disappointment for what he felt was a lack of cohesion: "Suspiria is a largely befuddling accumulation of shots and sounds that never coalesce.

"[121] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times criticised the pacing and runtime, writing: "As the first hour of Suspiria grinds into the second and beyond (the movie runs 152 minutes), it grows ever more distended and yet more hollow.

Unlike Argento, who seemed content to deliver a nastily updated fairy tale in 90 or so minutes, Guadagnino continues casting about for meaning, which perhaps explains why he keeps adding more stuff, more mayhem, more dances.

"[125] Travers conceded that "Guadagnino's reach far exceeds his grasp", but concluded: "to watch him excavate evil to find a sorrowful truth is something you won't want to miss.

[120][126][121] Brian Truitt of USA Today wrote that the subtext and subplots were "bound to alienate some", but that "those with a penchant for the new wave of psychological horror and a healthy respect for B-movie camp will love this thing to the crazy last dance",[108] while Stephanie Zacharek of Time criticised the political backdrop as "an extra layer of needless complication.

[118] Truitt noted that Johnson "navigates [her role] with grace, and...  captures just the right physicality in the various modern dances that ground the movie with a primordial weight and sexual energy.

Gleiberman praised the dances, writing that they have "so much snap and thrust and rhythm you might call it an art-conscious cousin of the pop choreography of Bob Fosse...  the movement is even more jutting and explosive, but it erupts from the women's souls."

The ludicrous terpsichorean display isn't helped by the costuming; the dancers all wear bright-red ropes tied in what appear to be Japanese Shibari bondage knots.