‘Suspiria’ Star Weighs in on Film’s Shocking Twist Ending

Suspiria has offered audiences one of the more perplexing horror experiences of the year, with the film leaving audiences with a number of unanswered questions. Star Dakota Johnson recently revealed how she interprets the film’s ambiguous details, though admits these details are open for interpretation.

WARNING: Major spoilers below for Suspiria

In the film, Johnson plays Susie Bannion, a burgeoning ballet dancer who is compelled to visit a famed ballet school in Berlin, Germany that is run by Madame Blanc. The instructor reveals to the student that she is part of a coven of witches running the school, with their goals being to bring to life the mythical witch Mother Suspiriorum.

In the film’s finale, Susie revealed that she had already embraced the witch. One of the big questions was whether it was the school that resulted in Susie embracing the supernatural entity or if it was a lifelong possession.

“My perspective on that is I did make an effort to sort of leave that open for interpretation,” Johnson shared with Collider. “So Susie’s evolution is very internal. It’s deeply internal, but the thing that draws her to Berlin, to Madame Blanc, is also deeply internal. There are so many threads of possibilities. She comes from a Mennonite family, which Mennonites came from Germany. She has sort of like denounced the church, her mother and her father. She does not … she just fundamentally does not accept the life that she’s been given, which a long time ago if you did that, you were a witch. If you were at all independent, if you thought independently, if you felt independently from your father or the church, you were a witch.”

Through the use of flashbacks, audiences witnessed Susie’s mother rejecting her daughter, possibly confirming that there was something wrong with the child from an early age.

“So there’s all these kind of like hints that Susie’s different but she doesn’t know. She just feels this pull, this magnet, this thing, to dance and she has to go to Berlin,” the actress continued. “She has to be with Madame Blanc. It’s like just she was born in the wrong place. I think that’s how she makes sense of it, like, ‘I just don’t belong here.’ Then I believe once she understands what is happening there is a very, very subtle moment where I think she realizes what she’s meant to do.”

She added, “I want the audience to figure out when that is.”

The film also included a post-credits scene which hinted at a follow-up film, potentially uncovering more answers.

Suspiria is in theaters now.

What do you think about Johnson’s explanation? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Collider]