This year’s Suspiria remake expands across the nation this weekend, exposing far more viewers to its madness. While the film isn’t nearly as accessible as recent horror efforts like Halloween or The Nun, that hasn’t stopped director Luca Guadagnino from beginning to theorize what a prequel film could explore.
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“I have this image in my mind,” Guadagnino shared with The Playlist. “I have this image in my mind of Helena Markos in solitude in the year 1212 in Scotland or in Spain. Wondering through a village and trying to find a way on how she can manipulate the women of the village. I have this image. I know she was there, I know it was six to seven hundred years before the actual storyline of this film.”
Markos is discussed regularly in the film, denying audiences an explanation of who, or what, she is. As Guadagnino’s prequel concept reveals, the character would have to possess some sort of supernatural abilities to survive for hundreds of years.
In the film, a darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe’s artistic director (Tilda Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Johnson), and a grieving psychotherapist (Lutz Ebersdorf). Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
The filmmaker detailed that another film in the series is reliant upon the success of this film and that this installment could be more fulfilling if a prequel is developed correctly.
“Depending on how this movie plays out in theaters we may revisit,” the director shared. “I think this movie particularly is, in a way, not necessarily something that needs to be progressed in advance. A companion piece this could something better deals with different layers of time. Not just the arrow that points the future.”
While Guadagnino might think a prequel could be more effective, he previously revealed that he included a post-credits scene on this film to tease a potential sequel.
“At the beginning we were going to title the movie ‘Suspiria: Part One’ but we didn’t want to give the impression of something that couldn’t stand alone,” the filmmaker noted to Deadline. “Truthfully, I’d be interested to explore the origin of Madame Blanc and Helena Markos and also the future of Susie Bannion in the world. So maybe. We’ll have to see how the movie goes.”
The Suspiria remake is in theaters now.
Are you hoping we get the rest of the films in the Three Mothers Trilogy or would you rather see a Suspiria prequel? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!