Suspiria(1977)

Pooper:
Susie is actual Mother Suspiriorum and she kills Mother Markos and all her followers for losing their way. Susie takes control of the coven and reveals the fate of Dr. Klemperer’s wife to him before wiping his memory of everything he had witnessed.

Long Ending:
The movie takes place during the German Autumn, with the real life events of that era playing in the background. The film opens with a teenaged girl named Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz) from a Munich ballet studio stopping by her therapist Dr. Josef Klemperer (Tilda Swinton, credited as Lutz Ebersdorf) in a panic. He tells Dr. Klemperer that the school is run by a bunch of witches that tried to take her body. She then says the witches can see where she is before fleeing his office, leaving all her belongings behind.

Soon thereafter, an American dancer named Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) arrives and impresses the teachers there. It is explained that the studio is run by an all female group with independent funding who have managed to keep the school open through wars and political strife. The school is run by Mother Markos (also Tilda Swinton) who is never seen and a well-respected former dancer named Madame Blanc (also ALSO Tilda Swinton). It also is revealed that the instructors are, in fact, witches. After their “failure” for Patricia, the coven votes on whether to transfer leadership to Madame Blanc, but the Mother Markos supporters win the election.

The instructors claim that Patricia left the school to join the revolutionaries in their attack on the German government. Patricia’s friend Olga (Elena Fokina) doesn’t believe them and tries to leave the studio. As Olga leaves, Madame Blanc orders Susie to dance and casts a spell on Susie that causes her dance movements to telepathically damage Olga (who was shepherded into a secret room). By the end of Susie’s death, Olga’s limbs are completely twisted and splintered. The witches then impale Olga with meathooks and drag her into secret catacombs under the school.

Susie begins to bond not only with fellow student Sara (Mia Goth), but also with Madame Blanc (who seems to be taken with Susie’s true talent and ambition). Susie reveals that she fled a very strict Amish upbringing, and we learn that her mother (who is on her deathbed) regrets only one thing in life – having given birth to Susie. Mother Markos becomes aware of Susie’s powers and orders Madame Blanc to prepare Susie for the ritual that they originally were going to do to Patricia. Meanwhile, Dr. Klemperer reads Patricia’s journal and becomes convinced that the instructors of the school are dangerous (he doesn’t think they are witches, but believes they may be working for the government). Patricia’s journals state that all covens are descended from three primordial and all-powerful witches – Mother Lachrymarum, Mother Tenebrarum, and Mother Suspiriorum). As his wife disappeared in the Holocaust, Dr. Klemperer seeks to take action now.

Dr. Klemperer calls the police on the school (but they are put under the witches’ spell when they arrive to investigate) and reaches out to Sara to try and convince her to leave the school. Sara begins investigating and finds the catacombs and witnesses the instructors engaged in a satanic ritual before fleeing. She tells Dr. Klemperer that the instructors are witches and gives him one of their meat hooks as evidence. Meanwhile, one of Madame Blanc’s supporters commits suicide over what is about to happen to Susie. Though Madame Blanc expresses misgivings about the plan, they proceed by training the students in a dance routine that will double as a pre-ritual. They also decide to make Dr. Klemperer a witness to the ritual (acknowledging the ritual will drive him mad, and saying its what he deserves for interfering). Madame Blanc also acknowledges that she loves Susie (and acts as the warm mother Susie never had).

The night of the ritual/dance recital arrives. Sara sneaks down to the catacombs and finds a limbless Olga and an emaciated Patricia before her leg is snapped in a trap and the witches take over her mind. Dr. Klemperer attends the play and becomes genuinely afraid of the witches (especially after he sees Sara’ eye color has changed). He attempts to get rid of Patricia’s journal and the meathook, but he is tricked by the witches when they use an apparition of his wife (cameo by Jessica Harper, who played Susie in the original Suspiria) to lure him to their school where they capture him and drag him to the catacombs. The witches then drug all the other students and lead them to the catacombs.

Susie follows a ghostly light to the catacombs where she sees the instructors in robes, her peers entranced and engaged in wild dancing, and Dr. Klemperer weeping and stripped naked. She also sees Mother Markos, who is hideous and covered in tumors and bile. Mother Markos explains that she is the reincarnation of Mother Suspiriorum and intends to transfer her soul into Susie’s body so she can extend her life. All Susie needs to do to complete the spell is kill her birth mother (Mother Markos casts a spell allowing her to do so). Madame Blanc objects to the ritual, stating that something feels wrong, and Mother Markos slices open Madame Blanc’s neck.

Susie smiles and reveals that, in fact, SHE is Mother Suspiriorum. Susie then kills Mother Markos for perverting Suspirorum’s name and conjures the embodiment of death to kill all of Mother Markos’ followers in a giant spray of blood (she spares all those who were loyal to Madame Blanc). Susie then asks Patricia, Olga, and Sara what they want, and all express a desire to be put out of their pain. Susie lovingly embraces them and grants them a loving death. She then establishes her control over the coven and appears to wipe the memory of all the dance students. Although Madame Blanc was nearly decapitated, it appears she still lives.

The epilogue shows a bed-ridden Dr. Klemperer being visited by Susie/Mother Suspiriorum. Susie explains that she had wanted to avoid all this, but needed to build up her power prior to acting against Mother Markos. To demonstrate that she is apologetic, she reveals Dr. Klemperer’s wife’s fate to him. His wife (intimated to have been Jewish) was captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. Eventually, she died of exposure. However, Susie tells him that she did die surrounded by her friends in the camp and that her last memory was of her first date with Dr. Klemperer and of the love he gave her. Susie explains (in an obvious critique of the Nazi government and the government of the time) that while men and leaders must experience guilt and shame to be good leaders, Dr. Klemperer is a good man and need not experience those emotions. She then wipes Dr. Klemperer’s memory of all the things he experienced because of the witches.

A post-credits scene shows Susie smiling at something off-camera.