Amazon Studios’ adaptation of Dario Argento’s Suspira just got a little more legitimate, as Entertainment Weekly reports that Jessica Harper will make an appearance in the film.
In the 1977 horror classic, Harper starred as American ballet student Suzy Bannion, who discovers that her prestigious German dance school is being run by a coven. (The only thing scarier than the last 12 minutes of the film were Suzy’s potential student loan payments.) Bannion did survive the events of the original film, so perhaps this new Suspiria will be taking place in Argento’s Three Mothers Cinematic Universe. Harper’s role has yet to be revealed, but she will join Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Chloe Grace Morëtz, and Mia Goth at the Tanz Dance Academy for Basic Witches.
With an impressive cast, Suspiria is primed to join the ranks of pretty good-to-classic remakes like John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s The Fly. But one person who is not on board with the new adaptation is the original film’s writer and director, Dario Argento. “I do think it would better if it wasn’t remade,” Argento explained to Indiewire earlier this year. “I never got a call or anything, asking me about casting, locations, whatever … I might give some advice on the script, maybe the locations.”
Suspiria began shooting this week in Italy.