If you start to hear an increase in girls and women saying “praise Satan” in everyday conversation, do not be alarmed (or do), the witches are just out to play.
Witches are no stranger to film and television, and have been the main subject across genres, be it horror or a children’s film, teen screen or sitcom television. In 2018, they are on the rise again, Netflix’s latest teen drama The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s recent remake of the Dario Agento cult classic Suspiria being released within weeks of each other.
From the creators of Riverdale, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a deliciously dark and stylish adaption of the graphic novel of the same name. A satanic update on the Sabrina the Teenage Witch Archie Comics (previously seen on screen by the television series of the same name in the late 90s), the show tells the story of Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), a half-witch, half-mortal who, on her sixteenth birthday will have her Dark Baptism and join The Church of Night. A rite of passage for every witch, including her Aunts Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis) and her late father, who was once High Priest of the Church. However, by signing over her devotion to the Dark Lord, she would need to surrender her connections to mortals, including her best friends Ros (Jaz Sinclair) and Susie (Lachlan Watson), and boyfriend Harvey (Ross Lynch). With gorgeous production design of retro nostalgia, visual references to classic horror, an infusion of classic teen hits such as ‘Be My Baby’ and ‘Sixteen Candles’ in its soundtrack, and overt investigation of religion, makes for an incredibly intellectual celebration of teens and intriguing series to watch.
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| Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina (centre) in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina |
Set in the year 1977, Luca Gudagnino’s Suspiria features Dakota Johnson as Susie Bannion, a dancer from a Mennonite community in Ohio who joins the legendary Markos Dance Academy in divided Berlin. Shrouded in mystery and reeling from the recent disappearance of dance student Patricia Hingle (Chloe Grace Moretz), Susie turns into the new protégé of company director Madame Blanc (a formidable Tilda Swinton). Suspicious of the goings on, classmate Sara (Mia Goth) starts to investigate the school, which turns out to be a front for a coven of witches. Suspiria yet again showcases Guadagnino’s key directorial style of not focusing too much on what is happening, but moreso with how it is being shown. His emphasis on mood and atmosphere is always a delight to watch, and works well for his previous films Call Me By Your Name and A Bigger Splash. Here, it does not always pull off. He crams too many different details into one narrative, which come across as biting off more than he can chew. The performances, though, especially from Johnson, Swinton and Goth, are terrific and worth witnessing.
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| Dakota Johnson a Susie in Suspiria (2018) |
Both of these narratives are of different mediums (one is a TV show, the other a film) and genres (teen drama vs arthouse horror). Even though Sabrina visually references Agento’s Suspiria, the 2018 version and the show are united in their exploration of male fear of female power, via the witch.
Like most religions, The Church of Night in Sabrina worships at the altar of a male all-mighty deity: the Devil himself (Praise Satan). Throughout the series, Sabrina refuses to sign the Dark Lord’s book and become a full member of the coven, receiving the full strength of her powers, unless she can maintain her mortal connections: she wants both freedom, and power. When she says this to her stylish rival Prudence (Tati Gabrielle) during episode two, Prudence laughs. The Dark Lord, she explains, is terrified of witches having both, “because he’s a man, isn’t he?”
The head of the Church of Night, and the highest reigning official, being the Dark Lord’s representative on Earth is the High Priest - a man by the name of Father Faustus Blackwood (Richard Coyle). Before him was Sabrina’s (now deceased) father. As High Priest, Father Blackwood represents the backwards, patriarchal view of the Church. He reinstates the Queen of the Feast tradition, where a witch from each family acts as a representative in a lottery to determine the Queen, who will be sacrificed and eaten at the Feast of Feasts. Ruling with an iron fist around tradition, by the end of the season, Father Blackwood has assembled his own brotherhood of Warlocks (male witches). During the season’s final moments, Blackwood, praising the birth of his son as a sign from the Dark Lord of the superiority of warlocks to witches, claims “The Church of Night is ours, boys” to a room of warlocks. A room of men chanting “Hail Judas! Hail Satan!”, denying the powerful work witches have done for the coven and throughout the season, is a bone-chilling note to end on.
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| A steely determined Sabrina in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina |
Meanwhile, in Suspiria, as a psychotherapist investigating the Dance Academy, Dr Klemperer (Tilda Swinton, as actor Lutz Ebersdorf) represents male naysayers, the men who would see a woman in distress and call her hysterical, call her a witch and sends her to the stake: “When women tell you the truth, you don’t pity them, you tell them they are having delusions.” The presence of Dr Klemperer was a confusing choice for the new Suspiria. He doesn’t really serve much purpose, and the focus on losing his wife during World War II’s connection to the witches was weak. However, when viewed as a representative for male fear of female power, it only seems right that witches should be his downfall.
In Sabrina, pious Aunt Zelda’s decree “our obligation is not to question, but to obey and participate” is challenged as sixteen-year-old Sabrina rebels and quite literally questions everything. The young Kiernan Shipka is wise beyond her years with the level of earnestness and steely determination she brings to the role of Sabrina. This makes Sabrina’s crusade against the Dark Lord less like a kitten growling, and more a lion roaring. This is never more evident than at the end of the second episode where Sabrina, after running from her Dark Baptism, yells in a deep and powerful voice “My name is Sabrina Spellman, and I will NOT sign it away!”. In Suspiria, the old coven need a younger body to act as a vessel for the spirit of Mother Suspiriorum, which exists in the grotesque and deteriorating body of Mother Markos. But the reign of terror cannot last, and misconceptions become their downfall at the hands of Susie, in a ripper of a sick, sly third act reveal. Johnson holds complete control, and this subtle fierceness makes me wonder why we haven’t been worshiped at her alter all along.
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| Susie (Dakota Johnson) surrounded by the coven of witches in Suspiria (2018) |
Witches have become an empowering figure for women. The ability to summon unseen powers to wreak havoc on all who wrong you (especially men) is enviable. In a world full of social and political unrest, danger at every corner and full of uncertainty, harnessing power is a way to harness control over your life. With an influx of witchy vibes across Instagram and popular culture, this empowerment is especially felt and embraced by young women. With Trump in the Whitehouse, Millennials and Gen Z’s are at the forefront of enacting and demanding societal and political change. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Suspiria speaks to that, whether intentionally (the former) or unintentionally (the latter).
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is now streaming on Netflix.
Suspiria is now in cinemas.
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Teen Screen Cinematheque is a curated online project, presented by Cause a Cine, which aims to explore the intersection between teen screen (film and television), and classic and art cinema. You can read more TeenCinteq writing here.
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