The original Suspiria was scored by the prog rock group, Goblin, in collaboration with director Dario Argento. It’s a spacey, innovatively synth heavy theme that bursts into a guitar race towards the violent, wonderfully overwrought whispering of the word “witch.” The film is inseparable from its score, as are many other films: Fact Mag, who named it their favorite horror soundtrack of all time, emphasized that “Goblin’s innovations certainly reached the ears of another towering figure in horror cinema and soundtracks: the great John Carpenter,” whose own horror zeitgeist inspiring Halloween score was influenced by it. So, that said, it seems like one of the biggest things I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming Suspiria remake will need to live up to is the relationship the original had to music. And with the fresh announcement of the composer for the film — Thom Yorke — it seems likely it’ll meet those expectations.
This will, as Pitchfork notes, actually be Yorke’s first time scoring a film. (His Radiohead bandmate, Jonny Greenwood, has made a towering side career for himself as one of the best film composers out there — scoring the P.T. Anderson’s The Master, There Will Be Blood, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.) Guadagnino said in a statement:
Thom’s art transcends the contemporary. To have the privilege of his music and sound for Suspiria is a dream come true. The depth of his creation and artistic vision is so unique that our Suspiria will sound groundbreaking and will deeply resonate with viewers. Our goal is to make a movie that will be a disturbing and transforming experience: for this ambition, we could not find a better partner than Thom.
Indeed, it’s hard to think of anything more musically witchy than Thom Yorke on, say, Radiohead’s “We Want Young Blood,” or, for that matter, “Burn the Witch.”
The film stars Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, and Chloë Grace Moretz, and is currently in post-production; it does not yet have a release date.