You’ve been Warned!
In the gradual build up to Suspiria arriving, they have submitted the movie for an MPAA rating… and wowsers… just by the rating this looks to be a very disturbing watch. Early reports back that up, as do some of the images that have been sneaking out online. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that it didn’t get hit with an N-17 from early reports, but I think the MPAA is very judicious about what films they apply that label to. Maybe, as Josh Schnepp at Collider has often suggested… maybe we need a “Hard R” designation, to separate it from a garden variety R rating, like PG-13 did for PG, without putting the stigma of pornography on the project. This is the furthest thing from a hack production, and the MPAA rating is a bit of a studio political game, and there’s often a bit of negotiation between studio and the MPAA on finessing the final rating.
That said, in a sign of confidence, the producers behind Suspiria are fully embracing this news and are fanning the flames!
Suspiria comes out on November 2 in the US, and November 7 in Europe. Given that they went for the MPAA rating, I’m thinking that Amazon is going to give this a theatrical release. Amazon doing the release, they have a built-in streaming platform, so if hey are going to give it a theatrical release in November, that suggests to me that they are gunning for Oscars… which bodes very well for Suspiria. It has the Pedigree, and it has the production values and cast to pull that off.
It’s a brave new world when multiple horror movies will be in contention for Oscars. Certainly Annihilation, Hereditary, and A Quiet Place will have some claims come next Spring. Then again… this movie might just be too repulsive to most Oscar types. We’ll see, won’t we?