10 Films Substantially Different From Their Source Material

Dario Argento's horror classic is a confirmed masterpiece in the genre, and yet few would know, or be able to tell, that it is based on the mid-19th century writings of that age's most infamous opium addict. De Quincey's interconnected essays and prose poetry served as the thematic undercurrent for Argento's tale of the occult set in prestigious ballet school.

Starring American Jessica Harper, Argento's European horror tells the tale of Suzy Bannion, a young ballet student who arrives to study at the prestigious Tanz Dance Akademie in Freiburg, Germany. As a series of brutal murders plague the institution, Bannion comes to believe the school is a front for something far more sinister.

De Quincey's 1845 work features no plotline, no dance academy, no conspiracies, no brutal murders. It is rather a series of interconnect prose-poetic ruminations on imagery, memory, and the fantasies which came to De Quincey under the heavy influence of Laudanum, the opium tincture of his choice. Argento took a key chapter exploring the figures of 'Three Mothers' from De Quincey and fused it with his own occult interests to fashion what we now know as the film Suspiria.