12 Movies That Aren't As Pretentious As You Think

1. Suspiria

And finally, we have the most recent release on this list - Luca Guadagnino's highly divisive remake of Dario Argento's 1977 horror classic Suspiria.

One of the most controversial and argued-about movies of 2018, the new Suspiria was embraced as a creative reinterpretation of the original by some fans, and rubbished as a pretentious, overlong slog by others.

You'll get no argument here that Guadagnino's Suspiria is a long movie, but its 153-minute run-time also does a fantastic job of immersing the audience in a film that's about as richly atmospheric and lived-in as they come.

The director opts to strip away the heightened, neon-infused colours of the original movie, swapping them out for a more drab, washed-out, even "realistic" look, which combined with the specific political context of 1970s Berlin, makes this a very different beast to its predecessor.

Like most of the movies on this list, Suspiria is not trying to be everything to everyone, but even among open-minded horror fans, it's a film that's split opinion straight down the middle.

The true qualifier for the film's lack of pretension ultimately comes down to the simplicity of its narrative. Beyond its slow pace and meditative style, there's nothing here that's difficult to understand, and the A-to-B-to-C of the story is easily digested by even the most casual of viewers.

Had Guadagnino buried the meaning of his movie beneath layers of impenetrable subtext, the complainers might have had something. Yet despite its art-house aesthetic, there's little holding the audience at arm's length.

So, what's your take? Are these movies thoroughly up themselves or totally misunderstood? Shout it out in the comments!