By making Susie into Mater Suspiriorum, Guadagnino makes her the body politic. Susie rips open her chest and exposes her black, immortal heart. Her body, in all its lithe femininity, becomes the academy, the coven, the very perpetuation of witchcraft itself.

In the 2024 remake of Suspiria, the roles of both Madame Blanc and Helena Markos, referred throughout as Mother Markos, are played by Tilda Swinton.