Inferno

MOVIE #1,204 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 10.22.23 50 MOVIES IN 32 DAYS! As I mentioned in today's first review, this one is BARELY a giallo. This is the middle film of what is often referred to as Dario Argento’s “The Three Mothers” trilogy which began with the classic Suspiria in 1977. While that movie leans into its mystery, this one is best described as “something creepy is definitely going on.” The audience is really just dropped into this insanity without much of a nod at all to the events of that first film. But the Argento lighting is on point and the vibe is great: whether it's a library in Rome or a basement in NYC, everything is drenched in the same blue and red hues.

While the visuals have gotten better in this genre, the overdubbed dialogue feels more pronounced. This is distracting but also humorous. In addition, the high-minded concept of the story is completely buried by the aesthetics (although this might be giving the concept too much credit). To say you know exactly what's going on at any given moment either means you're lying or your name is Dario Argento.

And while all that might sound like a knock, I actually feel like it's part and parcel in terms of this film working overall. This, as with much of Argento’s work, is so much more about vibes than narrative: the latter informs the former in a way that typically works in reverse with most cinema. This can be jarring if not a full roadblock for the uninitiated. (And I know I have been mentioning “vibes” way too much recently in these reviews.)

There are other elements that transcend the impenetrable plot, like the Keith Emerson (of prog legends, Emerson Lake & Palmer fame) score, which is completely bonkers. Listen to the soundtrack for this rat-infested kill scene…


There’s also some weirdly anti-woman stuff in here that is so blatant it almost plays as satire? I’m probably giving that too much credit as well…


In the end, while I enjoyed this, it moves a little slow and lacks compelling characters when contrasted to Suspiria, which I feel is somewhat enhanced by seeing where this movie falls short. It would take Argento nearly three decades to complete the trilogy with 2007’s Mother of Tears, a film that stars his daughter Asia and Udo Kier, and which I’ll get to eventually perhaps. (I would like to do full DF’s on all of today’s auteur directors at some point!)

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,203 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,205 ⫸

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Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento, and starring Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi and Alida Valli. The plot follows a young man's investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch. The cinematography was by Romano Albani, and Keith Emerson composed the film's musical score. It was released on February 8, 1980.