Inferno

02/08/2018 07:35

Film: Inferno

Year: 1980

Director: Dario Argento

Writer: Dario Argento

Starring: Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle and Eleonora Giorgi

 

Review:

This film starts with a woman opening up a book called the Three Mothers. We get some voice over narration as she reads the book. We learn that there are three houses built by an architect named Dr. Varelli. He was also an alchemist. The Three Mothers are actually three witches who live in Rome, New York and Freiberg, Germany. This film is actually a sequel to Suspiria, where we met the first witch that lived in Germany.

The woman who is reading the book is Irene Miracle. She then writes a letter to her brother. Something that she read from it sticks with her where the keys are to find the Mothers. She goes outside to mail the letter and goes into the antique store where she purchased the book. The man running it is Sacha Pitoëff. He doesn’t believe the story. She goes outside and one of the lines she read comes back to her. She goes down grate. There is a peculiar smell around the place she lives which was also in the book.

Below is a room that is in bad shape. There is a hole in the floor that has filled with water. She accidentally drops her keys into it and has to go down to retrieve them. She is freaked out when a dead body touches her foot. She flees and we see that there is something else in the water as well.

We then shift to Rome. Her brother is played by Leigh McCloskey. He is a musicology major. In class he is joined by Eleonora Giorgi. While they listening to music, he starts to read the letter from his sister and he notices a mysterious woman staring at him, she is Ania Pieroni. He leaves and forgets his letter. Giorgi picks it up. Later she is in a cab and decides to take it to him.

She gets dropped off at a library. There she seeks out the Three Mothers book. She reads a little of it and the place is closing. She goes to leave with the book and a strange man stops her. He almost shoves her face into a pot of boiling liquid, but she gets away. She loses the book in the process though.

Once she is back to her apartment, she asks a man she meets in the elevator to keep her company, because she is a scared. Inside she calls McCloskey. She tells him she has his letter and for him to come over. He agrees. After getting off the phone though, the power keeps flickering on and off. The man goes to check it out. When he doesn’t come back, she finds him with a knife in his neck. She is then murdered as well. When McCloskey arrives, they are no where to be found. He goes back to his place and gets a call from Miracle. She wants him to come to New York. The line goes dead.

We then see she is attacked by a mysterious person as well. She flees from her apartment and is killed.

McCloskey arrives to find that his sister is missing and no one seems to know where she has gone. He meets her friend and neighbor, Daria Nicolodi. She tells him about the pipes in the walls and how they used to get each other’s attention. Who is the one that killed Miracle? Is it the same person who killed Giorgi? Why are they collecting copies of the Three Mothers? Is the person human or something else?

I was excited to see this film as Suspiria is one of my favorites. This being a sequel to it, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Really the only part of this film that is a sequel is the continuing of the stories of the Three Mothers, which I am a big fan of. This film does bring a lot of the atmospheric feel that the previous one did, which I liked. I found it interesting to connect the remaining two covens together, but this does bring up an issue, I find it weird to start the film in Rome and then have McCloskey go to New York, where it never ties up what happens back in Rome. I feel that is just an odd portion of the story. This film is really a supernatural giallo. I didn’t love the ending. The reveal was good, but how it ends left me wanting more. It makes sense why the film is named what it is though.

The acting in this film was good across the board. McCloskey is solid as the male lead that is constantly playing catch up. His performance wasn’t great, but it is more about what is happening around him. Miracle was solid at starting this investigation. It was also nice to see her in the swimming scene with what she was wearing. Giorgi actually reminds me a lot of myself. She gets caught up when she learns a little bit about and starts to do more research. I enjoyed that part of her character. Nicolodi was solid in the little screen time that she has. It is also a shame that she didn’t get a writing credit as I read the story was hers. The rest of the cast round out the film very nicely.

I have to talk about the score here first. One reason I’m a big fan of the writer and director Dario Argento are his choices for music in his films. This film he didn’t collaborate with Goblin, which he tended to do a lot. For this film he focuses more on a classical score. The pieces chosen made my heart race and were great selections. During the water scene, the music has a water sound to it and it was fabulous. I also want to touch on the colors in this film. Much like Suspiria, they are very vivid. We get a lot of red or blue lights and they are contrasted to each other. It really helps make things look odd and give the world a surreal feel. The effects in the film were done practical and looked pretty good. There were a couple times I wasn’t impressed, but overall were solid. I didn’t really have a problem with the editing either. I never got bored with the film which was good. I did get confused but that was more with the story than the editing.

Now with that said, I would recommend seeing this film. This is a sequel to Suspiria, which is a horror classic, but you don’t need to see it to enjoy this one. The only reference to it is in passing and is a fun thing if you catch it. The story to this film does have some issues though. I liked the investigation portion as well as the deaths that happen. The ending has a good reveal, but I wanted more from how it plays out. The acting is solid across the board. The score of the film is amazing. The visuals of the film are as well. The effects are practical and good for the most part. There wasn’t any issue with the editing. I would say overall that this is a good film. It is a supernatural giallo so if that sounds like something you’d find interesting, give this one a viewing.

 

My Rating: 8 out of 10