by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.10.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Supernatural
Release Date: 1980

If 1977’s hallucinogenic and hyperbolic shocker Suspiria was as close as Italian director Dario Argento could get to a nightmare on celluloid, then the sequel, 1980’s Inferno is even more difficult to pin down because of its disavowal of any recourse to logic. Although Inferno continues the exploration of the mythical Three Mothers, it manages to have an illogical internal structure all of its own. This is Argento’s most unique production. Inferno takes narrative incoherence even further than Suspiria, and the result is a nonsensical, but fascinating journey into a different realm. Argento attempts to expand the Three Mothers sphere of influence by locating the action in both Rome and a curiously lifeless New York. The visual look of both settings is incredibly similar, and when we are cutting between the two in the first half of the film plot, confusion begins to build. The startling use of reds, greens, blues, and yellows is carried over from Suspiria, but without the richness of tone that came with the Technicolor experimentation of the previous film. The confusing editorial structure of the film creates a temporal and spatial confusion which is clearly part of Argento’s nightmare aesthetic…but for an audience it can be frustrating and challenging.

However one must commend Argento’s bravery in committing himself totally to the irrationality of the horror genre. This irrationality includes a number of striking and downright odd set piece sequences that last far beyond their narrative justification. The two that spring most readily to mind are an encounter with a demonic alchemist in the basement of a Rome library, and an even more astonishing underwater sequence in a flooded hotel ballroom. These phantasmagorical moments are a sophisticated index illustrating the burgeoning global threat of the Three Mothers. This realm of phantasmagoria also represent a clash between modernity and a more mediaeval world of witchcraft and superstition. Alchemy emerges as a major thematic and symbolic motif of the film and one which works at an extra-textual level. After all Argento and his team of technicians are creating a kind of visual alchemy, suggesting the events on screen are a metaphor for the filmmaking experience itself.

Like a good number of Argento, films Inferno can be enjoyed at a visual level, and the graphic violence within (surprisingly more sadistic than normal for an Argento film) provides the requisite thrills for hardcore horror fans, but as a piece of storytelling, Inferno is nothing short of a disaster. Everything serves what I would term the internal illogic of the film…even the soundtrack by Keith Emerson. The music lacks synchronisation, suffers bizarre and awkward tempos, and wildly offbeat time signature. Only during the reveal of the true identity of the mysterious nurse at the films conclusion do we get the type of brilliant music we are accustomed too in Argento’s films. The result is that there is scant opportunity for the audience to take things in and ponder the deeper mysteries of the film, and explore the connections (both character based and narrative based) that were established in Suspiria and concluded so badly in the recent Mother of Tears (a film by the way that makes Inferno look like Citizen Kane!). There is much to admire here, but if you want a single example of where Argento began to lose it as a storyteller and constructor of narratives, this is it.

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall:

Very true. And it's these types of comments that remind me that Argento has become a joke of a filmmaker. For me, the final stages of his career are an unbearable letdown. Nothing else compares.

I gave this movie a shot, but I found myself having to do other things while watching it to keep from drifting away. Great points about the narrative mess. Some filmmakers create movies that are dreamlike and seemingly illogical but still have an interior logic of their own--David Lynch, for example. This movie just makes no sense, though it seems to be trying to make sense.

A sadistic dream. One that is filled with great ideas and ambitions, but fails to tie them together. I think it's a daring and solid film to follow Suspiria, but it would also make the third installment something of a puzzle to even begin to put to paper. Which made the third installment awful. If I were in Dario's shoes, I would find it to be almost impossible to tell this story on such a huge scale. The Three Mother's trilogy was always meant to be seen in terms of forecasting the bigger picture; the end of the world, or total cultism. Dario never did translate this well. The more he tried, the more the films suffered. It's as if this trilogy drove him mad, and poor Dario will never recover.