Editor Reviews:

Description:
The Master Of Horror Dario Argento Brings You Terror That's Hotter Than Hell!

A young woman stumbles upon a mysterious diary that reveals the secrets of "The Three Mothers" and unleashes a nightmare world of demonic evil. As the unstoppable horror spreads from Rome to New York City, this unholy trinity must be stopped before the world is submerged in the blood of the innocent.

Written and directed by Dario Argento, INFERNO is considered to be the sequel to his classic SUSPIRIA. This surreal shocker stars Irene Miracle (NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS), Daria Nicolodi (DEEP RED) and Leigh McCloskey (DALLAS), and features a pulse-pounding original score by Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Now transferred from the original vault negative materials, INFERNO contains visually stunning sequences of horror that Argento fans consider among the best of his career.

Amazon.com:
Dario Argento's sequel to Suspiria, his first and to date only American hit, is an even more incoherent nightmare fantasy. Laden with symbolic imagery and fantastic explosions of death shot in candy-colored hues, it's a bloody feast for the eyes. Mark (Leigh McCloskey), an American music student in Rome, rushes home to New York after a frantic phone call from his sister only to find an empty apartment and obscure clues about a supernatural presence in her spooky building. It all has something to do with the mysterious Mater Tenebrarum, one of the "Three Mothers" of Argento's murky mythology, and the fun house of an apartment house she inhabits, complete with a fully furnished underwater ballroom, miles of secret tunnels flooded in red and blue light, and hidden passageways under the floorboards. Meanwhile, there's a killer running around stabbing beautiful women for who knows what reason, a crippled bookseller attacked by rats, and a homicidal hot-dog vendor in Central Park. Why? It's best not to ponder such mysteries--Argento obviously isn't as concerned with making sense of his meticulously staged murders as he is with lighting them with just the right hue. Dramatically it's inert, a parade of quirky but faceless victims dispatched with elaborate care, but it's beautifully designed and executed, a spectacle of elaborate set pieces and magnificent decor orchestrated with a complete disdain for narrative logic. --Sean Axmaker

Rating : - Not for Argento newbies
At its essence, Inferno tells a classic horror movie tale about a haunted house. It's a bit odd, bombards the viewer with random, twisted imagery when least expected, attacks the senses with a kaleidoscope of colors, and overpowers the eardrums with pounding piano accompaniment.

Beginning in what feels like a movie half-finished, a woman is reading a book about Three Mothers (Tenebrarum, Suspiriorum, and Lachrymarum). Written by an architect/alchemist named Varelli, it tells of these three evil entities their resting places. One such place is in New York, and the young lady, Rose, reading/translating the Latin book senses a connection to her surroundings.

Even though I had to watch the introduction twice to understand it, with talks of mothers, keys, cellars, and what-not, the story sets up fairly well. Although, the beginning is a little too packaged for most viewers, myself included, but from all that I have read of Argento, the zip-locked plot is not the important part. The voice-over continuously leading both Rose and the viewer towards the next step is hilarious: "The second key is hidden in the cellar."

What follows is the meat of the story, doom and gloom awaits any who dare delve into the wickedness of not only the Three Mothers story, but also any who snoop around the house - the true star of the movie. Characters die non-connected albeit creative deaths, as the world itself, ostensibly controlled by the Three Mothers, unleashes its fury. Spectacular deaths, amazing in both their gore and their senselessness, it's horror for the sake of horror, with no pretense or worry about an in depth plot or protagonist.

Being an Argento neophyte, I can say one thing without reservation about Inferno: This is absolutely not the right movie to start viewing his work. For all of the movies in his oeuvre, and for all fans passionate fans, jumping straight into Argento's Inferno is a little too hot; there needs to be a period to adjust to the heat. While the lighting, colors, and sets for some of the scenes are way ahead of their time, at times it feels like a movie directed by someone with severe ADHD, jumping from here to there without transition. This movie is directed explicitly for the foreign horror connoisseur, a person with true passion for the legacy of horror. I'm sure it's perfect for the target audience. Granted it's an obviously older movie and can be appreciated as such, it's much too spastic and disconnected, not to mention extremely lacking in character development to actually create a new Argento fan.

Beware the bag o'cats.