Italian Horror Cinema Months Heats up with 'INFERNO'

Inferno is another one of Dario Argentos classic Italian Horror films. It act's a sequel to his other film ‘Suspiria'. Not really as a continuation of the story but more of another story based on the mythology in the world which he had created. Personally I don't think Inferno is as good as ‘Suspiria', but it is still a great movie and a must watch during the season of the witch.The tag line for Inferno is:

 

Terror that's hotter than hell!

I liked this frightening story he created within this world. He once again goes into playing with the visuals. It wasn't as surreal as Suspiria, but it still had an incredible atmosphere. As the movie gets closer to the end the more twisted and insane the movie becomes. After watching this I noticed that Argento has a thing for killing off women in brutal ways.



Inferno is about a young poetess named Rose Elliot who buys a book from a local antique dealer, a diary in Latin of an architect named E. Varelli. While reading the book she learns of the Three Mothers, who are a trio of nasty, unseen witches/sisters whose rein of terror leaves behind a string of bizarre, grisly murders stretching from Germany to Italy to America. Rose believes her apartment building is one of the witches houses. She asks her brother Mark, who is studying musicology in Rome, to come stay with her because she is afraid. By the time Mark arrives in New York to help his sister out she is dead and he set out on a journey to figure out what in the hell is going on. As he gets deeper and deeper into the mystery the murders start to get crazy and out of control, until the ultimate evil reveals itself.



The movie has some memorable moments. There is a great scene were the evil slams a window down on a woman's neck repeatedly slicing it off. There is also a scene that I could not help but laugh at as a bunch of cats were attacking a woman, it was funny to think of the crew off camera throwing the cats at her. The cats in this movie reminded me of these nightmares I used to have when I was a kid, so in that aspect it kind of freaked me out. My dream involved drowning cats which is depicted in the film and then having them come back and stalk me.



I don't know what Argento was thinking with the music in this movie. It was all over the place using different types of styles, the majority of it was really bad. The screenplay also has several flaws and the characters could have been developed a little better, but whatever the movie is a cult classic and a good movie to watch during Halloween.



Here is some trivia about the movie you may not know:

• James Woods was the original choice for the lead role but he was already committed to Videodrome. This movie would have been amazing with James Woods!


• All of the murderer's hands in the movie were Dario Argento's.


• Legendary Italian horror director Mario Bava who's other films we have talked about this month, assisted with the making of the special effects on this film. Bava passed away shortly before its release.


• In an interview with assistant director Lamberto Bava, he said that he handled and wrangled so many cats during the shooting of this film that afterward he could no longer stand to be in the same room as a cat. He's avoided them since then.

Check out the trailer for Inferno below.