INFERNO (1980)
Article 4999 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-26-2015
Directed by Dario Argento
Featuring Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleanora Giorgi
Country: Italy
What it is: Horror, Argento style

When a woman discovers a book made up of the notes of an architect who claims to have built three houses for “The Three Mothers”, it sets off a string of bizarre murders and deaths.

All I can say is that it’s a good thing that Dario Argento is the consummate stylist that he is; if he had to rely on coherent story-telling to make his movies intriguing, movies like this would be exercises in frustration. As it is, his stunning use of color, his use of repeated visual motifs and themes (water, broken figurines, cats, small cuts and gashes), and his ability to instill a sense of dread goes a long ways to compensate for the fact that you’re not really sure what’s going on. This was apparently the second of three movies that make up a trilogy, the first of which was the excellent SUSPIRIA. This one isn’t quite up to that level, but it still made for a great viewing experience. Apparently, Mario Bava did some second unit direction and helped with the visual effects; he died before the movie was released.