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INFERNO (1980) (**)

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This loose sequel to Dario Argento’s SUSPIRA takes the flaws of the first film and expands them. Where SUSPIRA gave us an underdeveloped main character, INFERNO barely gives us a main character. I was 40 minutes into the film before I knew who was the protagonist. The film is a prime example of style taking front seat to story.

Director Argento brings back the vibrant color scheme of SUSPIRA, but drops the fairy tale qualities that made the first film interesting. The film begins with Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) reading about the Three Sisters, who are all evil witches. She soon suspects that her apartment complex in New York City is home to the coven of one of the witches. She writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey, JUST ONE OF THE GUYS), who is studying in Rome, about investigating the coven located there. Accidentally leaving his sister’s letter behind in class, his friend Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) follows Rose’s clues to deadly ends. When Paul goes to visit Rose in NYC, he discovers a host of strange people living in her building and next door, who all could be involved in the Three Sisters mystery.

Uninterested in its central character, the film seems more focused in “building tension” and killing people. However, the tension is unconvincing. Because we have so little vested interest in the characters, we don’t care that they might die. There are even prolonged sequences leading to the death of people we actually don’t care about. For gore fans, the kill scenes are interesting, but after one animal attack death, a second is just boring. Argento also seems too interested in the Three Sister mythos, however never finds a compelling enough way to interlace it into the story. This myth was central to SUSPIRA, but seems tacked on to INFERNO. The mystery elements worked in SUSPIRA because we wanted to find out the truth along with the main character, here we care as little as the main character seems to care. The unrelenting and unnerving synthesizer music that drove the first film doesn’t even work.

The only bright spot is the wonderful visuals. In addition to the dramatic color scheme, Argento captures some great gothic imagery. However, this just goes to highlight the film’s style over its script. Argento has finally come around to completing this trilogy with THE MOTHER OF TEARS, which is coming soon. Hopefully the master horror maker finds the tight script work that was signature to his earlier work and can redeem his grand gothic epic from the sins of INFERNO.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks