“There are mysterious parts in that book, but the only true mystery is that our very lives are governed by dead people.”
I’ve come to enjoy Inferno quite a bit over time, even though I initially had a negative reaction to the film. I’d avoided it for years, despite the fact that this movie is a sequel of sorts to my absolute favorite Dario Argento film, Suspiria. I think part of me knew I would be disappointed – and it’s true, I was. Sorely disappointed. I remember thinking how poor this film was not only in comparison to Suspiria, but to the level of quality of every other Argento film I had seen. I remembered liking the underwater room below the basement… and that was it.
And then several years back I got the chance to watch Mother of Tears – the conclusion of Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy (along with Inferno and Suspiria). I’d heard nothing but bad things about it, but it still seemed like something I should watch. As a preamble to the viewing, I thought I should probably re-watch Inferno. Yeah, it was bad, but I felt I should once again see all of the films involving the Three Mothers. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but it was streaming (I think on Hulu at the time), so I set it up and gritted my teeth…
And it was like a completely different movie. Seriously – the movie in my head was of such low quality that I could have mistaken it for a later (or earlier) Fulci film. Flat lighting, bad music – just a terrible production. At least that’s what I remembered. I must have been in quite a mood that day. Because it’s really quite good, at least on par with Cat o’ Nine Tails and The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, though not quite up to the level of Deep Red, Suspiria, or even Phenomena. To be fair, I do prefer Argento films when they dabble in (or dive into) the supernatural, which Inferno does, but I think the first two-thirds of the film are quite strong. If it falls down a bit in that final third, well, there are multiple reasons for that.
Mother of Tears, on the other hand, was a major disappointment, even given my low expectations. I should probably watch that again soon to see if I have a similar change of heart. (My hopes are not high.)
The Medium
I have a copy of the Blue Underground Blu-ray release of Inferno (as part of a set with Cat O’ Nine Tails and Deep Red). It’s the best I’ve ever seen the movie look and well worth picking up. I’d love an updated release from someone like Arrow, with a new transfer and extras, but right now the 2011 Blue Underground release is as good as you’ll get, in the US at least. Rumors of a 4k release remain just that, rumors.
For streaming, it’s available for subs on Criterion and Mube and free with ads on multiple services including Tubi, Vudu and Pluto. It can be rented or purchased at the usual vendors.
The Movie
Inferno is classic Argento. A loose plot that is an excuse to string together violent and stylish set pieces set to electronic/rock music (by prog-rock stalwart Keith Emerson, leavened with some Verdi). There’s dramatic use of color, plenty of blood, bizarre sets and characters as well as the inevitable twists of identity.
The movie is, nominally, about a resident of a building in New York City, Rose (Irene Miracle). She comes across a book called The Three Mothers, written by an Italian architect that claims he created buildings for each of three evil sisters who rule the world – Mater Suspiriorum, Mater Tenebrarum and Mater Lachrymarum. Rose begins to suspect that her residence is one of those buildings. Using clues in the book she explores the building, finding – among other things – a flooded room below the basement level.
She sends a letter to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey) who is at music school in Italy. He misplaces it and a classmate, Sara (Elonara Georgi), reads it instead. Intrigued, she heads to a library to find a copy of The Three Mothers. She attempts to steal the book but is attacked by a strange figure and drops it. Fleeing to her apartment she asks a neighbor, Carlo (Deep Red’s Gabriele Lavia) to come stay with her, as she’s afraid. Both of them are subsequently murdered. (I note that actors in Argento films use the same advice my first acting professor gave me, “Face front, talk loud, die slow.”)
There are, at this point, some minor details that link Inferno to Suspiria. There is, of course, the book explicitly naming the Three Mothers. There’s also a mysterious woman with a cat that Mark sees a couple of times. She’s played by Ania Pieroni who also appears in Argento’s Tenebrae (but for me will always be the housekeeper Ann in Lucio Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery). This character is often identified as Mater Lachrymarum, described in Rose’s book as “the most beautiful of the sisters.” In addition, the cab driver that takes Sara to the library is driven by the same actor – perhaps the same character – as the cab driver that takes Susy to the Tanz Akademie in Suspiria.
Mark finds the bodies and fragments of his sister’s letter. This and a brief phone call with Rose lead him to New York, but when he arrives his sister is missing. Of course by this point we have already seen someone – or something – stalk Rose through the building before killing her. The building is… well, let’s just say it’s probably not up to code. Between the hidden areas, the broken windows and the weird voice-carrying tubes it’s safe to say this is probably a sister building to the one in Ghostbusters. Built for purposes other than human habitation. With Rose’s unceremonious death we’re left with Mark – a character that doesn’t have the same connection to the building and its inhabitants – and that disconnect affects the rhythm of the rest of the film.
Honestly, this is where the film starts to come apart a bit for me. Irene Miracle had a bad fever before starting work on the film and her hair started to fall out. She seems to think that Argento believed she was seriously, perhaps deathly, ill and that she was written out of the later parts of the film. She was told that she had a much larger part, and I think Rose was always intended to be the primary protagonist. Things make more sense if she’s the one that eventually confronts Mater Tenebrarum as dialogue in the end seems to suggest the main character becoming one of the three mothers herself. (At least that’s how I take the line “We’ll have to pass through a number of strange phases, and you’ll change.”) I think Inferno was intended to document the replacement of Mater Suspiriorum after the events of Suspiria, but that’s just me extrapolating.
Mark doesn’t find his sister, but he does meet some of the other tenants, including a nurse (Veronica Lazar) – caring for a wheelchair bound professor and the Countess Elise (Daria Nicolodi) and her manservant. With Elise’s help he finds bloodstains outside Rose’s apartment. When he follows them, he’s overcome by gas and Elise is stabbed to death. Mark makes his way to the lobby where he collapses.
The murders come swiftly after that – the old book shop owner who sold Rose The Three Mothers is attacked by rats – and a hot dog stand vendor – in Central Park. Elise’s manservant is murdered and the caretaker is so startled by his corpse that she sets the apartment on fire with a dropped candle – she ends up on fire and falls out a window.
I’m not sure why or how this all fits together. I get the vague sense that someone – Mater Tenebrarum, probably – is destroying copies of The Three Mothers and most of the murders are just cleaning up her tracks. The death of the bookseller also suggests that she has a wide network of agents – as does a mysterious woman in Italy that Mark sees a few times (unless she’s supposed to be the Mother of Tears). Other deaths aren’t so clear cut and it’s possible the caretaker and Countess’ butler murder Elise for their own agenda. It’s all a bit confusing towards the end, but stylishly so.
Mark eventually finds a secret floor beneath his sister’s apartment. Descending into the depths of the building he confronts first the architect and finally the Mother of Shadows herself in a final apocalyptic inferno.
The Bottom Line
Inferno is a bit too uneven to really be on par with Suspiria. Pacing is disjointed and no character is really given enough time to flesh them out or make us care about them. It also makes the mistake of giving us both too much information (all that voiceover reading of the book, as well as Mater Tenebrarum’s final monologue) and not enough. Are all the events orchestrated by the Mother of Shadows? If so, what was the point? What was her endgame? The fire seems beyond her control, but she’s not surprised. And Mark lives, so if her goal was to destroy any evidence of her existence then that plan failed. And I still feel like there’s a truncated plot involving Rose that might just have pulled this whole thing together.
Maybe I shouldn’t try and make sense of an Argento plot.
Despite all this, Inferno remains an entertaining and visually impressive entry in the Argento canon. The music, the set pieces and the cinematography all work well to create an unsettling and eerie mood. Like the best of Argento’s work, the artistry elevates the film above it’s shortcomings, and the film has become one of my favorites in his filmography.
