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Dario Argento calls this film his most sincere. Fans of Argento call it his most incomprehensible. Inferno is both. Highly charged with a rich atmosphere and a poor sense of narrative structure, the film operates more as a meditation upon what frightens us rather than a traditional tale of horror and, even then, it still doesn’t reach the summit established by other Argento films.
Inferno has a story. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it does exist…somewhere in the esoteric region of Argento’s imagination, mind you. Essentially, it involves the discovery of a book which speaks of a longstanding myth regarding the houses built for three evil sisters - one in Germany, one in New York, and one in Rome - with whom you do not mess with or hope to ever encounter in your life. Ever. The cast of Inferno - Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi, and Alida Valli – all tangle with these three sisters and pay the ultimate price in buckets of baroque-themed blood inside what can only be described as a dream-like quest that would leave even Freddy Krueger at a loss of words.
There really are no answers to the multiple mysteries that haunt this movie and that’s too much of a kick to the crotch for most audiences to walk away from. It’s Italian. It’s creepy and that’s about it. You want to believe that the rich visuals and super-soaked atmosphere will eventually pay off in a satisfying conclusion. They don’t. Moments work of pure terror and then that pesky storyline fails to make sense of what you are watching.
Argento’s visual extravagance – established in Deep Red and carried over into Susperia – is there and makes the insane happenings easier to digest. The shock factor goes over the top in some scenes – the most effective being the scene in which Miracle gradually loses her head – and goes off the rails at other moments. Flesh feeding rats anyone? I mean, really…
Yet, in spite of those moments, Inferno, a film that never had an American opening, is considered a more subdued Argento. The lighting is less garish and just a bit more exaggerated in blues and reds and even the horror has less of a gore factor about it; everything about Inferno suggests that Argento is dialing back his horror-tuned knob toward a more muted approach.
I guess this muted idea includes the story, too. Cryptic and haunted, not even the benefit of having the Rosetta stone will help you decipher the horrific happenings of Argento’s Inferno.
MPAA Rating: R.
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