Inferno (1980 film)
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- This article is about the 1980 film. For the 1953 3D film, see Inferno (1953 film)
| Inferno | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Dario Argento |
| Produced by | Claudio Argento |
| Written by | Dario Argento |
| Starring | Irene Miracle Leigh McCloskey Daria Nicolodi Alida Valli |
| Music by | Keith Emerson |
| Cinematography | Romano Albani |
| Distributed by | Twentieth-Century Fox (Not released theatrically) |
| Release date(s) | 1980 |
| Running time | 107 min |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Suspiria |
| Followed by | Mother of Tears (tentative title) |
Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Daria Nicolodi, and Alida Valli. A thematic sequel to Suspiria (1977), the film is the second part of Argento's proposed "Three Mothers Trilogy". The convoluted story concerns a young man's investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who was living in a New York City apartment building that also houses a powerful, centuries-old witch.
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[edit] Plot
Rose Elliot (Miracle), a poet who lives alone in an apartment in New York City, discovers an ancient book called The Three Mothers, which tells of the existence of a trio of evil sisters who rule the world with misery and horror. According to the book, the three dwell inside separate homes that had been specially designed and built for them by an insane architect in Rome, Freiburg, and New York. Rose comes to believe that she is living in one of these buildings. She writes to her brother Mark (McCloskey), who is studying music in Rome, and urgently asks him to come visit her. Mark begins to read the letter in the middle of class but is disturbed by a beautiful student (Ania Pieroni) who stares at him. Befuddled, he suddenly departs and leaves the letter behind. His girlfriend Sara (Eleonara Giorgi) reads the letter instead and is horrified by its contents. She takes a taxi to a library and locates a copy of The Three Mothers. Later that night, she is murdered by a monstrous figure.
Rose investigates some clues that seem to indicate her building is in fact one of the evil residences. She searches the dusty, cobweb filled cellar and discovers a hidden floor underneath, completely filled with water. After she accidentally drops her keys into the hole that leads through to the floor, she enters the water to retrieve them. She swims beneath the surface and finds a massive ballroom. On the walls the word “Tenebrae” is written repeatedly. She finally locates and grabs the keys, but a hideously putrefied corpse suddenly rises from the dark lower depths and attacks her. She manages to barely escape its grasp and makes her way back to the presumed safety of her apartment. However, she is attacked and brutally killed by a clawed assailant.
Mark arrives in New York and discovers that his sister has disappeared. One of Rose’s neighbors, Countess Elise (Nicolodi), tells Mark that Rose had been acting erratically in the days leading up to her disappearance. He naturally becomes concerned, and investigates by talking with some of the other neighbors and maintenance staff, all of whom seem disturbingly odd. The atmosphere of the building is strange and powerful. Mark’s search intensifies, and he finds himself endlessly prowling the structure’s darkened corridors and multiple hidden passages. Ultimately, Mark finds a hidden lair that serves as the home of one of the demonic sisters, known as Mater Tenebrarum. In human form, she explains to him with growing intensity exactly who she is, and why all men fear her. She suddenly reveals herself to Mark as Death incarnate. But by that time, a fire started previously has now consumed most of the building, and parts of the structure come crashing down on the demonic fiend, destroying her. Mark manages to escape out onto the street while the giant house burns to the ground.
[edit] Production
Suspiria had been an unexpectedly big commercial success for Twentieth-Century Fox. When Argento proposed a sequel of sorts to that film, Fox agreed to finance the production. The filming of Inferno took place mainly on interior studio sets in Rome but approximately a week was set aside for location shooting in New York, including Central Park.
Argento invited his mentor, Mario Bava, to provide some of the optical effects, matte paintings, and trick shots for the film. Some of the cityscape views seen in Inferno were actually tabletop skyscrapers built by Bava out of milk cartons covered with photographs. The apartment building that Rose lived in was in fact only a partial set built in the studio -- it was a few floors high and had to be visually augmented with a small sculpture constructed by Bava. This sculpture was set aflame toward the end of production and served as the burning building seen in the climax. Bava also provided some second unit direction for the production. Maitland McDonagh has suggested that Bava had his hand in the celebrated watery ballroom scene,[1] but that sequence was shot in a water tank by Gianlorenzo Battaglia, without any optical effects work at all.[2]
The film's fiery final sequence was shot without a stunt performer filling in for Leigh McCloskey. After the production's principal photography had been completed, Claudio Argento asked if McCloskey would be willing to perform the stuntwork himself, as the stuntman hired for the job had broken his leg. Argento assured the actor: "It'll be absolutely safe." The actor agreed, and when he walked onto the set the following day he observed "three rows of flexiglass in front of everthing and everyone is wearing hard hats. I'm the only guy standing on the other side of this!...Needless to say, I did it all on instinct...I still feel that blast of the door blowing by me. Whey they tell you in words, its one thing, but when you feel that glass go flying past you with a sound like a Harrier jet, you never forget it!"[3]
Argento's Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria had both featured distinctive and powerful musical scores by Goblin, but the band disbanded immediately prior to the filming of Inferno. Prog rocker Keith Emerson performed the soundtrack duties this time around.
[edit] Response
For reasons never specified, Fox did not commit to a theatrical release of Inferno in the United States. In an interview with Maitland McDonagh, Argento speculated that Fox's decision was made due to an abrupt change in management at the studio that left Inferno and several dozen other films in limbo as a result of them having been greenlighted by the previous management.[1] The movie sat on the shelf for five years and was released straight to videotape in 1985 via the studio’s Key Video subsidiary. Worldwide, the film only had a very abbreviated and minimal theatrical release. Consequently, Inferno was not a commercial success at the time.
Initial critical response was fairly muted. Several reviewers expressed disappointment, comparing the film unfavorably to the much more bombastic Suspiria. Scott Meek in Time Out said that of the two movies, Inferno was “…a much more conventional and unexciting piece of work…the meandering narrative confusions are amplified by weak performances.”[4] In a review that was later reprinted in McDonagh's critically acclaimed Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (1994), Variety said Inferno was “A lavish, no-holds-barred witch story whose lack of both logic and technical skill are submerged in the sheer energy of the telling”, then complained that “It fails mainly because it lacks restraint in setting up the terrifying moment, using close-ups and fancy camera angles gratuitously and with no relevance to the story.”[1]
But several other critics have praised the film. Upon its initial release on videotape, Tim Lucas in The Video Watchdog Book said “The movie is terrific, much more exciting than most contemporary horror video releases…”[5] Kim Newman, in The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, noted that Inferno was “…a dazzling series of set pieces designed to give the impression that the real world is terrifying, beautiful, erotic and dangerous…Inferno is a masterpiece of absolute film, and perhaps the most underrated horror movie of the 1980’s.”[6] Multiple videotape rereleases, and subsequent laserdisc and DVD versions, have ensured that the film has developed a cult following.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c McDonagh, Maitland. Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento, Citadel Press, 1994. ISBN 0-9517012-4-X
- ^ Lucas, Tim. INFERNO Question. Video Watchdog.com, "Bava Book Update", March 20, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
- ^ McCloskey, Leigh. Inferno DVD, Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2000, interview with the actor included in the liner notes. ASIN: 6305807930
- ^ Meek, Scott. Inferno Review. Time Out. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
- ^ Lucas, Tim. The Video Watchdog Book, Video Watchdog, 1992. ISBN 0-9633756-0-1
- ^ Newman, Kim. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, edited by Jack Sullivan, Viking Penguin Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-670-80902-0 (Reprinted by Random House Value Publishing, 1989, ISBN 0-517-61852-4)
