Inferno (1980) from Tuna

Inferno (1980) is part 2 of an unfinished trilogy by Dario Argento about a matriarchal triad of "mothers" that combine to form a fourth entity.
In this film, a music student returns to New York from Italy, and tries to locate his sister, who, it seems, lives in a house built for one of the three mothers. The same architect built additional houses in Italy and Germany for the other two. The sister is dead but the body is missing. Before the student leaves Italy, another young girl, a classmate of his played by Eleonora Giorgi, is killed by the Italian version of the house. Before she is killed, she explores a flooded basement, drops her keys, dives in after them, then provides great wet shirt shots. 

NUDITY REPORT

wet t-shirts. see the main commentary

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Widescreen anamorphic, 1.78:1

  • director interview

There are probably a few more plot tidbits, but plot isn't the strong point of this film. Like most of Argento's work, the art and set decoration, lighting and camera angles are superb. The music is often overwrought, and everything plays at near slow motion. If you are an Argento fan, you will want to see this. If not, you could survive without seeing it. 
 

The Critics Vote

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 6.9 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-, as Euro-gore.

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