Inferno
It's been a while since I watched Suspiria, but I remember being very impressed by the cinematography and lighting, less so by the story. Still, it made me curious to track down Inferno, so finally after nearly a decade I did.
You know what? I think Suspiria is a more interesting movie, but overall I believe I like Inferno much more. It has similar points of unusual and interesting cinematography, particularly involving doors bolting or a floating corpse in an underwater ballroom. It paints its scenes with pink and blue hues that both contrast and yet give the movie a strange life. But it is much more willing to explain its plot openly and spell out the strange goings on we see. It's not perfect; there is at least one character who just sort of disappears after doing some killing, and many of the minor characters get only modicums of backstory. Yet I feel now that I actually have a clue what was going on in Suspiria and in Inferno regarding the main plot, so I'm happy. The third film, Mother of Tears, apparently goes into even more explanation and back story, but it's also well out of Dario Argento's "golden age" so...we'll see when I get around to it.
Anyway, Inferno focuses on the second of the Three Mothers, a trio of powerful females who use what might be considered magic to try and rule humanity from their abodes in Germany, New York City, and Rome, Italy. Suspiria follows the defeat of the eldest mother in Germany, while Inferno focuses on the end of the second in NYC. A resident in an apartment building who suspects it is the residence of one of the mothers goes missing, but not before contacting her brother. He comes to investigate and in the process discovers the truth of the building she resided in.
That's not to say it's perfect. There are moments of brilliance but also moments of sheer weirdness that I question, such as one scene where a woman is apparently mauled to death by cats. It feels out of place and poorly shot; not as bad as some Italian films but still ludicrous in its own right. Another man mauled by rats and then hacked to death by a cook didn't come across nearly as bad, but then I suppose I ought to attribute both to "magic," and that one at least happened during an eclipse.
In truth there isn't much in the way of supernatural events. Much of the movie is instead spent in investigation and explanation. But the ending does contain a sudden shift, as the Mother within the house reveals herself and then becomes Death personified by bursting through a mirror to show her "true" self. That scene is awesome, and I loved it.
Yes, there's nothing quite like the opening of Suspiria with its sliding airport doors that stab back and forth with their sharp edges. But Inferno offered me something much more tangible that I found myself preferring. Hopefully one day I'll be able to finish off the trilogy.
)
