Inferno

Tonight my horror film was Dario Argento's "Inferno." I have only previously seen one Argento film unfortunately,  that being "Opera," and in comparison this film felt pretty disappointing. The second in Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, perhaps it would have been better if I had watched "Suspiria," the first in the series, before watching this one... but for some reason I doubt it. Argento creates quite the different film with "Inferno" by not concentrating so much on plot, story, and dialogue as much as concentrating on mood, cinematography, and an assaulting (in a good way) soundtrack. It is in these criteria that "Inferno" finds it's strength. Visually the movie is gorgeous and disturbing at once, with bright, unusual colors used to their highest effect and a sense of deep foreboding throughout the film. However, in putting so much time into these areas it seems it slipped Argento's mind to actually create a plot for his film; it's something about the Mother of Darkness killing people in an apartment complex, but aside from this framework story line, there are no "guts" to support it. Which is unfortunate, as the framework does have a lot of potential for an intriguing horror story. Despite my initial impressions at how visually appealing the film was I ultimately found myself bored and wanting the end to come before the film was even half way over. Argento's talent as a horror master is here, but deeply flawed; at least "Inferno"'s general story was used as a template to make a film as great as "Opera."

5/10