Rating: 
Summary: Maybe It Sounds better in Italian
Review: Most fans of Dario Argento are perfectly aware of his strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker. More than any other film in his canon of work, "Inferno" stands as a summation of these. Being his most beautiful film, it is also one of his most aggravating. The narrative is intermediary, resembling the "structure" [suppressing laughter] of some Lucio Fulci's more famous films such as "City of the Living Dead" and "The Beyond". In fact, "Inferno" even goes beyond those boundaries of loose narrative threads. However, Argento has always been a much more canny filmmaker, and with the aid of an uncredited Mario Bava, he has created some of the most haunting imagery in horror films. The best scenes of the film are the ones that have long silent passages, primarily the ones involving Irene Miracle's character, Rose. The underwater sequence, and the scenes where she is being pursued by an unseen assailant in a dilapidated section of her apartment building are astonishing. One the most interesting aspects of "Inferno" is how tranquil this film is despite the gory mayhem and Keith Emerson's score. Unfortunately, there is a germ of a story here, and it drags the film down. In this respect, Argento should studied Bava's films like "Lisa and the Devil", which handle the surreal and fantastic in an interesting and layered fashion. "Inferno", on the other hand, provides only a series of clumsily strung together episodes, and naturally the film as a whole comes up much less than the sum its parts. Equally disappointing is Argento's flat treatment of his witchcraft/alchemy premise. Like "Suspiria", the story comes down to a banal conflict of good vs. evil. Not helping matters is the fact that the viewer has no emotional investment in any of the characters. The actors just occupy space on the screen spouting some of the most ludicrous dialogue I've heard in awhile. Maybe Anchor Bay should have put some effort into getting the Italian soundtrack as they did with "Deep Red", because whoever wrote the script for the English language version obviously does not understand the language very well. Still, despite its flaws, "Inferno" is well worth seeing for its formal elements alone. Yet, if you're new to Argento, don't start here. See "Deep Red", "Suspiria", or "Tenebre" first.*The four star rating is an average for the movie and DVD quality. Anchor Bay did another great job with this disc.
Rating: 
Summary: Dario throws a sharp dagger and misses
Review: OK, nobody watches a Dario Argento movie expecting a great plot. Its just the immense style and care he handles his movies with. So just about everyone can easily lose track of the plot and concentrate on the gracefully-staged killings and highly original (sometimes outragous) story elements. The problem with INFERNO is that (despite the fact it has some nice Argento touches, some great scenes involving an underwater chamber and an old man getting eaten by an army of rats), the plot is so thin that in this case you tend to somewhat ignore SOME of the Argento trademarks and start wondering what the hell is going on! An American music fan returns home from Rome after getting an urgent call from his sister. By the time he returns, she's already dead so he handles the case himself finding the SUSPIRIA-type killer which somehow relates to an evil myth. INFERNO isn't really such a bad film. With horror maestro, Mario Bava giving it his last shot with the special effects (he died the same year), the film has some kind of punch and, though it is fairly slow, it feasts the eyes with some nice imagery but as I said, it just DOSN'T MAKE SENSE. Argento helped Bava's son, Lamberto on DEMONS five years later which I found a little bit more fun.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT MOVIE BUT...
Review: Outstanding slice of Euro-Horror from Dario Argento; stylish, witty, surreal. BUT -- how come Anchor Bay couldn't reproduce "Inferno" in it's proper 2:35:1 Techniscope ratio? This company has done a real good job in terms of producing their DVD's in real widescreen letterbox format, for example their "Deep Red" disc. Despite what the Internet Movie Database claims, "Inferno" is most definitley a 'Scope film -- Argento told me so himself at a retrospective in L.A. some years back. (Buy the DVD anyway -- it's tremendous, so long as you care nothing about conventional character development and story-telling; this flick's all about dream-like sounds and imagery, much further out there than any other Argento work.)
Rating: 
Summary: Argento's best
Review: People often criticise this film, complaining about the lack of drama and story. These people do not truly understand what this film is. It isn't the regular teen fodder to give you laughs and cheap thrills. Like Fulci's THE BEYOND, it's an exercise in pure cinema. It's a film about the images, symbols, shifting patterns of light and music. All these elements are placed together to pose certain cryptic riddles that are seemingly never revealed. Interspersed between these enigmas are moments of cinematic lyricism. We are constantly surprised by amazing shapes, colours, patterns of light. Because the enigmas regarding the truth of the legend of the 3 mothers are indecipherable, and because the clues are foregrounded to an extent in the film style, we are constantly forced to try and work things out which cannot be answered. This futility of the film's truth takes us to a meta-cinematic truth. We find out through this why the actual film was made. The reason being that the language of cinema isn't sufficient to spell out truths, it is primal. It is ultimately beyond language, and beyond time and space. Argento's film is oneiric, and is an exercise in poetic sensation. This film evokes feelings in me that are sensational, overwhelming, feelings that cannot be explained. Maybe they mean nothing, or everything. But INFERNO shows that the mechanics of cinema evoke a purer, non-language, profound sensory expression.
Rating:
Summary: Style over substance... wanna make somethin' of it? ;)
Review: Strange Argento shockfest (the Tenebrae - "mother of darkness" - part of the proposed Three Mothers trilogy - Suspiria was the first, and Lachrymarum - "mother of tears" - has yet to be made) follows a woman's search for the mysterious Three Mothers, evil dieties in which she becomes obsessed after reading an alchemist's diary. He was also an architect who built houses for the three mothers, and while investigating one of these houses she gets the attention of followers of the mothers, who silence her, leaving her brother to find out what happened to her. This, of course, leads to more flashy killings (cat attack, rat attack, window-as-guillotine, etc.). The story is so hard to follow that it gets lost in all the red herrings, and style overwhelms substance... but since this Argento at his Argento-ist, style is enough, I promise. You have the famous underwater-room sequence, a weird scene with a hauntingly-beautiful girl in a classroom, opulent use of red and blue lighting, and some impressive fire scenes. And Keith Emerson's music score is excellent - "Suspiriorum! Lachrymarum! Tenebrarum!" Mario Bava helped with this film, and his influence is definitely felt here. This may not be Argento's best film (for my money that's Deep Red) but it does contain some of his best sequences. And if you don't get the whole story the first time, you won't mind having to go for repeated viewings.
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate edition of Argento's classic
Review: The Anchor Bay DVD nearly blew me away. Thick colors, full sound and the clearest image I've ever encountered (as good - even better than AB's Tenebre). And Dario himself gives and on-screen introduction. I can't think of a more definite release. And for the film: This has to be the strangest, most-dreamlike horror-fantasy I've seen. Very much like Dryer's Vampyr this film is a nightmare on celluloid and not just a narration. Don't look for the plot - you won't look for it in your dreams either.
Rating:
Summary: Great Soundtrack! Great film!
Review: The soundtrack - it's Nabucco by Verdi alternating with Keith Emerson, who at one point does a twangy modern rock version of the famous Slave's Chorus, Va Pensiero! This is a film of magical, atmospheric and occasionally very gory set-pieces rather than any logical narrative, so anyone looking for a pacy plot where everything is explained at the end will be severely disappointed. The story deals with the second of the Three Mothers first mentioned in Suspiria and flits between New York, where a young woman discovers that the Art Deco apartment block where she lives harbours a deep, dark secret, and Rome, where her brother is a music student who is blissfully unaware that he and his friends are about to enter a world of pain. Watching it is like being immersed in a deliciously scary nightmare where you never quite understand what's going on.
Rating:
Summary: Sequel to "SUSPIRIA"...
Review: This 1980 Italian horror hit by Dario Argento is one of his finest since its previous installment, "Suspiria" and carries some of the same resemblance of that film with its beautifully artistic atmosphere and it's stylishy grotesque layout. However, the plotholes that were of the first film start to come together a little more in this one and is easier to understand. It is also the second part to the still incomplete 'Three Mothers' trilogy and will keep you at the edge of your seat. I don't think I've watched too many of these films that actually makes me jump at certain scenes, whether its a falling vase or just a plain old stray cat. When a young man's sister, Rose disappears after opening a mysterious diary known as "The Three Sisters", her brother, Mark (acted well by Leigh McCloskey) must investigate her old apartment complex that she lives in which also used to be an old mansion used by an old alchemist who created the three homes where each of the sister's ghosts take refuge. All this leads to an scary adventure through the many secret passageways of the old estate, complete with an underwater ball room, a mute old man who's always watching our hero, & a killer that lurks around every corner for those who learn more about the second mother: the Mother of Darkness. In the end, Mark must stop the evil presence before all hell breaks loose out into the world! It's a terriying trip into the unknown and will leave you breathless till the last thrilling scene! The movie is in its WIDESCREEN Presentation (1.85:1) & is enhanced for 16x9 T.V. sets and includes an Exclusive Dario Argento interview, the original theatrical trailer, a still gallery, and talent bios. I only wish they had the soundtrack for this film which features an excellent orchestrated score by Godfrey Salmon that has a little more effect than that of Goblin. The film is also in its original UNCUT & UNCENSORED version and gives you more than what may've been offered before. Dario Argento does it again in this worthy sequel! But I should warn you to NOT see this film without seeing "SUSPIRIA" first, otherwise you may not understand it as much. Otherwise, I say to all those either Dario Argento fans or plain Italian horror fans altogether to give this one a shot. "Inferno" is a great movie worth watching again and again. I only hope that Dario will complete the 'Three Mothers' trilogy one of these days. Please, Mr. Argento! It is a very good series!!
Rating:
Summary: Sequel to "SUSPIRIA"...
Review: This 1980 Italian horror hit by Dario Argento is one of his finest since its previous installment, "Suspiria" and carries some of the same resemblance of that film with its beautifully artistic atmosphere and it's stylishy grotesque layout. However, the plotholes that were of the first film start to come together a little more in this one and is easier to understand. It is also the second part to the still incomplete 'Three Mothers' trilogy and will keep you at the edge of your seat. I don't think I've watched too many of these films that actually makes me jump at certain scenes, whether its a falling vase or just a plain old stray cat. When a young man's sister, Rose disappears after opening a mysterious diary known as "The Three Sisters", her brother, Mark (acted well by Leigh McCloskey) must investigate her old apartment complex that she lives in which also used to be an old mansion used by an old alchemist who created the three homes where each of the sister's ghosts take refuge. All this leads to an scary adventure through the many secret passageways of the old estate, complete with an underwater ball room, a mute old man who's always watching our hero, & a killer that lurks around every corner for those who learn more about the second mother: the Mother of Darkness. In the end, Mark must stop the evil presence before all hell breaks loose out into the world! It's a terriying trip into the unknown and will leave you breathless till the last thrilling scene! The movie is in its WIDESCREEN Presentation (1.85:1) & is enhanced for 16x9 T.V. sets and includes an Exclusive Dario Argento interview, the original theatrical trailer, a still gallery, and talent bios. I only wish they had the soundtrack for this film which features an excellent orchestrated score by Godfrey Salmon that has a little more effect than that of Goblin. The film is also in its original UNCUT & UNCENSORED version and gives you more than what may've been offered before. Dario Argento does it again in this worthy sequel! But I should warn you to NOT see this film without seeing "SUSPIRIA" first, otherwise you may not understand it as much. Otherwise, I say to all those either Dario Argento fans or plain Italian horror fans altogether to give this one a shot. "Inferno" is a great movie worth watching again and again. I only hope that Dario will complete the 'Three Mothers' trilogy one of these days. Please, Mr. Argento! It is a very good series!!
Rating:
Summary: A Waking Dream Within A Dream (Or Nightmare)
Review: This film is about a man who gets involved in some heady stuff regarding The Three Sisters, three witches of sorts (let's not get into this now) who "own" territory in three different locations across the globe. The hero of our film has a run in with the sister who lives in the USA - I believe, if I remember correctly, New York. Besides the strange, surreal plot, you might also say that the imagery is just as offbeat and freaky. If you like Argento, watch this one. If not, watch that one film with Bruce Willis about dead people.
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