Taglines: Come face to face with hell.
Inferno movie storyline. Young poetess Rose Elliot buys a book from a local antique dealer, a diary in Latin of an architect, E. Varelli. She learns of the Three Mothers, and believes her apartment building is one of their houses. She pleads her brother Mark, who is studying musicology in Rome, to come, because she is afraid.
Mark’s friend Sara reads her letter, which he left behind in class, and discovers the school is run by the Mater Lacrimarum, and is murdered for this knowledge. The house of Mater Suspiriorum has already been destroyed, and by the time Mark arrives in New York City, he is investigating his sister’s murder.
Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film, written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi and Alida Valli. The cinematography was by Romano Albani and Keith Emerson composed the film’s musical score. The story concerns a young man’s investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch.
A thematic sequel to Suspiria (1977), the film is the second part of Argento’s Three Mothers trilogy. The long-delayed concluding entry, The Mother of Tears, was released in 2007. All three films are partially derived from the concept of “Our Ladies of Sorrow” (Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum and Mater Tenebrarum) originally devised by Thomas de Quincey in his book Suspiria de Profundis (1845).
Unlike Suspiria, Inferno received a very limited theatrical release and the film was unable to match the box office success of its predecessor. While the initial critical response to the film was mostly negative, its reputation has improved considerably over the years. Kim Newman has called it “perhaps the most underrated horror movie of the 1980s.” In 2005, the magazine Total Film named Inferno one of the 50 greatest horror films of all time.
About the Story
Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle), a poet living alone in New York City, finds an ancient book titled The Three Mothers. It tells of three evil sisters who rule the world with sorrow, tears, and darkness. The book, written by an architect named Varelli, reveals that the three dwell inside separate homes that had been built for them by the architect in Rome, Freiburg, and New York respectively.
Rose suspects that she is living in one of the buildings and writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey) in Rome, urging him to visit her. Using clues provided in the book as a guide, Rose searches the cellar of her building and discovers a hole in the floor which leads to a water-filled ballroom. She accidentally drops her keys and enters the water to find them. After she reclaims the keys, a putrid corpse suddenly rises from the depths, frightening her.
In Rome, Mark attempts to read Rose’s letter during class. He is distracted by the intense gaze of a beautiful student (Ania Pieroni), who leaves suddenly; Mark follows, leaving the letter behind. His friend Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) picks up the letter, and later reads it. Horrified by the letter’s contents, she takes a taxi to a library and finds a copy of The Three Mothers.
Sara is attacked by a monstrous figure who recognizes the book. She throws the book to the ground and escapes. She seeks the company of a neighbor, Carlo (Gabriele Lavia) and both are stabbed to death by a gloved killer. Mark discovers the bodies and two torn fragments from Rose’s letter. After the police arrive, he walks out of Sara’s apartment and sees a taxi slowly driving by. In the back seat of the vehicle is the music student, staring at him intently again.
Inferno (1980)
Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi, Sacha Pitoëff, Alida Valli, Veronica Lazar, Gabriele Lavia
Screenplay by: Dario Argento
Cinematography by: Romano Albani
Film Editing by: Franco Fraticelli
Costume Design by: Massimo Lentini
Set Decoration by: Francesco Cuppini, Maurizio Garrone
Art Direction by: Giuseppe Bassan
Music by: Keith Emerson
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: February 7, 1980
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