Dario Argento Week: Inferno

Good day my fine readers and welcome back for Day 2 of Dario Argento Week.  I trust your goose bumps and lack of sleep has subsided long enough for another helping of horror/thriller.   Today, I would like to apologize as my research into this was not as exact as it should have been.  The basis of Suspiria, Inferno and Mother of Tears are a trilogy of supernatural horror films depicting a triumvirate or trio of ancient, powerful and evil witches whose magic allowed them to alter world events on a global scale to suit their own dark purposes.  With that in mind, all these films are loosely connected without the cliche of bringing characters back from a car accident or back on for the sequel that would be out of context or continuity.

This trilogy is simply referred as The Three Mothers or Le Tre madri if you will.  Each film shows one of the Mothers warped and twisted in a fashion.
 But what say we look into some pesky college kids doing a bit of Scooby Doo in Rome where strange and unusual events of the past reflect on the present for the very worse?  This is Inferno.

Hey, why did those credits materialize at my feet?

Kazanian: There are mysterious spoilers in that book, but the only true mystery is that our very lives are governed by dead people.





A young poetress Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle of Midnight Express, In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro, The Last of Philip Banter, From Hollywood to Deadwood and Puppetmaster) reads from an ancient she found a local antiquarian and using a Latin to English diary translates an architect's writings , a one E. Varelli about the terror that he was contracted by.  Three women had him design and build three houses located in New York, Rome and Freiburg, Germany.    Terrified at this new found knowledge Rose suspects that she may very well be living in the New York house and writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey of Dawn" Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Executive Suite, The Love Boat, Cameron's Closet, Dallas, Santa Barbara and I Might Even Love You) and urges him to visit her from Rome as soon as possible.
 
Using the book for clues and details Rose Nancy Drews her way her way to the cellar of the building (yeah because cellars and basements are always great to investigate) and finds a hole in the floor that leads to a former ballroom that is filled with water.  She bumps her house keys into the water and has to retrieve them.  After finding her keys a bloated gnarled corpse pops into frames scaring the figurative crap out of her.

In Rome, Mark is attempting to read Rose's letter but is distracted by a fairly hot fellow musical student (Ania Pieroni of Stay as You Are, Velvet Hands, The House by the Cemetery, Tenebre, Count Tacchia and Fracchia contro Dracula) and proceeds to follow the girl because hormones rule most men's lives.  Mark's friend Sara (Eleonora Giorgi of Don't Shoot on Children, To Forget Venice, Velvet Hands, Beyond the Door and Carefree Giovanni) picks up the letter and is shocked to learn of Rose's discovery.  She heads to the library to find a copy of The Three Mothers and is attacked by a brute of a man.  She hurls the book at him and beats cheeks and hides at her neighbor's place.  Again the huge gloved figure finds them both and stabs them to death.

Found... your.. bread knife...

Mark drops by to visit Sara and heads to her neighbor only to find them both dead at the floor and fragments of Rose's letter.  Scooping this up and phoning the police, Mark tries to piece what is going on and calls Rose immediately but the connection is so scratchy.  He vows to be in New York ASAP before the line goes dead.  Will Mark arrive in time?  What other mysteries has Rose uncovered?  What is the secret of the Yeti?  Why is the sky blue??!!!  Why are security guards so insecure??!!!

A quick few fun facts about the film.  Argento wanted James Woods for Mark but he was already committed to Videodrome.  Shame on you, Mr. Woods.   Our gloved murderer hands POV was Dario Argento.  The entire film was shot in three months time.  Italian horror director Mario Bava assisted in the special effects of this film in that is where he got his first start in the film industry.  Bava sadly passed away shortly after the film's release.  In 2005, Total Film magazine credited Inferno as one of the 50 greatest horror films ever made.  In 2007, the continuation of the trilogy, Mother of Tears was filmed and released with both Daria Nicolodi (writer/actress and Dario's lover) and Aisa Argento (actress/director and daughter of Dario and Daria Nicolodi)

The basis of the trilogy is founded on the written works of essayist Thomas De Quincey's work Susipira de Profundis (Sighs from the Depths) written in 1845.  Talk about doing your homework.

John Holmes stole my look, man!