Inferno

A young man travels from Rome to his sister’s occult New York apartment building. Dario Argento wrote and directed the 1980 Italian supernatural horror film Inferno. Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi, and Alida Valli feature in the film. Romano Albani directed the film, and Keith Emerson created the musical composition. The narrative revolves around a young man’s investigation into his sister, who was living in a New York City apartment building that also housed a powerful, centuries-old witch. The film is the second installment of Argento’s Three Mothers trilogy and a conceptual successor to Suspiria (1977). The long-awaited last installment, The Mother of Tears, was released in 2007. All three films are based on Thomas de Quincey’s notion of “Our Ladies of Sorrow” (Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum, and Mater Tenebrarum) from his work Suspiria de Profundis (1845). Inferno, unlike Suspiria, had a relatively restricted theatrical distribution and was unable to match its predecessor’s box office success. While the original critical reaction was generally unfavorable, its reputation has improved significantly over time.