Dario Argento's Inferno(1980) is the follow up to his masterpiece of terror, Suspiria(1977) and the second of the Three mother's trilogy which was completed by 2007's Mother of Tears.
It stands up as one of the most beautifully shot horror's ever with each scene set up to showcase Argento's love of colour and all things fantastic.
A young woman, Rose buys a book called the Three Mothers and believes that the building she resides in is home to one of the witches in the book and she starts to get a bit freaked out. So she sends a letter to her brother, Mark who is studying music in Rome. Mark's friend reads the letter and get's murdered. By the time he gets to New York Rose is already dead. He meets plenty of people who die along the way as he tries to find out what happened to his sister.
The whole movie is an absolute joy to watch. Argento's use of colour is as evident in this as it was in the spectacular Suspiria and watching this in full HD will probably blind some retinas out there, but damn it it's worth it.
There are some amazing scene's throughout, most of all is the infamous underwater scene in which Rose has to rescue her keys from a submerged room which, being an Argento movie, is home to some nasty surprises.
My favourite scene though is when our hero Mark meets one of the Mother's in a mirror. Argento was given a helping hand on this scene and a few others by legendary Italian horror director Mario Bava , a man who knows how to give a movie the wow factor and is responsible for influencing Ridley Scott's vision of Alien and also providing the blueprint of the modern slasher movie, Friday the 13th was basically a remake of Bava's Bay of blood.
The music is also amazing with Keith Emerson providing some rock opera style keyboards to compliment the violence and give the music a different feel to Argento's other movies which usually contained Euro rock pop group Goblin.
There is no letting up on the violence either with some graphic and painful deaths leaving the screen full of the red stuff in glorious HD!!
The HD transfer on this Bluray is very impressive. There are some scenes where the grain is still evident but for the most of the film the picture quality is crystal clear.
Another plus for this movie is that it is presented fully uncut for the first time over these neck of the woods so finally there is no need to order imported copies.
The final word has to go to Arrow Films who are responsible for this release. Without doubt there is no other company putting as much care and attention into their releases as they are. And it's not just Inferno. Their editions of Dawn and Day of the dead are second to none and they are about to unleash the likes of Battle Royale, Deep Red and Demons 1 and 2.
So what is making Arrow's releases so special? Well brand new artwork with the option of 4 reversible covers, posters, cards, inserts by various journalists/authors and with Day of the Dead and Demons exclusive comics created for the releases.
Inferno is no exception although the new artwork is not really representative of Argento's work being a bit sleazy. It does include 4 covers, 6 postcards, double sided poster, brand new insert by Alan Jones.
There is one bluray disc including an intro by Daria Nicolodi, Dario's Inferno, Acting in hot water, An interview with Nicolodi, Feature on the unofficial sequel 'The black cat' with Luigi Cozzi and a Q and A with star Irene Miracle and Keith Emerson.
The dvd features Argento and Lamberta Bava(son of Mario) on Inferno, Dario Argento 'An eye for horror', Mark Kermode's doc on Argento, A complete Argento trailer gallery
See what I mean!
This is the best Inferno has ever looked. The whole packaging of this movie is outstanding and I cannot praise this enough.
My only complaint is that I have yet to see this grace any shelf in any store in Ireland and had to order this from www.Play.com no doubt Mr New Censor hasn't bothered his bollox to watch this yet and grant it an Irish cert or maybe a cat eating a mouse has horrified him and has banned it in case some cats start eating mice over here. Imagine that, oh the horror of it all.
Gore 8/10
Scares 8/10
Overall 9/10
Extras 10/10
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