Best Horror Movie You Never Saw: Inferno (1980)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Welcome to Arrow in the Head's The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw, which will be dedicated to highlighting horror films that, for one reason or another, don't get as much love as we think they should. We know plenty of you horror hounds out there will have seen many of the movies we pick, but there will be plenty of you who have not. This column is for all of you!

This week we take a look at Dario Argento's INFERNO (WATCH IT HERE – OWN IT HERE) starring Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Dara Nicolodi and Alida Valli!

THE STORY: A brother and sister stumble upon a coven of witches, who then go about killing anyone who learns of their existence.

THE HISTORY: Following the unexpected major success of SUSPIRIA, director Dario Argento announced the film was envisioned to be the first in a trilogy of films revolving around The Three Mothers, a trio of witches spread out across the globe. 20th Century Fox, having made money distributing SUSPIRIA, came on board as the main financier, with additional money coming from Italy and Germany.

Argento co-wrote the script with his SUSPIRIA collaborator Daria Nicolodi (who also features in the film), but she didn't ask for credit because she had struggled to receive credit on the previous film. Evidently, James Woods and Nancy Allen were tapped for the two lead roles, but neither could do it. Ultimately, the production turned out not to be an easy one, with Argento contracting a severe illness at some point, leaving him bedridden and unable to work frequently. His mentor and colleague Mario Bava had to fill in for several sequences.

WHY IT'S GREAT: Dario Argento is as mixed of a bag as it gets, for me anyway. I'm an unabashed fan of Suspiria, an admirer of Deep Red, and I'll always take a gander at Phenomena (or Creepers, if you prefer), which is perhaps his nuttiest movie to date. All of these, and most of the director's films, have plenty in common, but one aspect stands head and shoulders above the rest: they don't make a ton of sense. Not usually from a narrative standpoint, anyway. But that's not an issue, because you don't come to an Argento party looking for narrative cohesion, you come for the surreality, the murders, the beautiful nightmarishness of it all.  Even on their own terms, in their own dreamlike universes, these movies operate using logic that changes from scene to scene. That's fair; that's what Argento's fans enjoy about his movies, that they play out much as fever dreams do. None of Argento's movies exemplifies that as much as INFERNO, a movie I must admit has become a must-watch for me every October. 

When and how that tradition started, I can't recall, but it's been going on for at least a decade. I've seen INFERNO more than a dozen times and it never ceases to confound me. I can still barely describe what it's about, how all the pieces fit together and how the characters connect. It follows several different characters as they investigate a coven of witches in New York City (although it's only briefly that the film looks like it's actually taking place in NYC instead of Italy), with scenes stretching out and out as people wander shadow-covered apartments, corridors and alleyways. Usually at the end of one of these long sequences, someone is murdered nastily amid a chorus of overpowering chords from composer Keith Emerson (doing a very fine job entering Argento's world). There's much high-pitched screaming and plenty of blood is splattered about, all of it splendidly photographed. If this is your kind of thing then boy, INFERNO is some kind of maniacal masterpiece. Argento enjoys making us watch beautiful women die, that is for sure, and he stages the crimes in his movies – this one in particular – with enthusiasm and technical bravado. (To be fair, he doesn't dislike killing off men with fervor either.) This movie contains a bevy of gruesome hackings and slashings, the most brutal perhaps involving the poor girl whose neck is sliced in half by a broken window. You might feel a little guilty getting a kick out of this kind of thing initially, but it's all so over-the-top, so operatic in its perversity, that you can only throw your hands up and smile. It is because Argento clearly takes his job as a purveyor in gory mayhem so seriously that his movies achieve a hypnotic grip on the audience; anyone could direct a scene where someone gets stabbed; Argento makes us wait for it, following his characters for several tense minutes before dropping the hammer. 

What shouldn't be discounted is how marvelous this movie looks. Even topping the gloriously colorful SUSPIRIA, INFERNO once again revels in the sort of fairy tale aesthetic Argento enjoys so much. Every frame is meticulously detailed, with various colors lighting up the screen. Again, it doesn't always make sense ("What are the sources of these lights?" you might ask yourself time and time again) but it so heightens the fantastical nature of what's going on. So gorgeous, and such a vivid backdrop for whenever something grotesque is happening – which is often, of course. Cinematographer Romano Albani and Argento (and Mario Bava, uncredited as he may be) conduct some beautifully deranged business together, INFERNO becoming something of a master class in European horror filmmaking. You might scratch your head when it's over, but there's little doubt that you've watched a completely crazy work of devious art.

BEST SCENE: You really can't go wrong with any of the murder sequences (feel a bit creepy just typing that); it's a toss-up between the aforementioned death-by-window (with a nail in the head for good measure) or the very strange bit where a man is eaten by rats in Central Park before being hacked to death by a random food vendor. Seriously baffling stuff, even for Argento.

WHERE TO WATCH: INFERNO can be streamed several different places, from Amazon Prime to YouTube to Vudu. It's also available on DVD and Blu-ray. 

PARTING SHOT: Throw your cares about logic and comprehension out the window and allow Dario Argento and company to take you on a bizarre, colorful ride where the knives are sharp and the screams are plentiful. INFERNO is a dazzling nightmare, perfect for the Halloween season.