7. Inferno (1980)
Rose is a poet living in NYC. She finds an ancient book called The Three Mothers - three women who rule the world by sorrow, tears and darkness. Rose becomes convinced she is living in one of the three mothers' house and contacts her brother to come to her assistance. Meanwhile, whilst conducting investigations of her own finds a ballroom in the cellar. A rotting corpse floats up as she tries to retrieve the keys she dropped. Rose's letter gets abandoned by her brother Mark when he drops it after being distracted by a beautiful student in the lecture hall. His friend Sara finds the letter and utterly horrified, goes to read The Three Mothers book. Someone tries to attack her in the library and she flees to her neighbours. They are both killed and Mark finds the letter on the victims. As he exits the building, he sees the beautiful woman who entranced him earlier drive past in a car. Mark rings Rose, but the reception is terrible. She is later killed by a figure with a claw. Mark goes to New York and meets the tenants in Rose's block of flats. A Countess Elise tells him what has happened to Rose. He sees a trail of blood stains and follows them. He feels ill and collapses. Elise sees a shadowy figure dragging him off and is killed herself. Mark escapes. After a bit of farting about and some more deaths, Mark finds himself in the company of the killer. He crawls along a passage and meets Professor Arnold, who he thought was a deaf mute invalid in a wheelchair. Arnold reveals that he is Varelli - the architect of the houses where the Three Mothers reside. In a bit of a shocker, Varelli's nurse turns into one of the Three Mothers. Thankfully there is a fire surging through the building which presumably consumes her. Whenever Inferno was released, the film critics whined a bit about it. It was not as bombastic and in your face as Argento's previous film Suspiria. Consequently, it was not shown much outside of Italy. The soundtrack - from Verdi's Nabucco - the chorus of the slaves, is one of my favourite pieces of opera but has been judged by critics to be out of place and misused in the film. It is a film that continues to divide critical opinion, although horror critics are mainly positive about it, with Kim Newman dubbing it one of the most underrated horror films of the 1980s. I believe that Inferno is a bona fide Argento masterpiece. Okay, it is light on plot and the script is clunky, but it showcases several tremendous set pieces. It generates a chilling atmosphere and is compelling to watch. Much, much better than most of the junk that was produced in horror cinema in the 1980s.