Product Details

• Actors: Feodor Chaliapin Jr., James Fleetwood, Eleonora Giorgi, Ryan Hilliard, Gabriele Lavia
• Format: Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, Original recording remastered, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• VHS Release Date: April 25, 2000
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305807426
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,823 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Dario Argento's sequel to Suspiria, his first and to date only American hit, is an even more incoherent nightmare fantasy. Laden with symbolic imagery and fantastic explosions of death shot in candy-colored hues, it's a bloody feast for the eyes. Mark (Leigh McCloskey), an American music student in Rome, rushes home to New York after a frantic phone call from his sister only to find an empty apartment and obscure clues about a supernatural presence in her spooky building. It all has something to do with the mysterious Mater Tenebrarum, one of the "Three Mothers" of Argento's murky mythology, and the fun house of an apartment house she inhabits, complete with a fully furnished underwater ballroom, miles of secret tunnels flooded in red and blue light, and hidden passageways under the floorboards. Meanwhile, there's a killer running around stabbing beautiful women for who knows what reason, a crippled bookseller attacked by rats, and a homicidal hot-dog vendor in Central Park. Why? It's best not to ponder such mysteries--Argento obviously isn't as concerned with making sense of his meticulously staged murders as he is with lighting them with just the right hue. Dramatically it's inert, a parade of quirky but faceless victims dispatched with elaborate care, but it's beautifully designed and executed, a spectacle of elaborate set pieces and magnificent decor orchestrated with a complete disdain for narrative logic. --Sean Axmaker

DVD Maniacs

"Argento At His Very Best!"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Argento at his most barking mad!, February 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Inferno (DVD)

This is my own favourite Argento movie, but if you try and work out the plot it will drive you nuts. It's best viewed as a dark and incredibly gory fairytale and companion-piece to Suspiria. Irene Miracle becomes curious about the history of the old New York mansion block where she lives. Big mistake, but oh forget the logic. Just lap up the marvellous set-pieces: a swim through an underwater apartment (why is it flooded? don't even ask!), a witchy teenager and a cat who materialise during a music tutorial, a slasher murder set to the Slave's Chorus from Nabucco, a rat attack in Central Park - I could go on but see it for yourself. The soundtrack is an audacious blend of Verdi and - wait for it - Keith Emerson. Sheer bliss.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Soundtrack! Great film!, April 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Inferno (DVD)

The soundtrack - it's Nabucco by Verdi alternating with Keith Emerson, who at one point does a twangy modern rock version of the famous Slave's Chorus, Va Pensiero! This is a film of magical, atmospheric and occasionally very gory set-pieces rather than any logical narrative, so anyone looking for a pacy plot where everything is explained at the end will be severely disappointed. The story deals with the second of the Three Mothers first mentioned in Suspiria and flits between New York, where a young woman discovers that the Art Deco apartment block where she lives harbours a deep, dark secret, and Rome, where her brother is a music student who is blissfully unaware that he and his friends are about to enter a world of pain. Watching it is like being immersed in a deliciously scary nightmare where you never quite understand what's going on.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotic, stylish, atmospheric horror masterpiece, October 24, 2001

By	J from NY (New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inferno (DVD)

Dario Argento has made some of the most captivating, brilliant horror movies I have ever seen, and I absolutely love and devour horror movies, old and new. "Inferno" is no exception; it holds your attention from start to finish, and if you weren't fascinated by it, you have to be a pretty dull person. So the plot is not crystal clear,who cares? Argento has never specialized in the plot department. But, contrary to what many people think, Argento's movies DO have substance are not just fanciful exercises in style. Argento, more than any horror director I've ever seen, evokes a sense of the marvelous and otherworldly:his films point away from the commonplace, the ordinary, and push us in the direction of the unknown. Half the people who bash this movie probably couldn't take their eyes off it while it was actually playing. True, some of the dialogue is ludicrous and the scene at the end with the 'grim reaper' was absurd, but the sheer magic and intrigue of the movie make its flaws unimportant. Argento is to horror cinema what Lovecraft, Poe or Kafka are to horror literature. I find it hard to believe that the 'fans' who dismiss this movie because of qualms they have over it 'not making sense' or the incomprehensible nature of the plot were Argento fans to begin with: the premise of the movie is neither more nor less ludicrous than the plots of his other movies. Argento's work is not meant to be logically coherent or rational, but to penetrate the mystical, shadowy side of existence. You will never see a more visually stunning or visionary horror movie. Don't just rent this movie, buy it.