Dario Argento's Suspiria is a masterwork - a true work of visionary art. It's a shame his sequels have left so much to be desired. While not quite the style-free abortion that Mother of Tears is, Inferno keeps the colorful palate and nonsensical dream logic of Suspiria, but forgets to give us anyone to relate to.
The story of Inferno is...well, what story? It's more of a series of well executed set pieces strung together without any humanity whatsoever. I'm fine with style over substance and it's not like Suspiria had a brilliant screenplay, but Inferno consists entirely of a bunch of random characters running around or exploring where they shouldn't and being dealt with my some angry witches.
Inferno gives us a whopping 3 lead characters before it finally settles on one to follow around about an hour in to the movie. Unfortunately, this character is easily the most boring out of all 3 and the actor seems to literally be sleepwalking through his performance. Maybe that was the intention, but it sure is dull to watch. We don't really care about these people, so there's not much investment in their survival.
Despite a bizarre narrative and no interesting characters to follow, Inferno still gets some high marks for some daring and beautifully grotesque imagery. Honestly, that's the only reason to watch the film.
Inferno is worth watching for its cinematography, production design, and gore alone, but it's too bad that they didn't aim to be a little more interesting from a narrative standpoint. At times, one gets the distinct feeling that the creators were either bored, making up as they went along, or both.
The story of Inferno is...well, what story? It's more of a series of well executed set pieces strung together without any humanity whatsoever. I'm fine with style over substance and it's not like Suspiria had a brilliant screenplay, but Inferno consists entirely of a bunch of random characters running around or exploring where they shouldn't and being dealt with my some angry witches.
Inferno gives us a whopping 3 lead characters before it finally settles on one to follow around about an hour in to the movie. Unfortunately, this character is easily the most boring out of all 3 and the actor seems to literally be sleepwalking through his performance. Maybe that was the intention, but it sure is dull to watch. We don't really care about these people, so there's not much investment in their survival.
Despite a bizarre narrative and no interesting characters to follow, Inferno still gets some high marks for some daring and beautifully grotesque imagery. Honestly, that's the only reason to watch the film.
Inferno is worth watching for its cinematography, production design, and gore alone, but it's too bad that they didn't aim to be a little more interesting from a narrative standpoint. At times, one gets the distinct feeling that the creators were either bored, making up as they went along, or both.