Recently, my daughter reported that she was learning about surrealism in school, and we discussed some examples. As luck would have it, I watched Dario Argento's Inferno that night. The next day, I told my daughter that I had a definition of surrealism for her, which was inspired by the movie. When something is present in a movie for no apparent reason, that can be surrealism. I don't know if Inferno can be classified as surreal, but I can tell you that a lot of things happen in it for no apparent reason. But, then, that's the beauty of Argento.

Inferno opens in New York City. Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle) has been reading a book about an architect who built houses the "The Three Mothers", a trio of witches, in Rome, Freiburg, and New York. She finds mysterious evidence in the basement of her building which implies that she is living in one of these houses. She writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey), who is studying music in Rome, about this. When Mark receives the letter, mysterious things begin to happen. He travels to New York to see Rose, but she has disappeared. Mark befriends a woman named Elise (Daria Nicolodi) and they talk about what Rose had uncovered. Mark begins to explore the building and it soon become clear that something sinister is waiting to kill the curious.

Inferno came at an interesting time in Argento's career. Released in 1980, the movie was Argento's follow-up to Suspiria, a movie which had garnered world-wide interest, despite the fact that it came as a departure from the director's early giallo hits, like Deep Red. Inferno was distributed (in America as least) by 20th Century Fox, which meant that it could have taken Argento to a whole new audience.

Therefore, it's surprising just how damn wacky this movie is. Argento's early films had been crafty mysteries, but Suspiria showed that he could do something wildly imaginative. Inferno takes this idea one step too far, and it often makes little sense. The opening is fairly straight-forward...up until the famous scene with the underwater room. When Mark gets Rose's letter, his classmate Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) finds it and she is attacked. Who attacks her? Once Mark gets to New York, the movie really goes off the tracks. Scenes come and go seemingly at random, and the rat scene...well, how do you explain the rat scene? What was that pot of meat which was slid through that door? Why did a breeze render Mark unconscious? While watching the movie, I had a very vivid sense of a large man standing at a velvet rope telling logic that it's name wasn't on the list. (None of this is assisted by the fact that Keith Emerson's rock opera score often doesn't fit what's happening in the scene.)

I'm fairly certain that Inferno was meant to play as a sequel to Suspiria, as both film deal with the legend of "The Three Mothers" (something which was created by Argento and then wife Nicolodi). While the two films share that central conceit, Inferno feels more like a prequel than a sequel. Suspiria was, for lack of a better term, a "big" movie, as the set-pieces took place in large locations and have a truly over-the-top feel to them. Inferno is a much more claustrophobic movie, and while there are some impressive moments here (see below), the movie simply feels "smaller", as if both the budget and Argento's ambition had dwindled.

Maybe even moreso than his other works, Inferno isn't meant for a general audience. When assessed with the criteria of a mainstream movie, Inferno looks like a failure. However, there is a lot to appreciate here. To be fair, if one takes the opening scenes and the finale and glues them together, you will see that there is an interesting story here...it's just the middle where things get muddy. Because of this, the movie isn't scary in the traditional sense. Instead, Argento takes us into a nightmare world where, due to the supernatural forces at work, evil is all around and anything can happen. This doesn't create suspense per se, but more like a palpable sense of dread. I also like the fact that unlike most movie heroes, Mark doesn't know what's happening. Not once, but twice in the finale, Mark meets key players in the puzzle and admits that he has no idea who they are. The most interesting aspect of Inferno is the film's look. Argento, along with Cinematographer Romano Albani and Art Director Giuseppe Bassan, have created a dream-like world of reds and blues. The lobby of the building looks fantastic and that skull-like rock wall at the end is very impressive. The movie may leave one hungry for a better story, but Inferno is a visual feast.

For me, Inferno marks a step backwards for Argento, when considering that Suspiria and Tenebre mark his best works. The movie certainly looks and feels like one of his movies, but there simply isn't enough story to hold the whole thing together. (Did I mention the rats?) Still, the movie shows that Argento was still a great talent, especially when viewing the finale or the power outage scene in Sara's apartment. I can only recommend Inferno to Argento completists and those who know going in that the movie lives at the corner of surreal and "Do what now?"

Inferno makes one wonder what the rent is like in a witch-controlled building on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Blue Underground. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. Blue Underground has clearly put some work into this release, as the image is very sharp and clear showing no major defects from the source material. There is some very mild grain on the image, but it's not distracting. The best thing about the image here are the colors. The bold blues and reds which dominate this film look fantastic here and definitely contribute to the dream-like feel of the movie. The picture has notable depth as well, especially in the shots in the lobby. The image is never overly dark or bright. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The music, while annoying at times, sounds great here. The surround sound effects really come to life during the finale, as the destruction can be heard all around us. Conversely, more subtle noises, such as whispers, are also presented well. Stereo effects aren't as noticeable, and the subwoofer effects are a bit shy as well.

The Inferno Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. "Art & Alchemy" (15 minutes) is an interview with actor Leigh McCloskey. He reveals that James Woods was originally considered for Mark, while giving a detailed account of his work on the film, including doing his own stunts and working with Argento. We also get to see an interesting drawing he did while making the film. "Reflections of Rose" (14 minutes) is an interview with actress Irene Miracle who discusses her work on other movies, not just Inferno. She reveals that she didn't receive much direction from Argento and that some of her scenes were cut down because Argento was convinced that she was terminally ill. "Interview with Writer/Director Dario Argento and Assistant Director Lamberto Bava" (8 minutes) has snippets of interviews with the two men, who are interviewed separately, where they discuss some of the more notable scenes in the film. There's no real flow here, but we do learn some about the movie. The final extra is the THEATRICAL TRAILER for the film.