Inferno

This is the second of Dario Argento's proposed Three Mothers horror trilogy, following the groundbreaking Suspiria. This time the venue for Argento's visual bravado is a labyrinthine New York apartment building, where Italian music student Leigh McCloskey must face Mater Tenebrarum, the witch-mother of shadows. Full of watery greens and blues, Inferno is the Jungian counterpoint to its predecessor's Freudian motif, and includes some strikingly beautiful sequences engineered by Mario Bava shortly before his death. Nevertheless, the film still falls short of Suspiria's dreamlike terrors due to a slower pace and a very silly ending involving the "ultimate evil" wearing a dimestore Halloween skeleton suit. Somewhat disappointing, Inferno is still worthwhile for its stylistic panache.