Part of Critical-Film's 2009 September Screams

-Suspiria review
-Mother of Tears review

The thematic sequel to Suspiria, Inferno really has nothing to directly relate it to it's predecessor except the inclusion of a book titled “The Three Mothers” that suggests three witch sisters living throughout the world; Mater Suspiriorum in Frieburg (Suspiria), Mater Tenebrarum in New York (Inferno) and Mater Lachrymarum in Rome (Mother of Tears). With the exception of the book that tells an overlying story arc that connects the three films, they aren't related in any direct fashion.

Inferno is however the stylistic successor to Suspiria, with Argento's usual flair for creating a beautiful scene through abstract colorful lighting. Where Suspiria seemed to utilize reds, blues and greens throughout the film, Argento chooses to put more of a focus on the color red throughout Inferno. While I'm not exactly sure why, I would assume that it because fire plays an important role in the film (as the title would suggest) and red is the color most often associated with fire. Argento also makes the same good use of shadows behind backdrops and shrouded silhouettes that he did in Suspiria. Technically, Inferno is as lovely a picture to look at as Suspiria, at times even more-so.

Suspiria's plot was light on content, but what was there pushed the film along at a brisk pace, and nothing seemed out of place. Inferno plays more like a series of individual set-pieces tied together by a shoestring story; as screenwriting has never really been Argento's strong point, this can mostly be forgiven. The story seems to exist mostly to support the inclusion of some violent deaths, although nothing quite as horrific as the opening murders in Suspiria, though the deaths are incredibly drawn out, including a man eaten alive by rats for what feels like forever.

It seems as though Inferno was developed in a fashion that was intended to make it more unsettling and eerie than Suspiria; Argento includes a number of scenes that seem more like random occurrences than having anything to actually do with the story – multiple appearances from a random woman who has no significant bearing on the plot, other than to look creepy with her unwavering gaze; one character is murdered in New York City by a random man who originally looks like he's going to help, etc. It's moments like these that suggest that Argento was trying just a little to hard to trick us with twists and unnecessary loose ends.

Also slightly detrimental to the films overall quality is it's use of a shifting narrative in which the story progresses through the events of three separate characters, it's not completely necessary to the development of the plot, and serves as a distraction more than anything else. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just an unnecessary means of telling the story.

The story itself unfolds very similar to Suspiria with our protagonist ultimately discovering the secret of the house of Mater Tenebrarum. The main difference is that while Suspiria's ending was particularly strong, and perhaps the best part of it's respective film, Inferno's ending comes off as a sort of anti-climax, over far too quickly after it begins, Argento's final shots a near mirror image of those in Suspiria.

While no film could reasonably follow the success of Suspiria, Inferno does a pretty good job keeping the positive aspects that made Argento's previous film so great, unfortunately it's also a showcase for his weaker areas as well.