INFERNO (1980)

Okay, since I saw SUSPIRIA last time, I figured that I needed to follow up with the sequel. It’s not really a sequel, though. It’s another story about the Three Mothers, but it’s really kind of the same story. It’s like if this story was a reoccurring dream, and this is the one you have on the second night. Same kind of stuff happens here, but the main star is a guy, and it’s set in Rome and New York instead of Germany. You kind of get to see the Mother of Tears for a second in Rome at the beginning, but this one’s mostly about the Mother of Darkness and the goings-on in an old apartment building. There’s more elaborate killings, a really amazing scene that’s in a ballroom completely underwater with dead bodies floating all around in it, and again, MORE REALLY LOUD MUSIC. This time it’s not by Goblin, but by Keith Emerson. He was in this rock band called Emerson, Lake and Palmer back in the ‘70s, and judging from my dad’s reaction to the soundtrack, I guess they’re pretty similar to this. Says he, “I never want to hear from this guy again as long as I live.” I don’t know, I didn’t mind the soundtrack. I’d have preferred Goblin, but what am I gonna do about it?

SUSPIRIA (1977)

This movie doesn’t make a bit of sense, and it still managed to scare the pants off of me. It’s all about some evil goings-on at a boarding school/dance academy in the middle of Germany. This American girl goes there and discovers that there’s a big conspiracy involving witches and girls getting sacrificed to the witches’ leader, Mater Suspiriorum (the Mother of Sighs). I think. Meanwhile, there are big elaborate murders, maggots falling from the ceiling, lots of REALLY LOUD MUSIC, and colored lighting all over everything. Director Dario Argento must be some kind of crazy genius to have made this. I need to see more of this guy’s stuff. The music by Goblin is amazing.