| "Terror Hotter than Hell!" |
|
| (1980) 107mins PRODUZIONI INTERSOUND; ITALY |
| [video - laserdisc - dvd] | [artwork][fotobusa][lobbycard][photo] |
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As the follow-up to Argento's suspiria (1977), this is the second film in the 'Three Mothers' trilogy but suffers from that very fact. How can you top 'Suspiria'? The convoluted, virtually incomprehensible plot - apparently derived from Alain Resnais' L'Anne'e Derejere a Marienbad (1961) - concerns a New York apartment house which proves to house a coven of satanists - the 'Three Mothers'. |
| A young woman who lives there (Miracle) discovers this and is murdered; her brother (McCloskey) investigates and narrowly escapes from the climactic conflagration in which the building is destroyed. The meandering narrative, strewn with murders of incidental characters like the brother's girlfriend (Giorgi), hardly matters with some stunning set pieces notably when Miracle goes swimming in the flooded basement room and the murder of the cripple trying to drown a sack full of cats! ( try writing that into a film plot that makes sense). Argento tries to sustain the bravura in a manner comparable with suspiria. |
| But only once or twice - the impressionistic use of pouring rain during the sequence in Rome which introduces us to McCloskey, for example, or the close-ups of fastening locks which punctuate the frantic attempts of one victim (Nicolodi) to flee from her unseen assailant - does he achieve that same level of quality technical display which is its own justification.The fiery finale is characteristic of Argento in outline but you can't help thinking that he didn't know how to end the film. One of Argento's assistants on the film was Lamberto Bava, who subsequently made his directorial debut with Macabro (1980), and again assisted Argento on tenebrae. The great director Mario Bava (Lamberto's father) also assisted with some of the special effects notably the Central Park sequence and the finale. |  |
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reviewed by NJD |
| credits | |
| cast: | Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Daria Nicolodi, Eleonora Giorgi, Alida Valli, Sacha Pitoeff, Feodor Chaliapin, Veronica Lazar, Gabriele Lavia |
| director: | Dario Argento |
| producer: | Claudio Argento |
| screenplay: | Dario Argento |
| cinematography: | Romano Albani |
| music: | Keith Emerson |
| sfx: | Germano Natali, Pino Leoni, (uncredited) Mario Bava |
| technical information | |
| negative: | 35mm |
| print: | 35mm |
| aspect ratio: | 1.85:1 |
| format: | Spherical (Technovision Equipment) |
| [artwork][fotobusa][lobbycard][photo] |
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