For me, this movie is hard to rate. There are different aspects that I really liked, but at the same time a number of aspects that I disliked.

What I liked:
- The psychodelic aspects of the movie, the crazy colorful lightning, the strange surreal subworlds, such as the water hole in the beginning, the cellars, the inbetween floors.
- The nightmare-like flair
- Perfect acting of part of the ensemble (i.e. Irene Miracle, Alida Valli, Sacha Pitoëff)
- Some of the strange scenes that this movie uses
- The ingenious soundtrack that leaps from classic to gothic rock; pretty great!

What I disliked:
- The sometimes really slow pace, that in some cases tend to boredom
- The story telling in it self; some scenes seem to be arbitrary and do not add anything to the movie, neither for the story nor for the esthetics. Especially while watching it the first time I felt a bit lost sometimes and wondered what has happend and why and why this is in any way important.
- The bad acting of some of the cast (i.e. Veronica Lazar, Leigh McCloskey, or Elenora Giorgi)
- The End (the transformation to "Death"... well... for 1980 that could have been done *much* better)

So all in all, I am torn between the greatness of this movie on the one side - the camera is ingenious, the music is great, parts of the acting is great some of the scenes are thrilling as hell - and on the other side some scenes that where boring, made no sense or consisted of bad acting.

It is better than average, so not a 5/10 but also not as great as it could be, which is why I ended up with a 6/10. (In comparison: 4 Flies: 6/10, Crystal Plumage: 7/10, Opera: 8/10).

An Argento is a perfect start to a new year!!!

This time around I chose Inferno, as it has been quite some time since the last time I watched it...

...and about an hour in, I remembered why I never really take this one out as much as the other films by Argento. I hate the cat abuse scene so much!! I know the asshole gets his comeuppance almost immediately, but the scene is SOOOOO long. I know this is weird coming from a fan of genre film, but this is just how it is with me.

Otherwise, this is almost on par with Suspiria in my book. The lighting is terrific, and the music almost tells the story alone. Argento really knows how to set a certain mood. The acting is good, but as usual with the supernatural films by Argento, the story looses some cohesion at the end. This does not ruin much by any means, but the story is never as tight as in the gialli that made Argento famous.

It'll probably be a while before I take this one off the shelves again, but don't let that discourage you. You might stomach the scene mentioned above better than me...