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The Watching Hour Preview: Inferno

The Watching Hour is a weekly film series at the Starz Film Center, highlighting new and old cult, genre, or otherwise bizarro movies. Quite simply, The Watching Hour is usually the best thing to do in Denver on a Friday or Saturday night. From Giallo to schlock, Blaxploitation to Aussiesploitation, zombies to martial arts to who-knows-what, and everywhere in between. This is good ol’ rock and roll cinema spectacle. Not to be missed. (See the schedule, buy tickets, get directions, etc. here.) Here's Justin's preview of Dario Argento's Inferno, playing this Friday and Saturday:

Following up a masterpiece is a bitch. Inferno is the second part of Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy of films which began with the stone classic, Suspiria. Like most awkward sequels, Inferno capitalizes on the successes of Suspria to a fault. Suspiria is a moody character piece as much as it is a slasher flick. It moves deliberately from subdued suspenseful moments to brash Technicolor set pieces. Inferno took all of the stylistic cues from it’s big sister, but the smaller connections are lost. While I remember the basic plot of Suspiria fairly well, I’m having difficulty recalling what exactly happens in Inferno.

It’s not my aim to rip on Inferno, quite the opposite. I really like Inferno and I think you should see it. I just want to give you fair warning that it is NOT Suspiria. It’s like Suspiria, but if that’s what you’re expecting, you will probably be disappointed. Inferno is its own brand of crazy. Argento basically throws substance out the window and focuses instead on masterful style. The colors are terrifying and the murders are beautiful. This is classic Argento, and will be an entirely unique experience to see on the big screen.

Magic Moments: The truly terrifying underwater scene and the unintentionally hilarious cat scene.