Inferno

Inferno was released in 1980 and directed by Dario Argento. Rather than simply retelling the plot, the film is worth revisiting for the characters, conflicts and ideas that give its story its identity.

Mortality, Mortality and lifespan and Loss emerge through what the characters face and the choices they make, giving the story more to explore beyond its immediate plot. Mark Elliott, Rose Elliott and Sara do not begin the film seeing one another clearly, and watching those first impressions break down is a big part of why Inferno still works.

Rose Elliot, a poet living alone in NYC, finds an ancient book titled The Three Mothers.

The book, written by an alchemist named Varelli, tells of three evil sisters who rule the world with sorrow, tears, and darkness and dwell in separate homes built for them by the alchemist. That detail matters because it shapes the way the characters initially see one another.

Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, lives in Freiburg. From there, the film can concentrate less on explaining the setup and more on what happens between the people inside it.

Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears, lives in Rome, and Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness, lives in NYC.

Using clues provided in the book as a guide, Rose searches the cellar of her building and discovers a hole in the floor that leads to a water-filled ballroom.

She accidentally drops her keys and enters the water to find them.

After she reclaims the keys, a putrid corpse rises from the depths, frightening her into screaming and beginning to drown.

Rose gets out of the water and manages to escape, but is still being watched.

In Rome, Mark attempts to read Rose's letter during class.

Inferno has more on its mind than the basic setup suggests. mortality sits close to the centre of the film, but it is explored through the characters rather than treated like a lesson.

mortality and lifespan matters just as much. The film keeps challenging the assumptions its characters make about one another, which is where much of its emotional weight comes from.

There is also plenty here about loss and freedom. Those ideas overlap rather than sitting in separate boxes, which helps the movie feel like a story about people rather than a checklist of themes.

Inferno could hardly be separated from the decade that produced it. Released in 1980, it carries the attitudes, style and filmmaking rhythms of the 1980s without needing to announce them.

It also sits comfortably within the era's horror, supernatural, supernatural horror, mystery, slasher, splatter, thriller, drama and fantasy filmmaking, even if the movie itself is more interesting than any single genre label suggests. That is part of why it still appears in conversations about Inferno 1980 and 1980s movies. The film has become tied not only to its own story but to the wider memory of what 1980s movies felt like.

Watching Inferno now means seeing both what has lasted and what unmistakably belongs to 1980.

What still works best is the human material. Ideas around mortality, mortality and lifespan and loss have not stopped being relevant simply because the clothes, language and cultural references belong to another era.

Rose suspects that she is living in one of the buildings and writes to her brother Mark, a music student in Rome, urging him to visit her. Those choices are part of the film's identity, even when they make its age obvious.

Some moments inevitably land differently for a modern audience. Revisiting an older film properly means enjoying what still works without pretending every choice has aged equally well.

A large part of that staying power comes from the characters. Mark Elliott, Rose Elliott and Sara are still useful shorthand for the personalities and pressures the film explores.

Inferno has lasted because people continue to recognise something in it. Nostalgia helps, but nostalgia alone does not keep a movie in the conversation for decades.