Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A young man returns from Rome to his sister's satanic New York apartment house.
Dario Argento's second chapter of the Three Mothers trilogy is a fever-dream of pure visual horror, with stunning use of primary color lighting and surrealist set-pieces that elevate it well beyond conventional genre fare. The cinematography — drenched in reds, blues, and golds — is arguably even more audacious than Suspiria. However, the plot is deliberately fragmented and incoherent, functioning more as a series of operatic death sequences than a cohesive narrative, and the acting is largely functional at best. The film's Novelty is exceptionally high: its complete subjugation of logic to pure sensory atmosphere makes it a singular, unmistakable work in horror cinema. The ending, while suitably apocalyptic and visually arresting, feels slightly abrupt compared to the grandeur of what precedes it.