Development In 1977,
Suspiria had been an unexpectedly big
box office hit for
20th Century-Fox, released in the U.S. under the studio's "International Classics" banner. Capitalizing on the commercial success of the film, Argento and Daria Nicolodi, who had co-written the screenplay, announced that
Suspiria was only the first of a proposed trilogy which they referred to as "The Three Mothers" trilogy. The basic concept of all three films is derived from Thomas de Quincey's
Suspiria de Profundis, a sequel to his
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. A
prose poem of the book entitled "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow", details how, just as there are three Fates and three Graces, there are also three Sorrows:
Mater Lachrymarum (The Lady of Tears),
Mater Suspiriorum (The Lady of Sighs) and
Mater Tenebrarum (The Lady of Darkness). As the title suggests,
Suspiria focused on Mater Suspiriorum; the evil sister featured in
Inferno is Mater Tenebrarum. The concluding chapter of Argento's trilogy,
The Mother of Tears (2007), is about Mater Lachrymarum. When Argento proposed
Inferno as his follow-up to
Suspiria, 20th Century-Fox agreed to co-finance the production. The film was budgeted at
USD $3,000,000, and producer Claudio Argento secured additional co-production money from Italian and German consortia. Nicolodi devised the original story concept but received no on-screen credit for her work on the screenplay. Nicolodi explained that she did not seek credit because "having fought so hard to see my humble but excellent work in
Suspiria recognized (up until a few days before the première I didn't know if I would see my name in the film credits), I didn't want to live through that again, so I said, 'Do as you please, in any case, the story will talk for me because I wrote it.'" Working from Nicolodi's original story notes, Argento wrote the screenplay while staying in a New York hotel room with a view of
Central Park.
Filming The filming of
Inferno took place mainly on interior studio sets in
Rome, but a short amount of time was also set aside for location shooting in
New York, including
Central Park. Sacha Pitoëff's death scene was filmed on location in Central Park during the summer of 1979.
William Lustig, who was credited as the film's Production Coordinator, recalled: During the film's production, Argento became stricken with a severe case of
hepatitis, and had to direct some sequences while lying on his back. At one point, the illness became so painful that he was hospitalized; filming was then restricted to
second unit work, some of which was done by Argento's mentor
Mario Bava. Argento has called
Inferno one of his least favorite of all his films, as his memories of the movie are tainted by his recollection of the painful illness he suffered.
Design and effects Argento invited his
mentor, Mario Bava, to provide some of the
optical effects,
matte paintings and trick shots for the film. Some of the cityscape views seen in
Inferno were actually tabletop skyscrapers built by Bava out of milk cartons covered with photographs. The apartment building that Rose lived in was in fact only a partial set built in the studio—it was a few floors high and had to be visually augmented with a small sculpture constructed by Bava. This sculpture was set aflame toward the end of production and served as the burning building seen in the climax. Bava also provided some
second unit direction for the production.
Maitland McDonagh has suggested that Bava had his hand in the celebrated watery ballroom scene, but that sequence was shot in a water tank by Gianlorenzo Battaglia, without any optical effects work at all. Bava's son,
Lamberto Bava, was the film's
assistant director. The film's fiery final sequence was shot without a
stunt performer filling in for Leigh McCloskey. After the production's principal photography had been completed, the film's producer, Claudio Argento, asked if McCloskey would be willing to perform the
stuntwork himself, as the stuntman hired for the job had broken his leg. The producer assured the actor: "It'll be absolutely safe". The actor agreed, and when he walked onto the set the following day he observed "three rows of plexiglass in front of everything and everyone is wearing
hard hats. I'm the only guy standing on the other side of this!... Needless to say, I did it all on instinct... I still feel that blast of the door blowing by me. When they tell you in words, its one thing, but when you feel that glass go flying past you with a sound like a
Harrier jet, you never forget it!"
Music Dario Argento chose
progressive rocker
Keith Emerson to compose
Infernos soundtrack because he "wanted a different sort of score [from that by Italian prog group
Goblin on
Suspiria], a more delicate one". Argento prominently featured a selection from Giuseppe Verdi's
Nabucco throughout
Inferno, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ("
Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate"), an operatic chestnut, from scene two of the opera's third act. In two instances, a recording of the Sinphonic [
sic] Orchestra and Chorus of Rome was used. Argento also tasked Emerson with including the piece in his soundtrack. He re-orchestrated "Va, pensiero..." in
five-four time to mimic a "fast and bumpy" taxi ride through Rome. When Argento reviewed Emerson's progress he did not initially recognize the remix, but was later pleased to discover it was used for Sara's taxi ride. A
soundtrack album was originally released as an
LP in 1980 on
Atlantic Records (K 50753), and by the
Cinevox label in 1981. In 2000, Cinevox released an expanded version of the album on
CD. Emerson's music met with a mixed response from critics, some of whom compared it unfavorably to Goblin's score for
Suspiria.
Time Outs Scott Meek noted that "Argento's own over-the-top score [for
Suspiria] has been replaced by religioso thunderings from the keyboards of Keith Emerson". A review of the 2000 Cinevox CD by
AllMusic notes, "The
keyboard selections are rather unremarkable, except for the finale, "Cigarettes, Ice, Etc.", on which Emerson uses his full keyboard arsenal to excellent effect." ==Release==