Watch footage of Keith Emerson and Dario Argento work on the score for ‘Inferno’
Italian Giallo master Dario Argento was a pioneering figure in the horror genre, rising to prominence in the 1970s with the successful Animal trilogy, comprised of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The Cat O’ Nine Tails and Four Flies on Grey Velvet. However, the release of Argento’s thriller Deep Red, after a two-year absence from creating Giallos, shot Argento to international acclaim – even the great John Carpenter cites Argento’s early work as a significant influence over his decade-defining slasher, Halloween.
Argento continued his lucky streak with 1977’s Suspiria, starring Jessica Harper as an American ballet student who discovers that the German dance school she has transferred to is hiding supernatural activity. Despite the weak English dubbing, which gives the film an unnatural and cheesy quality, Argento’s incredible sense of direction, a blinding score by Goblin, and an intoxicatingly vivid visual palette make Suspiria unforgettable. The film has since been labelled a cult classic, inspiring Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 homage.
Three years later, Argento released Inferno, which formed part of a thematic trilogy called The Three Mothers. The film follows a young man who investigates his sister’s disappearance in New York City, soon discovering that her apartment is also home to a centuries-old witch, Mater Tenebrarum. Inferno features some memorable Argento moments, such as a breathtaking underwater scene and a horrifying cat drowning sequence. The crew’s use of practical visual effects is impressive, with actor Leigh McCloskey performing his stunts after the hired stuntman broke his leg.
He recalled seeing “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, it’s one thing, but when you feel that glass go flying past you with a sound like a Harrier jet, you never forget it.”
Furthermore, filmmaker Mario Bava assisted in the movie’s production by creating cityscape backdrops with milk cartoons covered in photographs and a model of the apartment, which burns down at the film’s climax. However, one of the movie’s most compelling aspects is its piano-based score, which starkly contrasts Goblin’s intense Suspiria soundtrack. Yet Argento “wanted a different sort of score [from Suspiria], a more delicate one”.
As a result, he employed Keith Emerson of the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer and tasked him with incorporating Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco into the score. Emerson reorchestrated ‘Va, pensiero…’ in five-four time to reflect the “fast and bumpy” taxi ride Sara takes through Rome. Unfortunately, the soundtrack was met with mixed reviews due to its comparisons to Goblin’s spectacular work on Suspiria, as was the film, which failed to reach the same heights as his 1977 ballet-themed horror.
Check out the clip below, which features behind-the-scenes videos of Argento and Emerson working on the score.
