Welcome to episode 52 of The Horror Double Bill, the podcast where each week we pair two movies to create something greater than the sum of their parts.

This week we are going to New York in search of missing sisters and finding ourselves in a whole heap of trouble with the powers of darkness.

First, we have The Seventh Victim from 1943 and producer Val Lewton. This was directed by Mark Robson and stars Kim Hunter, Jean Brooks, Tom Conway and Isabel Jewell

Then we are following this with Inferno from Dario Argento and 1980. This was his follow-up to 1977’s Suspiria, and was the movie in which he fully introduced the idea of the Three Mothers, three supernatural figures inspired by the writing of Thomas de Quincey. This stars Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi and Gabriele Lavia.

Along the way, we’ll be discussing the actresses Kim Hunter and Daria Nicolodi, and falling down some very esoteric rabbit holes, including satanic conspiracies involving the freemasons, the works and disappearance of the alchemist Fulcanelli, and the arcane world of actor, artist and self-described visual philosopher Leigh J McClosky.

References

Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror by Joel E. Siegel

Dreams of Darkness by J. P. Telotte

Icons of Grief: Val Lewton’s Home Front Pictures by Alexander Nemerov. 

The Seventh Victim blu-ray from Criterion

https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-val-lewton

https://brightlightsfilm.com/darkness-darkness-films-val-lewton-looking-back-b-movie-master/

Fear by Dario Argento

Dario Argento, The Man, The Myths, And the Magic by Alan Jones, 

Broken Mirrors Broken Minds the Dark Dreams of Dario Argento by Maitland McDonough

Art Of Darkness the Cinema of Dario Argento edited by Chris Gallant

Spaghetti Nightmares edited by Luca M Palmerini and Gaeto Mistretta

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artwork by Justin Parker (IG jpkr_illustration.com)