An animated trip to Hell!

Over the last week as I have been struggling to figure out what happened to my laptop, I had plenty of time to digest quite a few avenues of horror ands sci-fi. In all, I watched anything and everything I could while trying to raise my computer from the depths. Unfortunately, my efforts were futile, and I had to put it out of its misery. Fortunately, I did get to catch some interesting stuff, visions that kept my attention during these frustrating times.

One of the movies I caught this week is actually something way outside of my norm, the Anchor Bay and EA Games animated Dante's Inferno. As a writer and poet, I am a huge fan of this Dante Aligheri masterpiece. Not only do I own a few different copies of the book in both hard and soft cover, I actually have visited the grave of the famed poet. For me, this book holds a special place, one that shows the beauty that can be found inside the darkness of everything around us. However, I am not a fan of anime and haven’t watched a cartoon based movie in some time (Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was the last, I think).

What I found in this movie was something I can honestly say I was not expecting. While I found it entertaining, especially the combination of graphic-bloodshed, lust and the every popular battle of good and evil, I was a bit disappointed in the storyline and how it was manipulated. This blood-soaked adaptation is far from the poetic epic and any true Inferno fan should understand that before jumping in.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the version that was created. Yes, it strayed from the epic, but there was a beauty that was brought out in the film that kept me engrossed. The graphics and anime are incredible and the visions they create are both disturbing and magnificent. Dante, searching Hell to save his beloved fiancé is a beast, a murderer and hero that everyone should be able to relate to. Yes, he kills or destroys everything in sight, but at times he also demonstrates compassion and blind faith, not much different from many that have walked the earth over the past centuries. At the end of the day, this movie is a tremendously gory and vivid homage to a classic tale. While the story strays from Dante’s true vision and epic, the creators of this version should be applauded for taking one of the most horrifying literary works and creating a horror of their own making complete with blood, sex, violence, anime and Satan.