Many plots for films, TV shows, video games and novels have been inspired by Dante Alighieri’s narrative poem known as Divine Comedy, especially when it comes to its most popular canticle– Inferno. But not every writer who dares to make an adaptation of this literary masterpiece manages to understand its allegory, which can lead to disastrous results that could be represented as misinterpretation due to lack of knowledge of its historical background. In this case, 9 Ways To Hell, an anthology of nine short films representing each circle of Dante’s version of hell, dares to navigate its different rivers, demonstrating some of the plots are following the stream leaving the territory uncharted.

There is a big difference between “based” and “inspired”: the first one takes all the great part of the existing ideas and elements to give it latent life with a slight reinterpretation of the content, while the second one is a complete reinterpretation taking only the main ideas giving itself the freedom to reinterpret it at the whim of whoever writes the script. In the case of 9 Ways To Hell, although it mentions being inspired by Dante’s Inferno, there is no such thing. What he does to justify his inspiration is take the name of each circle– and that’s it.

There is so much more than the simple concept of the word describing each circle that is completely ignored in much of the shorts. Some do prove to bring a little more knowledge about the subject because it plays with several elements to their advantage to give a faithful representation of what resides in the circle while other elements are twisted to hand an updated version of who would go straight to that circle in this day and age. One of the shorts, specifically the one about Wrath, acting as a commentary to recent social movements, doesn’t seem to have its storyline go according to what the circle is about, but in the end the outcome stays true to part of its source because it plays with the representative elements to its advantage to give the audience an updated interpretation in the form of social commentary.

The editing and effects used are great– there aren’t any glaring glitches in its scene transitions. However, the audio does leave a lot of hope behind to enjoy the film. Not to mention that for 100 minutes, this could be a martyrdom for the audience– unless it’s part of the experience to make it feel more hell-ish.

Just as Dante described the text displayed before entering hell, “abandon hope all ye who enter here,” it is preferable to leave behind any expectations you have about what you will see on the screen, if your intention is to have a good time while watching 9 Ways To Hell. It’s not bad nor it’s entirely good– no one will go to hell for the making of this film. It is a product merely based on what the original material is believed to mean without having studied the material in question. It’s like believing that irony is the same as meta– it’s following a trend without knowing how it started.

4 OUT OF 10 Facetablets