The Mother of Tears (2008)

That was an excellent one.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Best movie ever!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Sure it's not the new "Inferno" or "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", but we finally have glimpses of the old "Argento's style" back! A good, gory, horror movie, average scary scenes, nice FX and great story.This is the third movie about the "three mothers", "inferno" and "suspiria" are the other two, and it close the circle of the three demons story.As I said we are still a little far from the great directing we had in the first 70ish Dario's movies, but at least it's far better than the latest releases we have seen! The story goes on nicely, Asia is perfect in the leading role, Udo Kier find his "usual" bad ending in one of the best scenes of the movie (and of latest 20 years horror movies!), demons and gore scenes are really well made with the right amount of suspense.. what else do you need in a classic gore story! Sure, in this "twilight" era, when horror movie seems closer to its sunset, you'd like to see more movies like this!

Filmmaker Dario Argento's concluding film in his "Three Mothers" trilogy (also featuring "Suspiria" (1977) and "Inferno" (1980)) is definitely not in the same league as the first two films. It's a certifiably wild and over the top succession of morbid images that does boast a certain degree of showmanship. Dario's daughter Asia stars as Sarah Mandy, a student of art restoration and archaeology in Rome who comes into possession of some ancient artifacts, the discovery of which spells doom for everybody as Mater Lachrymarum, the third of the deadly Three Mothers, visits evil upon the city of Rome; suicide is rampant and hostilities flare. Sarah, whose mother had once fought the forces of evil, eventually realizes that it's all on her to save the day, although she does get some help along the way, from people like Marta Colussi (Valeria Cavalli), Detective Enzo Marchi (Cristian Solimeno), and Father Johannes (Udo Kier, who'd previously been featured in "Suspiria"). Kier isn't around for very many scenes, but he's always welcome no matter how small his part may be, and it's also worth it just to see Asia share some scenes with her real-life mom Daria Nicolodi, who plays her mom in the film. As one can expect from a Dario Argento film, there's not a whole lot of sense here, and the spectacle does overwhelm what attempts are made at exposition. One very unfortunate fact here is that this is nowhere near as thickly atmospheric and beautifully lit as "Suspiria" or "Inferno"; this also does not have the feel of a freaky fairy tale as its predecessors, functioning in a very modern mode. Asia tries, but is not as engaging a presence as Jessica Harper or Irene Miracle. Composer Claudio Simonetti's work is of course good but just not that memorable. At the least, horror fans can delight in a film that delivers gore by the bucketful; some of it is so outrageous that it will have them roaring with appreciative laughter. And one thing that deserves a mention is that Moran Atias is far and away the sexiest of these three Mothers, looking quite delectable in her birthday suit. Dario does give the proceedings a fairly apocalyptic feel, and there is some delicious nastiness in the insane climax, but the ending is overall not terribly satisfying. People who love and admire Dario's previous films in this series may regard this as a real comedown, but taken for what it is, it's pretty entertaining. Seven out of 10.

I think Dario Argento's "Mother of Tears" operates under the adage that some things are better left buried. Thirteenth century artifacts are uncovered inside an urn found buried with the crypt of a man during the excavation of a church where bodies were being "relocated". The moment the urn is opened, an evil is released which will almost immediately unleash upon Rome a possible apocalypse as the Third Mother prepares for total domination of the world. "Chaos. Blood. Tears." And, does the city come unglued! A woman tosses her baby off a bridge (yeah, Dario shows the baby's head slam into stone while hurling to its doom!), violence erupts in the streets, with the carnage tearing Rome apart, a sickness that is spreading like the plague. The moment the urn's candlewax seal (the priest is responsible for the seal, attempting to keep its contents sealed until an archaeologist named Michael could examine them, his expertise in "esoteric science" appropriate for determining the purpose for the artifacts) is broken, terror awaits society, unprepared for the evil that will produce a corruptive influence on all who fall under the Third Mother's spell. It seems that Asia Argento's "student of archeology" is immune to the power of the Third Mother, but how will she be able to stop her before the madness that is enveloping the world becomes to vast to contain? Mater Lacrimarum, the third witch, is the Mother of Tears, considered the most beautiful and cruel of the three (and the other two were pretty damn evil), and as long as the "talisman" (a cloth that drapes over the gorgeous naked body of Moran Atias) is liberated from the seal, evil will reside. The screenplay (co-written, and based on a story, by Dario Argento) is busy, to say the least, with Asia's Sarah Mandy actually the daughter of a "white witch" (played by her mom, and the former lover of Dario, Daria Nicolodi), herself blessed with certain powers (like invisibility). "Mother of Tears" is all over the map; it is really demented. The violence is of the preposterously extreme variety. I mean eyes are gouged out, a face is crushed by a door, a woman is vaginally skewered by a sword, one victim is strangled (after being disemboweled) with her own intestines, and poor priest Udo Kier is bludgeoned repeatedly in the skull with a hatchet! There's a monkey that seems to guide members of Lacrimarum's henchmen—their eyes, so to speak—and children are constantly butchered (one scenes shows the hand of a Lacrimarum follower reaching into the belly of a dead child, another shows a partially devoured child corpse!). This movie is a bloody mess. But, it all makes sense because Mother of Tears is the most sadistic and vile witch of her trio so the slaughter and plague of violence derives from her desire for total anarchy, death, and destruction. My complaint concerns the CGI and "ghost" shenanigans with Nicolodi, helping her daughter escape peril and capture; it looks and feels tacky. Dario follows his daughter as she enters the ruins of the Rome manor, built by an alchemist responsible for the other two (built in New York for Inferno, and Freidburg, Germany for Suspiria), eventually descending into the hidden chamber to face her enemy. The ending is pure Corman, a bit disappointing as the collapsing structures look less impressive thanks to cheap computer graphic effects. The story includes a lesbian psychic who teaches Sarah about contacting her mother and the archaeologist/scientist, Michael (Adam James), being pursued by screeching girls with giant hair and thick eye liner (they look like they stepped right out of the 80s). Dario just hurls the kitchen sink at you. Bottom line is that this film has continued to divide the Argento faithful. While I consider it a lot of grisly, and over-the-top fun, others think Argento has forever lost his mojo. All I know is that I cringed and laughed at a lot of the graphic violence because Argento has no barometer in regards to "how far to go". Everyone is fair game in his movies.

Ugh, the long awaited ending to one of the most gruesome and interesting trilogies in Horror cinema ends in very poor fashion.Argento applies the miseries of modern Horror such as terrible CGI, lousy characters, display of awful tendencies, and more. The Daria Niccolodi ghost reminded me of "Troll 2". Go figure. The dark-emo Asian girls were also horrible..But plot wise, "La Terza Madre" fails on every aspect. The story isn't well explained, there's no coherence in some events and everything gets solved ridiculously. Asia Argento is the best feature about it. But she needs to change her laugh!Nothing was left from "Suspiria" or "Inferno". This movie just reminds us that Dario has been past his best days. Sure, there are moments that keep faithful to the master such as violent and nasty death sequences (the lesbians torture was raw), a not so bad score, and beautiful colors.P.S. What was the problem with that monkey?!