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Overall Rating : 8/10
Directed By : Dario Argento
Asia Argento (Land of the Dead)
Cristian Solimeno (Highlander: The Source)
Adam James
Udo Kier (Halloween (2007) )
Supplied By : Dimension Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : September. 29, 2008
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| PLOT A young American art student, Sarah, unwittingly opens an ancient urn that unleashes the demonic power of the world's most powerful witch. As a scourge of suicides plague the city and witches from all over the world converge on Rome to pay homage, Sarah must use all her own psychic powers to stop the 'Mother of Tears' before her evil conquers the world. |
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| THE REVIEW In THE MOTHER OF TEARS, a century old urn is recovered by workers while excavating a cemetery. The urn is sent to a museum of Rome for further inspection by the museums expect in occult sciences Michael Pierce. However curiosity gets the best of his assistant Giselle, who along with art student Sarah, deride to open the sealed urn themselves. But little did they know that when they opened it, they would release an evil, equally as old as the ancient urn itself. The opening of the urn awakens the third and final witch, "Mater Lacrimarum"(Mother of Tears). Mater Lacrimarum is the third of three very powerful witch siblings also known as "The Three Mothers"; The Mother of Sighs, The Mother of Pain, and the aforementioned, Mother of Tears. With the first two now dead(as they are the subject of Argento's previous films, SUSPIRIA and INFERNO respectively), Mater Lacrimarum and her powers have laid dormant for years, but with her slumber now awoken by the urn she is again free to reign terror - and that she does. Soon all sorts of chaos and madness begin to spread across Rome, acts that include; murder, robbery, rape and ever suicide - the madness seems to be endless. After witnessing the death of her friend Giselle the night of the urns opening, Sarah, feels both confused and alone, but it is soon that she has a distinct feeling that the rash of chaos and the death of Giselle are all indeed related to the urn in some way. In her quest for information she uncovers details from her mothers past - such as her Mother being a white witch, and that she herself has inherited her powers. Between being tracked down by members of Mater Lacrimarum's cult, whom hope to kill her, and Police officials who believe she is the suspect in Giselle's death, Sarah must learn to harvest her given powers, if she wishes to end Mater Lacrimarum and her regime. Dario Argento, happens to be one of my all-time favorite Directors, and although I have not seen every film in his filmography, out of the ones that I have seen, not one has ever been awful - some better than others? Sure, but none of them disposable by no means. My favorite of his films is the cult hit,SUSPIRIA, and in my opinion, it is Dario Argento's "landmark" film. SUSPIRIA marked the beginning of a trilogy of films known as "The Three Mothers" Trilogy. The three films would all feature a witch villainess, although left would be much mystery, the three stories would be connected and related. SUSPIRIA was followed up by INFERNO, and unfortunately, I have to admit, that I have yet to see it - luckily, MOTHER OF TEARS, is written in such a way, that if you've seen at least SUSPIRIA you can easily bridge the gap, so to speak, as enough information is given through out this film. If you can believe it, it has actually been 28 years since INFERNO, and with MOTHER OF TEARS, fans who have waited for years for the third and final chapter in the witch trilogy finally get it here - and in my opinion, it is anything but a let down! As is the directing, the writing seems to have been carefully crafted, to to seamlessly coincide with the previous entries. In the film, many of the questions introduced in the previous films are answered, and the mythology and back-story of the witches is further expanded and explained, but not unlike any other Argento film, there is some mystery left to ponder. There are things that others have complained about(such as the ending, which I admit is a bit strange, but somehow is reminiscent to the ending of the original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, whose ending has always struck me as being offbeat), in my opinion, it's not so much a big deal, because there are things that are so much more memorable in this film than a brief quirky moment at the end. The production values for MOTHER OF TEARS are exceptionally high and slick. While Argento sort of "Americanized his style for his two MASTER OF HORROR episodes, JENIFER and PELTS, Dario is back to form, with the precise and stylish direction that we all know him for. While watching any Argento film, it's indeed apparent that the man is a genuine visionary behind the camera, he knows exactly which shot he wants and how it is to be done before he even calls for action - it's documented in the making-of featurette that miltiple takes were at a minimum. In this film, Argenro presents another dark fairy tale, one that is accented with some of the most bizarre and entertainingly absurd gore that he has ever shot. If you are any fan of Argento, then you'd know not to be surprised by the over the top brand of gore he brings to the table - it's not always 100% realistic, but best believe it's outrageous and eye catching. To further credit this film, i'll admit, as many of his film's of his that I have seen, MOTHER OF TEARS did boasts some rather shocking moments as far as gore goes. It's over the top, in every sense of the phrase, but man, is the stuff entertaining - it'll have you both gasping and laughing at various intervals. The acting here is mixed, from the diverse cast(also nothing new to Argento), but basically all you need to know is that Dario's daughter Asia Argento is here, and she is in the lead role of Sarah Mandy. I must confess that I think Asia is absolutely fantastic, I have been a big fan for awhile. There is just something about her that is magnetic, not only is she beautiful, but she can act - and perhaps the reason that the most casual viewer may not know who she is, is for the fact that she chooses not to conform to the the life of your typical star(which is one of her best attributes). Being an actual fan of the Three Mothers trilogy herself, it was she that asked for a role, in this, the trilogy's conclusion. Among Asia, are her Mother Daria Nicolodi(who has always been charming in my opinion), and veteran Udo Kier, both of him had roles in the two previous installments. Here instead of reprising their respective roles, they take on new ones. While it may not be everyone's, in my opinion, MOTHER OF TEARS, IS the return to form that was expected from Argento with this film. Highly entertaining story, and carefully crafted and executed, it just goes to show, that yes, Dario Argento is indeed one of the best Horror Directors of all time! |
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| GORE
METER 7.5/10 There is so much gore, that I can't recall all of it. For example, there's one's guts falling out, teeth being ripped out, implements, slit throats, eye gouging......and my favorite and the most memorable a vaginal impalement, that does begin there, but ends through the mouth! |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 7/10 Argento regular, Claudio Simonetti, teams up once again to bring MOTHER OF TEARS an awesome score. To tell you the truth, all of Simonetti's film work is brilliant. The score he provides here, while still not as good as the score he did for SUSPIRIA(quite possibly one of the best Horror scores ever), it is still at that same quality, and still helps create that familiar haunting atmosphere that an Argento film usually brings. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As I said Dario Argento is one of my favorite Directors and with this one, he does not fail to impress. This is an overall excellent film, and is truly one of the best films I have seen this year! Some say that the film's of Argento are for people of a certain taste, and yes, that may be true, but I believe that MOTHER OF TEARS just may have what it takes to gain now fans and well as convert maybe a few of those Argento nonbelievers. I highly recommend! |
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