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List Price: $14.95 | | Label: Weinstein Company
Salesrank: 8550
Released: September 23, 2008 |
| Our Price: $3.76 |
| Used Price: $3.25 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The final installment of the "Three Mothers" trilogy. 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."
Description of Mother of Tears:
After waiting 28 years for the third feature in Dario Argento’s Mother trilogy, die-hard fans (like myself) flocked to theaters to catch Mother of Tears. The anticipatory set-up, for example reconciling in advance that the film will look entirely different, and probably less sexy, than the first two Giallo classics, Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980), induced anxieties in viewers that many of us hoped would enhance the film’s horror and suspense. So revered are Suspiria and Inferno that one needs an extremely open mind to avoid instantly turning Mother of Tears off, now that it’s available on DVD, and chucking the disc out the window, insulted by its comparison to the previous two movies. From scene one, in which a psychotic, villainous monkey stalks Asia Argento, playing protagonist Sarah Mandy, through Rome’s Natural History Museum, one realizes this film can only go downhill. Without the colored lights, the stylized 1970s horror aesthetic, or the terrifyingly fetishtistic speed metal/electronica soundtrack pounding during the chase, the mood is simply corny. Regarding the monkey, try to remember that an oddly elegant and intelligent crow ate an eyeball to great effect in Argento’s, Terror at the Opera. Argento has always favored animals to represent unwilling witnesses. The plot itself is also typically Argento and does follow-up: After a tainted red tunic is discovered in a cemetery, the third and last witch, Mother Lachrimarum (Moran Atias), is awaken from her catacombs beneath a mansion that she and her two deceased witch consorts, Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness/Shadows, and Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, long ago recruited an architect to build. The Mother of Tears has beef with Sarah Mandy, due to Sarah’s heritage, and the unholy black witch relentlessly pursues Mandy until Mandy is forced to fight head-on. Mandy’s boyfriend, Michael Pierce (Adam James), is not much help, nor is Padre Johannes (Udo Kier), which makes sense; Argento’s films are all about empowered female characters, vengeful victims and ruthless criminals alike. Perhaps the flaw here is Argento’s casting of his daughter, and her inability to render that illicit sexual tension that the puerile Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) once did in the halls of her bewitched boarding school. Even Mother Lachrimarum’s young recruits, such as the Gothic and Lolita-style Katerina (Jun Ichikawa), are dumb-looking with their colored contacts and peacock hairstyles. There is only one character, the elder white witch Marta Colussi (Valeria Cavalli), who has the sexual draw to enchant Argento style, but she is short-lived. The CG effects employed throughout, especially in regards to the ghoulish antics happening amongst the Goth witch posse, are just plain bad. Only a few shots of gore really spook, and to be fair, they are lasting images. But the only semi-interesting this about the Mother of Tears DVD is the interview extra with the man himself, who is still master even if he makes a few stinkers. --Trinie Dalton
Mother of Tears Reviews:
Whatever trinie 
2009-12-11 - Whatever Trinie, I dug it,the story,the effects heck even the monkey was cool. The only thing that was kind of corny to me was the "evil" t-shirt that was found,whaaaa? Im putting it in my collection thank you very much!
Mother of Tears 
2009-12-03 - The third installment in Italian horror master Dario Argento's Three Mothers saga, THE MOTHER OF TEARS is a gruesome and long-awaited treat for horror fans. Completing the trilogy that began with SUSPIRIA (1977) and continued with INFERNO (1980), the film sees the titular witch awakening to unleash apocalyptic evil on Rome. A grisly and excessive hoot, this is one of the director's strongest efforts since the 1980s. After construction workers discover an ancient urn near a cemetery, it is sent to a Rome university where Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento, daughter of the director) is an art history student. Shortly after opening the urn, Sarah's associate is brutally murdered (in an frighteningly creative manner) by a mysterious being who also unleashes an evil monkey in the halls of the school. Sarah escapes to tell the police, but they find her story implausible. Soon, though, it becomes apparent that a tidal wave of evil is washing over the city as a serious of excessively violent crimes is committed. Matters are worsened when the international black magic community--aware that the urn has unleashed Mater Lachyrmarum, The Mother of Tears--begins to descend upon a chaotic Rome in droves. Within its first 10 minutes, MOTHER OF TEARS features a woman being strangled by her own intestines, and continues with well-paced shocks from that point on. While featuring none of the candy-colored lighting that made SUSPIRIA and INFERNO such surreal nightmares, this is still a rock-solid horror film with more originality.
Gory, Stylish and Flawed.
2009-10-23 - May Contain Spoilers
Set in present day Rome, a large chest is unearthed in an old cemetery and is sent to Rome's Natural History Museum for inspection. Once it is opened by an unsuspecting archeologist (who meets a heck of a demise BTW), it re-awakens the last surviving Black Witch known as Mater Lachrimarum (Mother of Tears) and restores her powers. She then summons all witches from every corner of the globe to travel to Rome and witness her return. In the meantime, Rome becomes engulfed in violence and chaos and it is up to our heroine Sarah (Asia Argento) to try to find a way to defeat this ungodly witch since she is linked to the current events through her deceased mother, who when alive, was a powerful White Witch.
Dario Argento finally finished his "Three Mother's Trilogy", the first being the classic "Suspiria (2-Disc Special Edition)" (1977) followed by "Inferno" (1980), with this rather nasty little horror flick. In comparison to the glorious original, it is sorely lacking. Not in the gore since there is an abundance of it here, but in its originality and overall execution. "Suspiria" is one of my favorite horror films of all times. Despite a bizarre storyline with loop holes galore, Argento was able to create a masterwork of suspense, creative camera angles, some nice cinematography with rich vivid colors despite the over-use of 70's cheesiness and a haunting score. "Mother of Tears", set several decades later, doesn't offer that kind of visual magic and although it's more visceral, the violence far more graphic, there is little to no suspense. With that said, this film entertained me immensely. Maybe it's because Asia Argento's edgy good looks is a sight to behold & she is incredibly sexy here (not to mention I love her accent) or maybe it's because it's been years since Argento gave us anything of high quality and this effort is better than most, if not all of his films released throughout the last 2 decades. Many state he lost his touch after 1987's "Opera" and I tend to agree to a certain extent although I immensely enjoyed his "Masters of Horror" entries- "Masters of Horror - Dario Argento - Jenifer" and "Masters of Horror - Pelts". This film does offer a rather clumsy, mildly intriguing storyline as did the original. "Suspiria" made up for it with its clever execution. "Mother of Tears" made up for it, at least to me, with the wickedly explicit murder sequences and its pace. Despite a lot of mumbo jumbo, the pace is swift, moving from one elaborate murder sequence to the next (the impaling of one unfortunate soul for instance is cringe-worthy & even babies are not safe from this films wrath). Also worth mentioning is the great cast, Asia Argento, Udo Keir, Dalia Nicolodi all whom offer middling to good performances but Argento's films are not noted for their actors masterwork but more for Argento's creativity and lastly, the location shots of Italy are sumptuous.
Judging by its reviews, this is a love it or hate it type of film. Especially if you are comparing it to Argento's earlier greater efforts. However as a horror film, it delivered what it promised. It may lack suspense & wit but the gore, nudity, outrageousness and scenes which many will consider "bad taste" are here in abundance and for those that like this type of morbid entertainment, it will be time well spent. Recommended.
Good job Argeto!
2009-10-16 - OK it's Not Suspiria but it's a good film and fits right in with the Mother trilogy. If you like Suspiria and Inferno you will like Mother of Tears. Only bad thing about this film is that the FX are not that great.
Even Masters Make Mistakes 
2009-09-18 - Wow, how many writers did it take to write this mess? Why was Daria Nicolodi not involved in the writing process on this film? Not to take anything away from the great accomplishments of a filmmaking legend like Dario Argento but Nicolodi's writing presence was greatly missed in this final installment in the Three Mothers trilogy. Mother of Tears just doesn't have the impact that Suspiria and Inferno had and the only missing component is Dario Nicolodi.
The acting is on again, off again, accents are occasionally too heavy and the makeup and costume design were just a bit too wonky and dated for my tastes. On the other hand, there was some great gore, a cool monster here and there and the nudity was phenomenal. Asia Argento and Moran Atias are breathtaking women; Dario's got a great eye for beauty.
My biggest problem with Mother of Tears is that it just seemed to meander, ramble and bounce about too much. The story just wasn't conservative enough, it was as if there were too many ideas packed in and not enough restraint used to bring the concept back down to earth. It came off like a first draft; logic went right out the window, CG FX was hokey, dialogue was bad, characters were unlikable and the finale was tremendously anticlimactic. In my opinion, Claudio Simonetti's score ended up being more epic than the film itself!
Mother of Tears just didn't work for me and I more than likely will not be voluntarily watching it again. It was just all over the place and not focused enough for me. If you're an Italian horror devotee or a hardcore Argento fan, you could probably rent worse but be sure to rent before purchasing first because Suspiria or Inferno this is not.
