Dario Argento is widely recognized as one of the greatest horror directors around, mostly because of his classic films Inferno and Suspiria, two of the highlights of the horror genre that combine high art with what horror fans love, nudity and gore. Argento’s previous works in his thematic trilogy are more artistic in nature, but Mother of Tears still stands out as one of the best horror films of recent memory.

The film revolves around a mysterious witch named Mater Lacramum… or Mother of Tears for those that have trouble with other languages. Mater Lacramum is an evil witch who spreads madness and hysteria the way that Britney Spears spreads crabs. An urn is discovered by Sarah, an art student who has a mysterious past of her own. In the city of Rome, violence, rapes, and murders begin to increase and Sarah must discover the truth and stop the evil witch before all of Rome, and possibly the world, falls apart at the seams.

Dario Argento isn’t necessarily at the top of his game with this film, but he’s damn close. The film does suffer from some narrative problems and the characters aren’t as deep as they could be, but as is usually the case, Argento makes up for that with a style that is unique to Argento cinema. The look of the film is thankfully missing the cloudy cheap imagery of past Italian films, and it looks as crisp as the latest Hollywood blockbuster. The pacing of the film is amazing, and Argento manages to capture the madness in the streets in a very Lifeforce-esque manner… only with tons of hot sluts showing their boobs in the process. Argento appears to be cognizant of the horror fans, and Mother of Tears plays like a love letter to his fans as it takes all the sleazy elements of horror and bumps them up a notch in the artistic style that Argento has become known for. The story really isn’t all that impressive, but the look and pure eye candy nature of the film is worth seeing.

The acting in the film is typical shot in Italy, but made for an American audience, quality. That means that there are a lot of actors whose voices are dubbed. The actors that aren’t dubbed speak English with sometimes thick accents and inaccurate emphasis on their words, which can sometimes be distracting. Luckily, nothing that anyone says is ever that interesting, so you can basically ignore what people are talking about. Asia Argento is fascinating as the damsel in distress, a young woman whose mysterious past is catching up to her at the speed of light. Argento brings her own special brand of strong femininity to the film and she is really the only true star of the movie as everyone else has the acting skill of a monkey who is particularly strong at mimicking.

Overall, the special effects are amazing. Argento fills his film with violence that will make most viewers cringe in pain. There are a variety of kickass practical effects that are disturbing and liberally sprinkled throughout the film. Around every corner is another scene of gore, done at the highest level. Not all the special effects are that great, as Argento again makes use of cheap Italian CGI that he is notorious for at this point. The stuff is pretty bad, and it brings the film down a notch, because it’s so out of place compared to the entire quality of the rest of the film. Thankfully, the CGI is used mostly for non-gore elements.

Mother of Tears is quite simply a good time. It pales in comparison to the other films in the Three Mothers trilogy, but it does hearken back to that time in the late seventies and early eighties where movies of this ilk were all too prevalent. Finally, a supernatural film that doesn’t involve little girls with long hair or some sort of technophobia message. Many people will hate this movie, but they are most likely the same people that would have hated Suspiria and Inferno, fair-weather horror fans that are only interested in box office and twists. If you’ve been an Argento fan from the beginning, Mother of Tears is a breath of fresh air for a rapidly drowning genre.

Final Synopsis: Mother of Tears is far from perfect, but most horror fans will love its mindless violence and gratuitous nudity. The hectic scenes of mass violence and hysteria are worth the price of admission alone. It’s the least of the “Three Mothers” trilogy, so if you didn’t like the others, you will probably not like this one. For true horror fans, Three Mothers is a guilty good time… meaning that you probably won’t share the reasons you like the movie with others… namely the violence and the nudity.

Points Lost: -1 for some bad CGI, -1 for bad acting, -1 for a weak story

Bonus Points: +1 for appealing to the baser tastes of horror fans with gratuitous nudity and violence… thanks, Argento!

Lesson Learned: Don’t open ancient urns… duh.

Burning Question: Does Argento ever hear how bad the CGI is in his movies? He keeps using the same people and it looks like shit. Someone please inform the man.

Mother of Tears: The Third Mother
8/10

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Inferno Review
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