Mother of Tears (2007) (DVD Review)
Director: Dario Argento
An ancient urn is found in a cemetery outside Rome. Once opened, it triggers a series of violent incidents: robberies, rapes and murders increase dramatically, while several mysterious, evil-looking young women coming from all over the world are gathering in the city. All these events are caused by the return of Mater Lacrimarum, the last of three powerful witches who have been spreading terror and death for centuries. Alone against an army of psychos and demons, Sarah Mandy, an art student who seems to have supernatural abilities of her own, is the only person left to prevent the Mother of Tears from destroying Rome.
Mother of Tears is the third in a somewhat loosely based trilogy that contains the classic, Suspiria, and the well-respected, Inferno. That being said I do believe the best way to describe this one would be to use the word “awkward”. We have an awkward plot with awkward plot twists. We have awkward characters. And the whole film seems to be set around a very awkward performance from the extremely good looking Asia Argento. And keeping with the tradition of Asia working with her father on a film, she is naked in a very awkward scene. Upon its release this film wasn’t met with very much fan fair and now having seen it for myself I can see why.
I do however have at least a little credit to toss in this film’s direction. Argento still has some nice camera work in here in spots. There are also some nice gore scenes. I’d probably go as far as to say that the gore is the best part of the entire film if we don’t count a crazy evil monkey. That same monkey may just give the best performance of the film. It is my personal opinion that this film was a swing and a miss for the legendary director. There’s no sizzle to the steak and the film gives us a disfigured plot with a very anticlimactic ending. This is a far cry from Tenebre, Deep Red, and Opera. I got my copy for $3 at Big Lots. It sure isn’t worth more than that.
(5.5/10)
Features
– The Making of Mother of Tears
– A Conversation with Dario Argento
– U.S. Trailer
– Italian Teaser
