The last feature in the series of "Three Mothers" films brings story to life of the last of the remaining mothers "The Mother of Tears".
During an excavation of a cemetery a tractor falls into a hole concealing a casket with an urn lying right on top. A local priest gets hold of the urn and, after seeing what's inside, seals it up with wax and sends it to a man named Michael at The Museum of Ancient Art in Rome. Upon arriving at the museum Michael is nowhere to be found so his assistants Sarah and Giselle decide to have a look inside where they find a dagger, three statues and a mysterious shroud, but not before Giselle cuts her finger on the scalpel used to cut the wax. Next Giselle reads the names on the statues which brings forth a group of demons which attack her, gut her and choke her with her own intestines in one of the greatest death scenes in modern cinema, in my opinion. Sarah, having been gone at the time, comes back to see the demons ripping Giselle a new one, and decides it's time to run and hide. Apparently demons travel with monkeys because these demons do and the damn thing chases after Sarah shrieking every time it sees where she's hiding, giving away her position, so she's running for quite some time until she comes to some locked doors which she doesn't think she can get through until a voice comes out of nowhere and tells her to run. That second the doors slam open and she runs out barely escaping her own demise then coming back later on to explain what happened to the cops.
Now in town strange things are happening. A lady takes her baby and tosses it off a bridge, people vandalize others, all chaos breaks loose. At about this time were introduced to Michael who has a son named Paul who ultimately gets kidnapped for reasons you wouldn't believe if I told you. Now Sarah gets together which Michael, who's her boss/lover apparently, and they go searching for Paul who is captive to "The Mother of Tears" a powerful witch set on bringing chaos to all of Rome.
 
Somewhere along the way all these strange Goth looking chicks fly in from all around the world to go to a celebration in which The Mother of Tears is the guest of honour. Anyways apparently the Goth chicks know who Michael and Sarah are because they chase them quite a bit through the rest of the movie, Sarah barely escaping them after going invisible in a book store and jumping on a train to escape their grasp. She runs into a woman named Marta who tells her that she has great powers being that her mother was a witch and was murdered by, guess who? Now it's up to Sarah, with her newly discovered powers, to put an end to the last witch's evil plot.
I have to say that this is a damn good movie, I'm glad that Dario went back and finished the trilogy he started with Suspiria, which is one of my all time favourites, and Inferno, another great film. I have to say I wasn't that impressed with his earlier submission The Card Player, so seeing that this movie came out to be great really brought me back to the light that Dario himself pulls us all into. Although the ending, much like the other endings of his movies, wasn't all that riveting, the story in Mother of Tears was pretty solid and kept your attention throughout. Add in great roles by both Asia Argento and the extremely talented and attractive Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni and your set on the right track with these two beautiful actresses. My only complaint was that Coralina didn't have enough screen time, I mean lets admit, she's pretty damn good and I think she could have lasted at least a little bit longer in the film. Either way her death scene is one for the books, it was friggin gross!
In all I'd have to say that this is half way around my list of favourite Dario Argento movies, not his best but definitely one of his better recent efforts, and that's good enough for me to definitely recommend this film to true Dario Argento fans as well as newcomers, you won't be upset, especially if you saw The Card Player.
Dario Argento does it again with this great new addition to his catalogue of great films. If you haven't seen Suspiria or Inferno before getting this one do so, it'll save a lot of confusion in the end. This movie is highly recommended.
By
Back to Horror Review Archive
|
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: La Terza madre, Exhumed, Mother of Tears: The Third Mother
MOVIE YEAR: 2007
DIRECTOR: Dario Argento
WRITING CREDITS: Dario Argento, Jace Anderson
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Adam James
COUNTRY: Italy
RUNTIME: 98 min
RATING: 8/10
Mother of Tears Website/IMDB Click here
Mother of Tears Trailer Click here
|
