La terza madre (2007) Reviews

• Reprehensibly bad, one of Argento's worst movies and a pitiful wrap up to the "Three Mothers" trilogy

  squeezebox2009-04-30

  MOTHER OF TEARS sucks. It's one of the worst movies I've seen in years. The fact that it was made by Dario Argento surprises me despite the fact that Argento has made more than his fair share of stinkers. Sure, there are a few decent moments. A demon screaming into a phone until his jaw is impossibly extended is a creepy image, Sara descending a staircase into "Hell" is atmospheric and Argento delivers one good jolt with the old "did I really wake up or am I still dreaming" gag. But these scattered effective moments are crushed underneath a movie that looks like it was shot by a fanboy trying to make a movie like Dario Argento. Asia Argento, who is a decent actress, is embarrassingly bad here. Her performance is so wooden and monotone she looks like just showing up to the set everyday was enough of a chore. Most other performances are lousy as well. The dependable Udo Kier fares the best in the role of a priest who shows up just long enough to spout out a few convoluted lines of dialog which connect this movie to SUSPIRIA and INFERNO before being hacked to death. And that brings up the already infamous gore. MOTHER OF TEARS is likely to forever have a place in horror history as "one of the goriest movies ever made," but that honor is obligatory at best. Yeah, there are several outlandishly gruesome set-pieces, but they are all taken to such an extreme that they become ridiculous rather than horrifying. A woman being disemboweled and then choked with her own intestines is unintentionally funny, more like Peter Jackson's work in DEAD ALIVE than the surreal horror of SUSPIRIA. The scene is also not helped by the fact that the "intestines" look more like industrial extension cords than actual innards (even more so in an equally absurd moment in which a woman's intestines are being sucked out through her anus). A monkey which serves as a familiar to the Mother is sort of creepy at first, but when it kept showing up and screeching it started to grate on my nerves. Even more irritating is Sara's mother's ghost, who repeatedly materializes to give her advice, even after telling her it's the last time she'll be doing so. The special effect used to place her in front of Sara is so bad it was hard not to chuckle every time. Unfortunately the unintentional humor that may have made these scenes amusing is killed by the excruciating banality of their dialog. Worst of all, however, is the Mother herself. Turns out the "Queen of All Evil" is a runway model with fake boobs. She's about as scary as Paris Hilton. Maybe this is why the only witches who show up to honor her are the ones who wear ten pounds of make-up and have no fashion sense. For a secret society these ladies sure haven't nailed down the art of inconspicuousness. Argento apparently thinks all witches dress like Madonna circa 1985. And I expected it to take just slightly more to vanquish the Mother than to simply throw her T-shirt on the fire. If this was just a random movie, with no connection to two of the most unique and surreal horror movies ever made, then MOTHER OF TEARS might be fun in a PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE sort of way. As the final entry in an intended trilogy, however, this movie is inexcusably awful.

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• Dear Dario,

  doctorprogress2008-06-16

  I know this is going to be hard for you to hear, but I have to get this off of my chest: I'm leaving you. We had a good run for years, but now its time to move on. I'm not going to patronize you by using the tired "its not you - its me" cliché. In fact, it IS you. You've changed, and I'm not in love with your movies anymore. In the early days, we had a blast. Your films were artistic, original, vibrant, gory and scary. They were lush with complex themes woven into horror films that broadened my mind... In the Eighties, we had a rocky period. Your films became sloppy and convoluted. Yes, the honeymoon was over - but we still stuck it out. I had faith that we (you) could work through this and get back in the game. Towards the end of the millennium, you did have your flashes of brilliance - glimpses of our blissful beginnings... Sadly, as I now see, those were merely the final stages of your decline. Your brief and violent death throes before truly going off the rails. I am writing to you now after seeing "Mother of Tears." I had such high hopes for us again!! All the planets were aligned: Late night screening - full house - open mind - belly full of tequila and lime... and the NEW DARIO ARGENTO FILM!!! What could possibly go wrong! Then it starts... Gore right off the bat! Then witches!! THEN a very wicked little monkey!! This is going to be great! Then... oh god, then.... I'm not sure when it started exactly, but at some point pretty early on the plot twisted off into nowhere - followed shortly thereafter by any pretense of acting. I mean - I love a b-flick, but this was just pathetic. Especially when you know everyone can do better. (Oh, Udo, my secret Lover... Why? WHY???) What bothers me the most was that it seemed that you, Dario - the once great horror maestro- didn't care about this one. Where was the signature color palate? Why would you let the one of the brilliant Goblin boys write one great Argento-esquire piece, followed by half an hour of hackery? I hate to say it, but after your last three flops - I'm done. Thanks for the great years, Dario, but you and I are through. We'll always have the 70's, my Love. And I will remember them, and you, fondly. Good bye, Dario.

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• Let's just pretend this didn't happen...

  Stay_away_from_the_Metropol2009-07-15

  This was one of the biggest disappointments for me in a long time. If you've ever heard the name Dario Argento - it's probably because in 1977 he crafted one of the most stylish and genuinely creepy horror movies of all time, called "Suspiria". It's one of my personal favorite movies of all time, from one of my favorite directors. If you can appreciate horror, or even if you can't but you're an open minded person, I suggest you give SUSPIRIA an hour and a half of your life because it's unlike any other horror experience you will ever have. SUSPIRIA was intended to be the first movie in a series of three, known as the "Three Mothers Trilogy". After Argento's crowning achievement, he did the 2nd in the series in 1980 which was called "Inferno". Although Inferno was just as stylish and just as mysterious, it was not quite as effective or fulfilling as Suspiria in the end. Yet, it is still a bizarre cult classic. The soundtrack from Keith Emerson is probably even better than the movie itself. Anyways...Argento decided to hold off from finishing off the trilogy, and ended up holding off for 30 YEARS..., so finally in 2007 he decided it was time to create the finale, The Mother of Tears. What can I say? There are maybe one or two gratuitous murders that are worthy of the Argento name, specifically the very first in the movie which comes out of nowhere and may have you clenching your mouth to make sure your teeth are still there. It is always lovely to see Argento bringing back actors and actresses from classic Italian horror films - in this case it's Coralina Cataldi from his awesome 1987 film, Opera, and the roller-coaster ride that is DEMONS 2. Aside from a few memorable deaths, this movie really has almost NOTHING to offer. It is nice to see someone making movies about black magic, demons, and sorcery since no one else really does that anymore. The concepts are wonderful but unfortunately NOTHING is pulled off effectively here. For one, the CGI totally abolishes the legitimacy of the movie. It's some of the cheesiest CGI i've had to bare with in some time. I figured Argento would be smarter than this - but then again, he is getting really, really old... Asia Argento (the director's daughter and lead actress) can act but she isn't given much to work with here. The script, as usual with Argento's films, is the weakest part. The dialogue is far too basic to keep your emotions invested in the characters. No one else stands out as a particularly great performer either. The saddest thing of all is that the movie completely lacks atmosphere. The setting and atmosphere was always the absolute BEST part of the director's classic films. And the fact that one of my favorite bands of all time, Goblin, provided the majority of soundtracks heavily added to that. But they've been out of the picture since his 2001 movie, Sleepless. The sets were completely plain and in no way stand out. I appreciated the shots of the creepy old mansion like building towards the very end, but even that building looked fake and CGI-induced...and it was clear that it was not actually filmed there - which took a lot away from the entire finale. The finale was probably the most depressing part. It felt extremely rushed, and aside from that, the "lead villain" who is supposed to be "the most evil of the three mothers" was SO half assed. A good looking chick with nice tits and some black make up around her eyes?????? c'mon!!!!!!! what IS this?!?!?! I wanted to laugh at it but was way too saddened by the film overall to have a good time with it. And then all of a sudden, it's over... I was so let down! I guess I'll have to depend on Asia Argento to make good movies instead from now on. Her last one, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, was a masterpiece of it's own kind!!! See it!

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• MOT: a twisted fairy tale for our modern times!

  guigui-paul2008-02-03

  Following the positive experiences of JENIFER and PELTS for the "Masters of Horror" TV series,MOTHER OF TEARS/LA TERZA MADRE received the typically mixed reviews for a Dario Argento work: People liked the film,or they disliked it,but very few of them were indifferent at the experience of watching MOTHER OF TEARS! True,the last chapter of the Mater trilogy is a very different "beast" in comparison to SUSPINFERNO: this time Argento doesn't repeat the totally surreal,colorful,abstract dream worlds of SUSPINFERNO but the director instead throws his viewer into our modern urban world. In fact,MOT offers itself as a clever metaphor of the end of our days,our regular apocalypse. The "second fall of Roma",as shown in the film, isn't the fake,typical "CGI-zed" apocalypse view of the world that you can see in many horror films like DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 or 28 WEEKS LATER,but it is rather the daily,sad and gruesome chaos and madness that we can see in our every day lives: People beating and killing each other,rape,mothers killing their children,suicides,racism,etc. If MOT is of course a (crazy!) fairy tale,the film has overall a more "down to earth" and tongue in cheek,ironic approach to its subject: The characters in the film (especially Sarah,Michael and Marta) are likable human beings,they are slightly more defined than the puppets of SUSPIRIA and especially INFERNO...the relation between Sarah and her dead mother is also somewhat touching,and subtly linked to the past life of the Argento's family. The "baddies" in the film are deliberately over the top,they are cackling,"punk" witches who are governed by a sexy top model who enjoys her catwalk,the beautiful Moran Atias! As usual with Argento,the use of locations (old buildings,streets,museum,book shop,station,catacombs...) in the film is really striking,also nicely enhanced by the use of 2:35 cinematography...there are also some nice use of moving cameras,from the opening shot in the cemetery to the beautiful and "argentoesque" long Steadycam shot when Sarah finds the Mater's lair. There's nothing here as spectacular as the crows's scene in OPERA or the carpet crawl in SLEEPLESS,but Argento's direction is quite solid,with its nice use of frame compositions and editing (see the first Roma's fall scene,for example!) The opening scene in the museum,the incredibly nasty "TENEBRAEesque" scene with the likable lesbians and the night taxi ride/Mater's house's scene are really effective set-pieces that easily rank among the best set-pieces in the glorious career of Argento. Frederic Fasano's camera-work in the film is also good,but unlike the "Technicolor Disney style" of SUSPIRIA and INFERNO,the film is shot in mostly cold,naturalistic and dark tones full of shadows,even if Fasano also delivers from time to time some welcomed and subtle bursts of vivid colors in the key "Mater" scenes set in the witch's lair. The casting is quite good too,Asia Argento delivers an uneven but very physical,energetic performance,Adam James is a decent lead and it's always nice to see old legends of Euro cinema like Udo Kier,Coralina Cataldi Tassoni and Philippe Leroy doing some fun cameos. The special effects from the great Sergio Stivaletti are mostly good and gory,delivering many effective nasty shocks in the murders's scenes. Claudio Simonetti's music isn't as loud and memorable as SUSPIRIA and INFERNO's soundtracks,but it does the job very well and it is again a slightly different composition for the ex Goblin: full of electronic beats (remember IL CARTAIO?) but also with some lyrical,effective nods to Jerry Goldsmith,Bernard Herrmann,etc. MOTER OF TEARS isn't a flawless film (Daria Nicolodi's character is questionable,the few CGI effects are quite average,the ending -like the one of SUSPIRIA- is a bit too rushed,...),but it is overall an enjoyable and touching tribute to Arts and especially to the sadly missed Italian "cinema de genre" from the 60's to the 80's: There are lots of references in the film to Mario Bava,Lucio Fulci,Sergio Martino,Ruggero Deodato,Mario Caiano,Dario Argento (!),the "fumetti",Goya,Bosch,the 19th century painting,etc. And finally,it's always a great pleasure to see that in 2008,a year where some opportunists directors like Rob Zombie or Alexandre Aja are somewhat considered like "Gods" by the young horror fans,an old cinema legend like Dario Argento is still breaking taboos and experimenting audacious,fun and personal stuff,with each one of his new work...

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• Mother of Tears

  Scarecrow-882011-10-02

  I think Dario Argento's "Mother of Tears" operates under the adage that some things are better left buried. Thirteenth century artifacts are uncovered inside an urn found buried with the crypt of a man during the excavation of a church where bodies were being "relocated". The moment the urn is opened, an evil is released which will almost immediately unleash upon Rome a possible apocalypse as the Third Mother prepares for total domination of the world. "Chaos. Blood. Tears." And, does the city come unglued! A woman tosses her baby off a bridge (yeah, Dario shows the baby's head slam into stone while hurling to its doom!), violence erupts in the streets, with the carnage tearing Rome apart, a sickness that is spreading like the plague. The moment the urn's candlewax seal (the priest is responsible for the seal, attempting to keep its contents sealed until an archaeologist named Michael could examine them, his expertise in "esoteric science" appropriate for determining the purpose for the artifacts) is broken, terror awaits society, unprepared for the evil that will produce a corruptive influence on all who fall under the Third Mother's spell. It seems that Asia Argento's "student of archeology" is immune to the power of the Third Mother, but how will she be able to stop her before the madness that is enveloping the world becomes to vast to contain? Mater Lacrimarum, the third witch, is the Mother of Tears, considered the most beautiful and cruel of the three (and the other two were pretty damn evil), and as long as the "talisman" (a cloth that drapes over the gorgeous naked body of Moran Atias) is liberated from the seal, evil will reside. The screenplay (co-written, and based on a story, by Dario Argento) is busy, to say the least, with Asia's Sarah Mandy actually the daughter of a "white witch" (played by her mom, and the former lover of Dario, Daria Nicolodi), herself blessed with certain powers (like invisibility). "Mother of Tears" is all over the map; it is really demented. The violence is of the preposterously extreme variety. I mean eyes are gouged out, a face is crushed by a door, a woman is vaginally skewered by a sword, one victim is strangled (after being disemboweled) with her own intestines, and poor priest Udo Kier is bludgeoned repeatedly in the skull with a hatchet! There's a monkey that seems to guide members of Lacrimarum's henchmen—their eyes, so to speak—and children are constantly butchered (one scenes shows the hand of a Lacrimarum follower reaching into the belly of a dead child, another shows a partially devoured child corpse!). This movie is a bloody mess. But, it all makes sense because Mother of Tears is the most sadistic and vile witch of her trio so the slaughter and plague of violence derives from her desire for total anarchy, death, and destruction. My complaint concerns the CGI and "ghost" shenanigans with Nicolodi, helping her daughter escape peril and capture; it looks and feels tacky. Dario follows his daughter as she enters the ruins of the Rome manor, built by an alchemist responsible for the other two (built in New York for Inferno, and Freidburg, Germany for Suspiria), eventually descending into the hidden chamber to face her enemy. The ending is pure Corman, a bit disappointing as the collapsing structures look less impressive thanks to cheap computer graphic effects. The story includes a lesbian psychic who teaches Sarah about contacting her mother and the archaeologist/scientist, Michael (Adam James), being pursued by screeching girls with giant hair and thick eye liner (they look like they stepped right out of the 80s). Dario just hurls the kitchen sink at you. Bottom line is that this film has continued to divide the Argento faithful. While I consider it a lot of grisly, and over-the-top fun, others think Argento has forever lost his mojo. All I know is that I cringed and laughed at a lot of the graphic violence because Argento has no barometer in regards to "how far to go". Everyone is fair game in his movies.

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