I’m a huge Dario Argento fan and I was looking forward to seeing how he was intending to wrap up his Three Mothers trilogy following the exceptional classic SUSPERIA and the mediocre yet fun film INFERNO but I was not expecting what Argento came up with in MOTHER OF TEARS: THE THIRD MOTHER as his way of wrapping up one of the horror genre’s most important trilogies. I had heard a lot of bad things about this new film in the press in terms of its various screenings across the globe none of which were very good but since I am an Argento fan and the last film of his that I saw theatrical was THE STENDHAL SYNDROME I was amped to see his new film.
The press was right. This is absolutely Argento’s worst film since Non ho sonno (aka SLEEPLESS). There are so many things that went wrong with this film that I don’t know where to begin but simply speaking Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento) is an art student at a museum in Rome where an urn and body has just been discovered outside a cemetery. When Sarah and her friend open the urn they unwittingly release the spirit of Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias) whose resurrection causes people in the city to commit unspeakable violence and rape and crime. Fearing that Sarah might try to stop her from taking over the world, Mater Lachrymarum sends her minions after Sarah…And that’s simply about it in terms of plot. It’s more or less a chase movie in which Sarah runs and someone chases her. There’s also a subplot about Sarah being the descendent of a white witch and that she has special powers that will help her defeat Mater Lachrymarum. There’s also a subplot concerning Sarah’s relationship with the museum curator Michael (Adam James), whose son is kidnapped by Mater Lachrymarum to get at Sarah but all of this is a puddle of nonsense in this film.
There is also a lot of gratuitous violence and sexual conduct which is usually no problem in an Argento film when artfully done as is the case with DEEP RED or THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or OPERA, but in this film Argento chooses just to throw it all in for good measure. I probably could’ve turned the other cheek on this except for the fact that Sarah Mandy as played by Asia Argento is one of the worst characters that she has ever been associated with. This is probably the weakest character Asia has every played and Dario has ever written. Gone is the strong main females of SUSPERIA or DEEP RED or THE CARD PLAYER. Sarah Mandy is hard to swallow from both and it makes sitting through the ninety-eight minute movie excruciating and difficult.
It’s good to see Daria Nicolodi reuniting with Dario (since they haven’t worked together since PHENOMENA) but her role as Sarah’s dead mother in spirit form is laughable not only from the performance but from the bad CGI. The same can be said about generally all the performances in the film as they are subpar at best.
I wish there was something good that I could recommend from the film but there simply is not. Not even Claudio Simonetti’s (from the Italian group Goblin) original score can help the film as it is not one of his better scores as many of the cues feel forced and are too powerful for what’s going on. Unless you just like mindless violence and sex then pass on this film and wait a little longer for Argento’s GIALLO which should be out sometime next year.
The press was right. This is absolutely Argento’s worst film since Non ho sonno (aka SLEEPLESS). There are so many things that went wrong with this film that I don’t know where to begin but simply speaking Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento) is an art student at a museum in Rome where an urn and body has just been discovered outside a cemetery. When Sarah and her friend open the urn they unwittingly release the spirit of Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias) whose resurrection causes people in the city to commit unspeakable violence and rape and crime. Fearing that Sarah might try to stop her from taking over the world, Mater Lachrymarum sends her minions after Sarah…And that’s simply about it in terms of plot. It’s more or less a chase movie in which Sarah runs and someone chases her. There’s also a subplot about Sarah being the descendent of a white witch and that she has special powers that will help her defeat Mater Lachrymarum. There’s also a subplot concerning Sarah’s relationship with the museum curator Michael (Adam James), whose son is kidnapped by Mater Lachrymarum to get at Sarah but all of this is a puddle of nonsense in this film.
There is also a lot of gratuitous violence and sexual conduct which is usually no problem in an Argento film when artfully done as is the case with DEEP RED or THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or OPERA, but in this film Argento chooses just to throw it all in for good measure. I probably could’ve turned the other cheek on this except for the fact that Sarah Mandy as played by Asia Argento is one of the worst characters that she has ever been associated with. This is probably the weakest character Asia has every played and Dario has ever written. Gone is the strong main females of SUSPERIA or DEEP RED or THE CARD PLAYER. Sarah Mandy is hard to swallow from both and it makes sitting through the ninety-eight minute movie excruciating and difficult.
It’s good to see Daria Nicolodi reuniting with Dario (since they haven’t worked together since PHENOMENA) but her role as Sarah’s dead mother in spirit form is laughable not only from the performance but from the bad CGI. The same can be said about generally all the performances in the film as they are subpar at best.
I wish there was something good that I could recommend from the film but there simply is not. Not even Claudio Simonetti’s (from the Italian group Goblin) original score can help the film as it is not one of his better scores as many of the cues feel forced and are too powerful for what’s going on. Unless you just like mindless violence and sex then pass on this film and wait a little longer for Argento’s GIALLO which should be out sometime next year.
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