'Mother of Tears' Completes a Long-Awaited Horror Trilogy

by Andrew Jupin

There I was, DVD remote in hand, sitting in my living room glaring at the DVD menu on my screen. I wasn't sure if what I had just watched was something I liked, disliked, or flat-out hated. This was my initial confusion after watching Dario Argento's latest, Mother of Tears. On the one hand, the man is far and away the most prolific horror filmmaker of his time. His films are known to horror fans and non-fans alike. He is the kind of filmmaker where the viewer can either get on board and get involved in the story and zaniness of it, or they get left behind and will not have a good time watching.

Mother of Tears is Argento's third film in a trilogy based on powerful witches known as the Three Mothers. The first film being his horror masterpiece, Suspiria, and the second being the flat-but-fine film, Inferno. With Mother of Tears Argento revists his family of witches almost thirty years later which is long enough for most audiences (even fans) remember the corralation between these films. This time, an ancient urn has been discovered in an old cemetery on the outskirts of Rome. When an art student, Sarah (Asia Argento), opens up the urn, the Mother of Tears is released to the world and her effect is felt immediately throughout Rome. People start randomly beating each other, mothers kill their children, demented people eat their victims and so on and so on. As it of course would, this epidemic all comes down to Sarah--who is a descendent of a powerful witch--who needs to harness the powers she was born with to defeat the Mother of Tears and stop the insanity that continues to plague the city.

I can't say in good conscience that you should watch this movie. Hardcore Argento fans will be pleased and those getting into the film for the gore will be more than pleased. The casual viewer on the other hand will be absolutely disgusted and mortified. This is a tough film to watch at parts however most of the violence is done very well. Do keep in mind that the gore is incredibly over-the-top and a few choice scenes had me left with my jaw hanging low. That said, for all the violence, gore, and predictable story turns, I find myself looking back on the film with fondness. I have huge problems with the movie, don't get me wrong. For example, with all the focus on Sarah needing to harness her powers and make her witch mother proud and she's such a great witch if only she could learn how to control her gifts and so on, the climax of the film shows Sarah defeating the Mother of Tears with very physical, non-magical behavior. I guess I had been hankering for some new horror to come my way and Mother of Tears filled the gap nicely. It's not a perfect film, but fun enough to get together with some friends on a Saturday night and enjoy.


Mother of Tears is out on DVD today from Dimension Extreme and Genius Products.