lojitsu A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Mother of Tears" (R - 2007 - Italy)Sub-Genre: Gore/ParanormalMy Score: 6.5Cast=5 Acting=8 Plot=4 Ending=9 Story=4 Scare=7 Jump=4 F/X=7 Gore=10 Creep=7An ancient urn is found in a cemetery outside Rome. Once opened, it triggers a series of violent incidents: robberies, rapes and murders. While several mysterious, evil-looking young women coming from all over the world are gathering in the city."Who wants to eat this girl?" I have not seen the first two in this trilogy ("Susperia" and "Inferno") and that took away from the story a bit as I did not know what was going on. After watching this for it's amazing gore, I will go back and watch the other two for sure!! After you get through all the visceral gore, you may see this for the haunting beauty within. It's one you can't help but talk about it after...both for the mess of a story or the great gore.

PoppyTransfusion As the third part of The Three Mothers this is the weakest offering from Argento. Partly because it is so different stylistically and partly because of the portrayal of the mother of the title. Mater Lachrymarum is the biggest disappointment; some of that stems from featuring her too frequently throughout the film in stark contrast to Mater Suspiriorum and Tenebarum. Indeed each of the previous mothers were slightly disappointing too but Argento had the good sense to keep them as hidden adversaries whose presence was felt through the use of sound/music and surreal images. As disappointing as she was, the mother's followers - black witches - were even worse. Risible parodies who suggested sleaze rather than scare.Equally disappointing was this mother's house. It was a decrepit building that may have been fabulous once but was no longer and did not compare with the Freiburg school and New York apartment block of Suspiria and Inferno, respectively. Those other buildings allowed Argento to flourish in use of colours and lighting. The architecture of the earlier buildings was as much a part of the mystery as the mother housed by each and they were used to good effect throughout. By contrast we barely know Mater Lachrymarum's house, only seeing it towards the end and in darkness. What works well in the film: the lead character Sara (played by Asia Argento, who I thought was good), a reluctant heroine with supernatural abilities; the killing scenes delivered in terms of gore; the scene of the woman who cuddles her baby and then throws him over the bridge into the river, as evidence of the 'tears' this mother brings to the world; the theme of mothers - pitting Sara's dead mother (a cameo by Daria Nicolodi) against Mater Lachrymarum; and, the continuance of the story about the Three Mothers, witches, alchemy and magic. There is quite a good soundtrack with an excellent closing song entitled "Dulcis in Fondo" performed by Daemonia. (In fact the end credits artwork - a tableau of images depicting good and evil - was great.) This is a must-see for those wanting closure to the trilogy story and to follow Argento's progression as a director. The pity is that this film was 20 years after Suspiria and 17 years after Inferno. This undoubtedly disrupted the continuity and affected the film.

grungy_guy now I heard a lot of bad things about this movie, and I heard a lot of good things about this movie. For most Argento fans it was a love it, or hate it. I, Myself, have only watched 4 of his films, a majority being ones that the fans did not like. In my opinion this movie was a fun ride. Nothing serious, and nothing all that scary, but a cheesy cult movie nevertheless. There are plenty of special effects in this film, but many of them give the vibe of an Unrated ScyFy movie, bloody, but silly. There are many cool kills though, such as the beginning where a woman gets her mouth ripped apart. There are some very sexual parts of this movie, which I tend to get a lot of when I'm watching Argento films......I don't really know how to comment on that....The one thing that keeps on giving me chuckles is Asia terrible acting in this film. She's a great actress (especially in Land of the Dead) but in this film, every other line sounds so fake, and forced, I just can't help but Laugh. Another problem I have with this film, is that some of the things that people do here, don't make a lick of sense, and I have to yell out "WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT??!!" Also there is a part of the film where the main character's mother (a spirit) shows up, and communicates with her, and I just have to say....the special effect used during those scenes are eye nauseating. Other than that, this movie is PRETTY BAD, but not in a terrible way. It's one of those SO-Bad-it's-GOOD films, and I would recommend it only to B-movie lovers.

fedor8 Even witches aren't what they used to be. Argento's Rome witch first had to get a boob-job before making her grand appearance on Earth. Did she feel insecure that Hell's Minions wouldn't take her seriously if her breasts only had a B cup size? Even Hell's Minions aren't what they used to be. This world is going to Hell.The acting is pedestrian, as always, not helped at all by the fact that these Italian and German actors can't articulate their basic English skills too well."There is a booger in my studies that might help us" says Uwe Kier. He meant "book" of course. Still, no hard feelings, since I am a big fan of unintentional mishaps, especially in clumsy horror flicks. Uwe will be Uwe, never in the mood to pick up a English For Beginners book."The buddy was found lying down". The "body", of course. "Parents" become "barents" and so on. It helps to watch this little Argento flick with a hearing aid and subtitles.Casting your daughter isn't necessarily the best decision either. Perhaps Argento could have learned from the mistake of a certain fellow Italian, Francis Ford Coppola. Asia Argento is, always was, and always will be a mediocre actress. Nepotism is a disease and it doesn't work most of the time.I had to wonder though why Dario had decided to film his daughter in the nude, lovingly following her body inch by inch, yet again. The scene was totally unnecessary, unless he wanted to make sure the viewers knew that the main character had a proper wash before she stepped into the arena to fight Evil. Or he just wanted to make sure we were all reminded that his daughter has a fine set of knockers.Or he is just a filthy old man with incestual desires which he isn't ashamed of at all. Klaus Kinski, anyone? There was however one actor who struck me as really good. Yes, I am referring to the little monkey who played the witch's loudest emissary. I thought his performance was quite convincing. His animal trainer must be very good.Which begs the question: should more of Argento's actors be coached by animal trainers? Perhaps that would improve their performances. What worked for the monkey might work for the humans. Not to mention an obligatory ESL crash course for everyone, including the monkey (should he get lines the next time around).Dario should either make a movie in Italian or in English with actors who speak the language. This in-between "solution" has often compromised his films.We are told that the mother of tears loves chaos, which means she is basically just like Dario Argento: his chaotic scripts are only matched by the chaotic movies he makes out of them. Still, this time around the illogic was comparatively mild.What was the point of that lesbian scene? Just for the sake of it.