Mother of Tears (2007) Review

"Who wants to eat the girl!?"
-Mater Lachrymarum




The final chapter in Dario Argento's The Three Mothers trilogy, Mother of Tears, begins with the discovery of a long dead and buried body and urn being dug up.  The examination of these artifacts brings a wave of death and violence upon the city of Rome.  Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento) becomes wrapped up in the madness and has to take on the last of the Three Mothers, Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias), to stop the rise of the witches.


What Works:

I think I watched the unrated edition of this movie and if you're going to watch it, I recommend doing the same.  The gore in this film is bonkers with a ton of over-the-top-kills.  The first one is actually one of the goriest I have ever seen.  It involves someone being strangled by their own intestines and that's not even all of it.  The insanity of the kills alone make this movie worth watching.

The movie isn't afraid to kill off kids either.  Three of them are done in over the course of the film and and they do not mess around with the brutality of the kills. I really respect films that go into the dark territory and Mother of Tears goes farther than most.

The narrative is actually pretty strong, far superior to Inferno.  There are stakes with the sanity of Rome falling apart and it ties into the first two films.  It feels like a natural conclusion to the story.

Inferno had a lot of boring moments and while Mother of Tears has some weaknesses, it's never boring.  I was thoroughly entertained the entire time.

Finally, Mother of Tears has one of the most unintentionally funny moments I have ever seen captured on film.  A woman tosses her baby over the side of a bridge.  This isn't funny on its own, but it transforms into a bad dummy on the way down and bounces off the side of the bridge.  It's hysterically funny and I rewound the movie to watch the scene multiple times I loved it so much.


What Sucks:

The CGI is just awful.  It's actually embarrassing how bad it is at parts.  It's infrequent during most of the movie, but the 3rd act is a mess of bad CGI.  

There are also a couple of moments of bad acting.  The biggest standout is Mater Lachrymarum herself.  Moran Atias just isn't convincing as an evil witch.  Luckily, she's not in much of the film, but when she is, it's noticeable.  

Finally, both Suspiria and Inferno have marvelous style and score.  Mother of Tears has neither of those things.  There is no color or haunting music.  It looks and sounds...cheap I guess.  Had it been more stylistic, this could have ended up in the same league as Suspiria.


Verdict:

Overall, I like Mother of Tears better than Inferno or the remake of Suspiria, but it's not as good as the original Suspiria.  The kills are incredible, the story is solid, and the baby tossing scene is one of the greatest things I've ever seen, but the movie feels cheap and is lacking some style.  Plus the CGI sucks and there is some bad acting.  It's a very flawed film, but it's also very entertaining and worth checking out.

 7/10: Good 


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