Mother of Tears
by Dario Argento
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adam James, Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Moran Atias, Valeria CavalliDirector: Dario Argento
Brand: Genius
Producer: Dario Argento
Writer: Dario Argento
Producer: Claudio Argento
Writer: Adam Gierasch
Writer: Jace Anderson
Writer: Simona Simonetti
Writer: Walter Fasano
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Weinstein Company
Movie Reviews of Mother of Tears
Movie Review: Great Horror Story!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent horror movie as only Dario Argento can make. In a way, its like a greatest hits movie, combining past films like Deep Red, Phenomena all into a gore filled truimph. One thing that I like about Deep Red is everyone has been burned by hot water so its scarier because you can equate that pain to real life. In Mother of Tears, there's a scene with a woman crawling around on the floor and she reaches for a desk and hurts her hand. I can't really relate to a knife wound because I have only cut myself minorly when cooking. That's why scenes like that work so well. You also get a similar scene from Phenomena where Jennifer Connelly is swimming through some nasty looking water, filled with maggots, I think and it almost mirrors the ending of Mother of Tears with Asia in some kind of vile water.
Its very unusal for a father/daughter team to work so well as Dario and Asia do in Mother of Tears. They are able to separate their family identies and work together as director and actor. I think this is what gives the movie its own unique charm. Any other actor playing Sarah Mandy, would have fallen short. Another good idea was to include Asia's own mother, Daria Nicolodi, in the cast. They have a special bond that accelerates the emotions needed to make horror films like this work. Again, I don't think that Nicolodi could have been replaced by just another actor.
However, the real star to me was Moran Atias, who plays the third mother, Mater Lachrimarum, she is beautiful and filled with evil and hell-bent fury (my favorite kind of horror movie woman just like Carrie.)
This movie really plays on people who are agoraphobic, with rabid people suddenly attacking each other. It has that same kind of collapse of society that I associate with well-made horror movies like Dawn of the Dead (1979 original) and At the Mouth of Madness (an underrated Lovecraft inspired movie by John Carpentar.) Both movies show how easy it is to break through that thin layer of reality and allow chaos to come through. Choas is a lot of fun to watch, in horror movies anyway, and it offers Argento a chance to show audiences that he's still got it. I hope he keeps making films because good or bad, they all have something good that no other director seems to have.
I also like the Japanese gothic girl and how she was chasing Asia on the train. It was a nice touch and shows how an international cast can offer something to everyone open-minded.
Overall, I think this is a good conclusion to the Argento Three Mother trilogy. It may not please everyone but that is impossible to do. I think that if you like Argento and have seen a lot of his work, then you will have no problem enjoying Mother of Tears.
Summary of Mother of Tears
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 09/23/2008 Rating: UrAfter waiting 28 years for the third feature in Dario Argento?s Mother trilogy, die-hard fans (like myself) flocked to theaters to catch Mother of Tears. The anticipatory set-up, for example reconciling in advance that the film will look entirely different, and probably less sexy, than the first two Giallo classics, Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980), induced anxieties in viewers that many of us hoped would enhance the film?s horror and suspense. So revered are Suspiria and Inferno that one needs an extremely open mind to avoid instantly turning Mother of Tears off, now that it?s available on DVD, and chucking the disc out the window, insulted by its comparison to the previous two movies. From scene one, in which a psychotic, villainous monkey stalks Asia Argento, playing protagonist Sarah Mandy, through Rome?s Natural History Museum, one realizes this film can only go downhill. Without the colored lights, the stylized 1970s horror aesthetic, or the terrifyingly fetishtistic speed metal/electronica soundtrack pounding during the chase, the mood is simply corny. Regarding the monkey, try to remember that an oddly elegant and intelligent crow ate an eyeball to great effect in Argento?s, Terror at the Opera. Argento has always favored animals to represent unwilling witnesses. The plot itself is also typically Argento and does follow-up: After a tainted red tunic is discovered in a cemetery, the third and last witch, Mother Lachrimarum (Moran Atias), is awaken from her catacombs beneath a mansion that she and her two deceased witch consorts, Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness/Shadows, and Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, long ago recruited an architect to build. The Mother of Tears has beef with Sarah Mandy, due to Sarah?s heritage, and the unholy black witch relentlessly pursues Mandy until Mandy is forced to fight head-on. Mandy?s boyfriend, Michael Pierce (Adam James), is not much help, nor is Padre Johannes (Udo Kier), which makes sense; Argento?s films are all about empowered female characters, vengeful victims and ruthless criminals alike. Perhaps the flaw here is Argento?s casting of his daughter, and her inability to render that illicit sexual tension that the puerile Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) once did in the halls of her bewitched boarding school. Even Mother Lachrimarum?s young recruits, such as the Gothic and Lolita-style Katerina (Jun Ichikawa), are dumb-looking with their colored contacts and peacock hairstyles. There is only one character, the elder white witch Marta Colussi (Valeria Cavalli), who has the sexual draw to enchant Argento style, but she is short-lived. The CG effects employed throughout, especially in regards to the ghoulish antics happening amongst the Goth witch posse, are just plain bad. Only a few shots of gore really spook, and to be fair, they are lasting images. But the only semi-interesting this about the Mother of Tears DVD is the interview extra with the man himself, who is still master even if he makes a few stinkers. --Trinie Dalton
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