"Mother of Tears" review

Mother of Tears (2007)
AKA Terza madre, La

Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Jace Anderson Dario Argento

Asia Argento... Sarah Mandy
Cristian Solimeno... Detective Enzo Marchi
Adam James... Michael Pierce
Moran Atias... Mater Lachrymarum
Valeria Cavalli... Marta Colussi
Daria Nicolodi... Elisa Mandy
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni... Giselle Mares
Udo Kier... Padre Johannes

The Third Mother is loose and wants to do battle with Asia Argento. The Mother of Tears is the meanest witch and wants to bring death and destruction wherever she goes. Asia is the confused art student who unknowingly opens an ancient box which releases the malevolent spirit of the Mother of Tears and her equally evil pet monkey. All witches have monkeys you know. Asia tries to run away but there is no escape since the entire city of Rome is falling down around her. Many people try to help Asia discover her hidden witchy ways but they usually end up dying horribly. Soon Asia will decide to quit stalling and get this movie going by tracking down the Mother of Tears on her own. I can’t say I ‘m a huge Dario Argento fan so my expectations weren’t too high going into this movie. I really liked “Suspiria” and “Opera” but the other Argento flicks I saw didn’t excite me too much. But I can see why people enjoy his film-making style.

So as a Dario Argento movie, “Mother of Tears” is lacking. I was expecting more of his patented over the top excesses. None of the scenes in “Mother of Tears” really stand out as impressive. It plays as a straight horror flick with generous helpings of gore. If you are a fan of Argento, it’s possible you’ll hate this movie.

But as a sleazy B-movie, “Mother of Tears” is pretty good. The gore scenes do not disappoint. Many heads, arms and intestines are ripped apart with maniacal glee. There is also a generous helping of nudity as the Third Mother and her coven like to get topless. Asia also manages to make friends with a lesbian couple who don’t let little details like evil witches about to kill them spoil their lovemaking.

The pacing in “Mother of Tears” is what starts to drag it down. The movie lurches back and forth in stops and starts. One minute some fool will be droning on about the legend of the Three Mothers and the next they’ll be hacked to death. I was really hoping the movie would kick into gear but it never did. Asia should have accepted her destiny as a horror movie heroine sooner and attacked the coven. For some inexplicable reason the movie kept slowing down to talk when it should have been going for full tilt carnage.

But overall, “Mother of Tears” has a sufficient helping of exploitation to make it worth checking out. I’m more of an Asia Argento fan myself so I got my money’s worth. There were enough gory moments here to satisfy my B-movie blood lust. I had a good time.

SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 blood lusting witches

And one more Asia Argento pic for the road.

OK, two more.