X
- 2008
- Unrated
- Myriad Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
- 2008
- Unrated
- Myriad Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
Summary Mother of Tears is the finale to the saga that began with the international blockbuster Suspiria and continued with the classic INFERNO from Italian horror maestro Dario Argento. In the heart of modern Rome, an urn is found and brought to a young archaeologist, Sarah Mandy. But what Sarah doesn’t know is that the urn belongs to the world...
Directed By: Dario Argento
- 2008
- Unrated
- Myriad Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
- 2008
- Unrated
- Myriad Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
Mother of Tears
52
5.1
Where to Watch
Summary Mother of Tears is the finale to the saga that began with the international blockbuster Suspiria and continued with the classic INFERNO from Italian horror maestro Dario Argento. In the heart of modern Rome, an urn is found and brought to a young archaeologist, Sarah Mandy. But what Sarah doesn’t know is that the urn belongs to the world...
Directed By: Dario Argento
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
52
56% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
33% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
52
56% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
33% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
The Mother of Tears is silly, awkward, vulgar, outlandish, hysterical, inventive, revolting, flamboyant, titillating, ridiculous, mischievous, uproarious, cheap, priceless, tasteless and sublime.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 User Ratings
5.1
21% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
64% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
14% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 User Ratings
5.1
21% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
64% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
14% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
This is the third instalment in The Three Mothers Trilogy and it's the worst. Gone are Dario Argento's artistic style and musicality, which added so much to Suspiria and Inferno. Instead, we get a pretty bland "gritty" horror. Even though the wonderful though-out death scenes are also gone, there are still a couple of nice "Oh My God" deaths. Loved the train toilet door kill and eye gouge. Not the best and quite a let down after such a long wait.
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This long-delayed third and final entry in Dario Argento's Three Mother's trilogy was always going to be held under a fair amount of scrutiny. The original film Suspiria remains one of the most celebrated works in all of horror to this very day, and it's sequel Inferno, while nowhere near as acclaimed, still carries a respectable reputation among the hardcore genre enthusiasts. Due the amount of time between releases and the relative critical slump Argento had been on at that point, one could argue The Mother of Tears was always destined to fail for not coming out when the demand for it was at its highest.
The premise is certainly great. When a collection of ancient artifacts belonging to the "Mater Lachrymarum" is uncovered, Rome is cast into a hellish spiral of madness and brutality as the witch reclaims her missing items of power. Children are devoured, infants are thrown off bridges, people are strangled by demons with their own intestines, and ritualistic spears are shoved up women's ****. It's pretty freaking awesome! Unfortunately the enjoyment is bogged down by the dull plotting.
The script gets points for being more intelligible than Inferno, but man is it far less interesting. It's a lot of watching characters have boring conversations meant to explain all the nonsense happening as the protagonist moves around between various sources of information before they're inevitably slaughtered. The acting in which is terrible across-the-board, with the most painful coming from Dario's own daughter Asia in the lead role. It constantly left me desperately awaiting the next sight of gore or nudity that makes Italian horror cinema so much fun.
Also, where's the style? Its predecessors are known for their giallo use of color and music. Mother of Tears has none of that, coming off as rather drab in comparison.
What it does have though are some unforgettable displays of savagery and skin. Showing that its legendary director's eye for violence and titillation we're still very much intact even is his sense of art and storytelling we're not. The regrettable lack of them though makes it hard to recommend this concluding chapter that came out way later than it should have after its creator's skills had begun to decline. I can't imagine having waited close to thirty years for THIS!
5.5/10
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A gloriously tacky horror movie with an inclination toward the occult, The Mother of Tears hails from the Italian schlockmeister Dario Argento, who photographs his Euro movie star daughter, Asia Argento, with something more than paternal pride.
Mother of Tears can't rival the David Lynchian otherworldliness of "Suspiria," but at least you know you're in the hands of a director.
Compared to a recent Argento dud like "The Stendhal Syndrome," Mother Of Tears at least has some of the go-for-broke gothic spirit of his earlier work. He's just lost the ability to shape it into something artful.
There is, of course, a maximum of blood and gore. Sometimes the director's ideas work; often they don't.
Aside from being vile and repellent, it's mainly dull - old-fashioned in its shock tactics and culminating in a ho-hum climax.
luckily the gore in this movie makes you forget about how boring everything else was. And I mean that as literaly as you can take it, whenever something gory was happening i completly forgot that i was almost falling asleep leading up to it. Good stuff, clevers to the face, repetedly...limbs being chopped off, skin peeled, and people being 'skewered'. Did I make my point? this movie has good gore. But then i regress, the acting was absolutly terrible and would cause me to constantly lose interest, tiss a shame but i recall that happening in most giallo horror. Another possitive however would be the nudity. Most of the female characters in the movie get naked so thats nice to see and Mr. Argento even tosses in a pointless scene of his real life daughter in the shower. Thanks bro. One other thing i found odd however was the random demons they would through in when this is suppose to be a witch movie. It didnt fit right to me. The first three were fine but then there was a moment where you saw one in a reflection in a mirror, or in the reflection of someones sunglasses or i believe there was one dream sequence with a completly unneeded demon. They just didnt fit with the rest of the movie. Oh well, i wouldnt say this movie was terrible but it just seemed to have so much potential that was dragged down by terrible acting and 'dry' scenes.
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This unfortunate finale to "The Three Mothers" trilogy relies too heavily on gore, cheap special effects and digital remastering rather than storyline and plot. A magic tunic that brings back the most evil of the Mothers and causes Rome to be taken over my witches. I would have ripped that thing up in the first 10 minutes.
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Production Company
Medusa Film,
Opera Film (II),
Sky Cinema,
Myriad Pictures
Release Date Jun 6, 2008
Duration 1 h 42 m
Rating Unrated
Tagline What you see does not exist. What you cannot see is truth.
Awards
Indiewire Critics' Poll
• 1 Nomination
