mother_of

After almost twenty eight years the trilogy of Mothers is finally complete. Master of horror and Giallo Dario Argento finished the finally of fear with a gory blast of greatness. At first we had the finest of the three, Susperia, released in 1977. In 1980 the second installment was released, though a fantastic film, Inferno was not the better of the three. Now after a long, long wait the master has given us something with true grit. The final piece to the Three Mothers trilogy, based loosely on the story 3 witch sisters, “levana and our ladies of sorrow” from Thomas de Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis.

Mother of Tears

(La Terza Madre)

Too young to have been in the first two movies, Dario decided this time to cast his daughter, the ever so popular, Asia Argento as leading lady, Sarah Mandy. Blessed with some of her mothers (a White Witch) powers, Sarah is set to battle the forces of evil, the last of the three mothers, the youngest, cruelest and most beautiful of the three, Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias). Sarah’s parents had battled Mater Suspiriorum in events that had taken place before Susperia and were slain by the eldest mother.

Unknown to Sarah, the powers she holds lye dormant inside until an ancient urn is unearthed by a priest and sent to a museum in Rome in care of the curator Michael Pierce. It is this museum Sarah just so happens to work, along side the also popular (to horror fans) Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, popular for her role as Sally, the lead demon in Demons 2.

Upon receiving the urn they decide to take it upon themselves to open the ancient artifact and release the evil within. Bringing a nice and early extreme gore scene involving strangulation with ones own intestines… So cool!!! It is at this time Sarah hears a voice telling her to run away from the place, basically letting her know there is much danger within the walls of the empty dark museum, so get the fuck out.

She begins to put two and two together while researching the three mothers, Mater Susperiorum (Mother of Sighs), Mater Tenebrarum (the Mother of Darkness) and Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears), there were 3 graces, 3 furies and then these 3 sorrows, or in my eyes 3 crazy ass bitches. Each had a house built for them in different corners of the world. Mater Susperiorum housed in Germany, Mater Tenebrarum was housed in New York City and Mater Lachrymarum in Rome. Oh! Just for facts sake, In the Film Inferno you will find a beautiful young music student with blonde hair, this girl is in fact the Mother of Tears.

The houses were built by a great architect whom was hired by the sisters, at what cost he did not know, all that was known was what the houses held within. It is the house in Rome that Sarah has to find in order to attempt to destroy Mater Lachrymarum. The few things known to Sarah are that she is the only one who can pull off this act. Father Johannes (Udo Kier) is the only one who really had any real knowledge of what was happening and gave Sarah the information she needed to find this place. He also explained to her who her mother was and what she had done in the past. Asia’s mother in the film is portrayed by her real life mother Daria Nicolodi, in the movie she is Elisa Mandy. The Padre’s information of the three mothers and her own mother turns out to be of great help and great significance to Sarah and her mission.

Witches from every corner of the world are now gathering to celebrate the awakening of the great Mother, bringing forth the second coming of witches and what is being called the second fall of Rome. Her arrival has brought wide spread death, panic and despair to the people of Rome, causing moms to kill their baby’s and many other acts of utter brutality to spill upon the streets. Cannibalism seems to be a big part of her return, this mothers coven has a thing for feasting on human flesh, there is much talk about who’s gonna eat who. Speaking of which within this film is a great Cannibal Holocaust-esque vaginal impalement scene, fucking awesome.

The last hope lies in the hands of young Sarah Mandy, can she stop the second coming? The second fall of Rome? But most of all can she destroy the Mother of Tears? Dario Argento has bestowed upon his fans a film that finally puts the true meaning of evil into the ancient art of witchcraft.

Ratings:

For story and direction I give a 9. Although an amazing film not the best of the 3, the best is definitely Susperia. This film is easily the second runner up, rolling the other two films, as well as itself, into one. Explaining all about the three Mothers which was unknown to fans of the films was by far the best thing Dario Argento could have done. Argento’s genius shines in this masterpiece. Before my viewing of the film I could not fathom how it would eventually tie everything together. The great master of horror and giallo has done it with near perfection, leaving no questions to be asked, no stone has gone unturned.

For Cinematography I give an 8. Though the film was beautifully captured it did in fact lack the infamous color styling of Argento’s previous works, well the first to of the trilogy at least. The act of using the vivid colored lighting could have been a major step up for this movie. I do believe it would’ve been a perfect 10 if he stuck with the style and look of the others.

For Soundtrack/Score I give an 8. Having, Ex- Goblin, Claudio Simonetti score the film was a plus. Then again I don’t think I could fathom an Argento Masterpiece done by anyone else (though their have been). The one major drawback to the score was the use of the piece of shit singer Dani Filth, lead of the equally shitty band Cradle of Filth. Listening to his voice over the beautiful end credit score was a bit nauseating.

For the F/X I give a 9. Aside from a few slightly cheesy CGI parts the rest was all hands on. Gore out the ass in this one. A fan of the genre and the director could not ask for more. All the great things in life like gauging, squishing, impaling, gutting and burning, is all there folks.

For the acting I give a 9. The cast was fantastic, all favorites in the horror community and favorites of Argento’s films. I think the only week spots were that of the police officers, not terrible but not quite as good as the rest. I have to say that having Udo Kier in a film is a big fucking plus for anyone.

As for the film, Mother of Tears (La Terza Madre) Gets a 9. This film is quite possibly the best work from Argento in many years (not counting his fantastic installments to the Masters of Horror series, Jenifer and Pelts). It has been a long time coming but we the fans knew the day was gonna come. Like I previously mentioned, his approach was pure genius. After my viewing of the film I finally felt I understood all that was to be known of the Three Mothers and what they were (or who they were) and what connections they all had to each other. All will be answered once you have seen this film.

The talks of a fourth film is indeed not a rumor, it is said that it will be about the Three Mothers themselves. Let’s keep hope, if made, that the next will be as triumphant as the last.