Director: Dario Argento
Starring: Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Adam James, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Jun Ichikawa, Moran Atias
Tagline: "What you see does not exist. What you cannot see is truth."
Random Trivia: Mother of Tears bears the subtitle "The Third Mother" and is the third film of a trilogy. Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980) are the other two.
I'm not sure whether or not this really belongs amidst some of the B-Movie cheese examined over the past while. Dario Argento is a horror legend, although a lot of westerners may not know him all that well, and Asia Argento has been rising up as a scream queen following in her father's footsteps (less-than-hardcore horror fans may know her from Land of the Dead).
However, I do take issue with any film series that waits years and years for the final installment. The look and feel just isn't going to be the same. Technology has moved on. You saw it with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'm a huge apologist for that movie - I actually enjoyed most of it - but the scenes that dragged it down all involved more modern film techniques (with the worst offender being the obvious - CGI).
Having said that - Mother of Tears handles it well. The effects stick to practical, prop and make-up based for the most part. Not that it matters too much - I'm pretty sure I haven't seen Susperia, and I think I saw bits of Inferno at some point during a late night airing - but I don't even remember it. The first two films are familiar enough by reputation alone, however, so I actually had pretty high hopes for this one.
Gore and brutality wise, it doesn't disappoint. This is a gory movie, but unlike the recently reviewed festival darling End of the Line, it doesn't feel like someone is trying to force you to be shocked.
My baked notes are not helping a lot, and I did start passing out partway through. So this is going to be another one of those Fully Baked Reviews where we peter out towards the end. Heh. Peter.
Asia Argento is the hot factor that brought me to this, but she looks rather bland in it. Damn.
The witches at times just remind me of bitchy, trashy party girls but I think that was partially the intent.
Back to gore - one really cool scene has a girl being slaughtered - disemboweled - and having her intestines wrapped around her throat, choking her. This kind of creativeness goes a long way since, after all, horror movies are really all about the kills.
Stupid monkey. I don't know why that's even in my notes. I'm assuming there was a monkey.
Never read a strange language out loud! It always unleashes something!
There's some kind of plot about how Sarah Mandy's (Argento) mom died defeating the Mother of Sighs, and now the witch known as the Mother of Tears (Moran Atias) has come for the daughter. Or something. After she's released unto the world, all sorts of horrid things happen - rape, murder, Shia LeBeouf... (no, he's not in this!).
Ok here's my final roundup on Mother of Tears - it kept my interest enough, baked, until I passed out, to want to go back and watch it again, and this time make my way all the way through.
Overall Rating: Half-Baked (3 out of 5)
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