Mother of Tears (aka La Terza Madre, or “The Third Mother”), the Finale of Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers Trilogy” is Definitely a Step- Down From its Predecessors
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Mother of Tears is still well worth a watch for its atmosphere and the craziest gore effects in his entire body of work.
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
February 11, 2010
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Release: October 31, 2007 (Italy)
Directed by: Dario Argento
Written by: Jace Anderson and Dario Argento
Starring:
Asia Argento as Sarah Mandy
Cristian Solimeno as Detective Enzo Marchi
Adam James as Michael Pierce
Moran Atias as Mater Lachrymarum
Valeria Cavalli as Marta Colussi
Udo Kier as Father Johannes
Out in the outskirts of Rome, excavators dig up a coffin and urn buried underground and chained. A cardinal sends the relics to a Roman history museum to be examined as he fears the contents are dark and evil. The workers at the museum, Sarah and Giselle (played by Argento and Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, respectively), let their curiosity get the best of them and break the wax seal on the box before their boss, Michael (James), can examine it. As Sarah steps away for a moment, Giselle continues exploring the contents and cuts herself on a tool, dripping blood on the box. Shortly thereafter, hooded monsters appear and brutally murder her while Sarah watches.
Sarah finds herself locked in the museum and cornered by the creatures and a helper monkey (yes, really). A ghostly voice calls to her, though, and the doors are opened, granting her freedom. She runs to Michael, who is also her lover, for assistance. Meanwhile, underground, a very naked Mater Lachrymarum, the most evil of the Three Mothers, has been awakened by the actions in the museum and is slowly calling to her followers to prepare for a return to power. As Rome descends into a chaos of suicide, murder, rape, looting, and robbery, Michael and Sarah race against time to unlock 
the secrets of the strange events with the help of Catholic priest, Father Johannes (Kier), and his associate, Marta (Cavalli). While all this is going on, the police, led by Detective Marchi (Solimeno), continue to investigate the murder in the museum and suddenly grow suspicious of Sarah’s involvement. Sarah herself even begins to discover that she might have magic powers of her own, passed down to her by her mother, Elisa (Daria Nicolodi both in life and film). Meanwhile, hundreds of witches are descending upon Rome and it’s up to Sarah and Michael to avoid the police and put an end to the chaos and Mater Lachrymarum’s reign of terror.
If Suspiria is Argento at his fairy-tale best and Inferno is him at his most unhinged, then Mother of Tears is, by far, him at his most extreme and violent. The film is unique in that it feels like the rest of the trilogy, yet at the same time completely separate. Plotwise, it features retellings of the same story as glimpsed in Suspiria and explicitly stated in Inferno. It also continues the Trilogy’s trend of an association of animals with death (where Suspiria had maggots and dogs and Inferno had cats and rats….�Mother of Tears gives Mater Lachrymarum a helper monkey!). 
There's even a death sequence that occurs in the same type of setting as the other movies (all three films features one or more characters being killed while hiding out with someone in their apartment). However, unlike Suspiria and Inferno, the famous use of vivid, bright colors has been replaced by a more conventional cinematography that matches up more with his Masters of Horror episodes, Pelts and Jenifer. Also, where Suspiria and Inferno had a touch of mystery as the main characters and audience try to find the identity or motives of the main villains, Mother of Tears flat out shows you Mater Lachrymarum multiple times and becomes more of a story where you, as the audience, know who she is and the main characters don’t.
It’s actually kind of difficult to give a straight “recommend or not” for this very reason. As the third part of the Three Mothers trilogy, Mother of Tears falls flat. The acting is either over-the-top hammy (see: Kier, James) or unbelievably monotone and uncharacteristic in emotion with the situations at hand (see: Asia Argento). In addition, Argento seems to be unsure if she wants to play the role with or without an Italian accent and�James appears to not know if he wants an American accent, an English accent, or an Australian accent. The plot, much like
Inferno, barely explicitly connects to the prior films outside of the mythology, though Daria Nicolodi’s character is explained as the first person to fight the Three Mothers, before the events of Suspiria, weakening Suspiriorum and allowing her defeat. The music seems, outside of the opening theme (which plays over a very nice, gothic opening montage of medieval style art and symbols) and a cover featuring the lead singer of “Cradle of Filth” that plays over the credits, like Claudio Simonetti phoned it way in so that it in no way feels like the synthy craziness of the prior films. So, if you go in looking for just the conclusion to the series in that way, you might come out disappointed.
However, Dario himself has said one of the reasons it took 25+ years to make Mother of Tears was because he did not want to repeat himself (this is why Inferno is not as much about witchcraft and magic as Suspiria is). Therefore, one also has to take Mother of Tears as its own film. In that way, the acting is still hilariously bad and the modern witches still look like extras and rejects culled from a local Hot Topic, but the movie has many other good points working for it. First and foremost among these is the gore. In Inferno and, to a lesser extent, Suspiria, violence may be intense�and complex (as in Suspiria’s opening scene) but it never is over-the-top. In Mother of Tears, under the direction of Italian special effects wizard Sergio Stivaletti, we have: a character getting disemboweled and strangled with her own innards, a character having
her crushed in a sliding door, a character getting impaled through her nether regions and out her mouth, a small child being dropped off a bridge, another small child… being cannibalized, and more. All of this is actually shown in the film, never cut away from (partially because this is the unrated cut on DVD, so more gore). When the effects are practical, as most of them are, they work fantastically and tend to be so over the top as to be laughable in a “this is crazy” way, much like the acting and the unbelievably explicit “script for dummies” are funny in a “so bad it’s good” way. It should be noted, however, that CGI is in this movie… and when it is, it is horrid. Specifically, a certain part of the finale and a single scene in which spirits and ghosts are shown bending the material of a door seem more at home in a Syfy channel original movie than here.
Also, while Mother of Tears may be a somewhat weak, laughable Dario Argento movie, that in and of itself is usually better than a lot of other movies (*cough* Jennifer’s Body and Wicked Lake *cough*). There are two reasons for this. One, Dario does have a sense of humor and comedy. When you watch the film, you can tell in some scenes that he knows how weird they sound or how crazy they look because there are laugh beats in them (a scene in a bookstore where Sarah uses her powers comes to mind). Mother of Tears, therefore, was made to be experienced in a group. Also, the flaws in the script and acting don’t take away from the fact that Dario can still shoot a fantastic movie. There are great single-shot, no-cuts sequences such as one that follows Sarah as she explores Michael’s house and the way in which the film conveys the general chaos and increasing sense of doom in Rome is second-to-none.
Overall, Mother of Tears may be underwhelming as a finale to the Three Mothers Trilogy when compared with its predecessors, but it is still a wildly entertaining, utterly insane trip. Not everyone will like this movie; it’s acting and scripting flaws will definitely alienate a portion of the audience. However, taken on its own, its Dario’s most violent, bloody work yet and worthy of inclusion in his filmography. Questions or comments about Inferno? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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