lojitsu A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Mother of Tears" (R - 2007 - Italy)Sub-Genre: Gore/ParanormalMy Score: 6.5Cast=5 Acting=8 Plot=4 Ending=9 Story=4 Scare=7 Jump=4 F/X=7 Gore=10 Creep=7An ancient urn is found in a cemetery outside Rome. Once opened, it triggers a series of violent incidents: robberies, rapes and murders. While several mysterious, evil-looking young women coming from all over the world are gathering in the city."Who wants to eat this girl?" I have not seen the first two in this trilogy ("Susperia" and "Inferno") and that took away from the story a bit as I did not know what was going on. After watching this for it's amazing gore, I will go back and watch the other two for sure!! After you get through all the visceral gore, you may see this for the haunting beauty within. It's one you can't help but talk about it after...both for the mess of a story or the great gore.

grungy_guy now I heard a lot of bad things about this movie, and I heard a lot of good things about this movie. For most Argento fans it was a love it, or hate it. I, Myself, have only watched 4 of his films, a majority being ones that the fans did not like. In my opinion this movie was a fun ride. Nothing serious, and nothing all that scary, but a cheesy cult movie nevertheless. There are plenty of special effects in this film, but many of them give the vibe of an Unrated ScyFy movie, bloody, but silly. There are many cool kills though, such as the beginning where a woman gets her mouth ripped apart. There are some very sexual parts of this movie, which I tend to get a lot of when I'm watching Argento films......I don't really know how to comment on that....The one thing that keeps on giving me chuckles is Asia terrible acting in this film. She's a great actress (especially in Land of the Dead) but in this film, every other line sounds so fake, and forced, I just can't help but Laugh. Another problem I have with this film, is that some of the things that people do here, don't make a lick of sense, and I have to yell out "WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT??!!" Also there is a part of the film where the main character's mother (a spirit) shows up, and communicates with her, and I just have to say....the special effect used during those scenes are eye nauseating. Other than that, this movie is PRETTY BAD, but not in a terrible way. It's one of those SO-Bad-it's-GOOD films, and I would recommend it only to B-movie lovers.

fedor8 Even witches aren't what they used to be. Argento's Rome witch first had to get a boob-job before making her grand appearance on Earth. Did she feel insecure that Hell's Minions wouldn't take her seriously if her breasts only had a B cup size? Even Hell's Minions aren't what they used to be. This world is going to Hell.The acting is pedestrian, as always, not helped at all by the fact that these Italian and German actors can't articulate their basic English skills too well."There is a booger in my studies that might help us" says Uwe Kier. He meant "book" of course. Still, no hard feelings, since I am a big fan of unintentional mishaps, especially in clumsy horror flicks. Uwe will be Uwe, never in the mood to pick up a English For Beginners book."The buddy was found lying down". The "body", of course. "Parents" become "barents" and so on. It helps to watch this little Argento flick with a hearing aid and subtitles.Casting your daughter isn't necessarily the best decision either. Perhaps Argento could have learned from the mistake of a certain fellow Italian, Francis Ford Coppola. Asia Argento is, always was, and always will be a mediocre actress. Nepotism is a disease and it doesn't work most of the time.I had to wonder though why Dario had decided to film his daughter in the nude, lovingly following her body inch by inch, yet again. The scene was totally unnecessary, unless he wanted to make sure the viewers knew that the main character had a proper wash before she stepped into the arena to fight Evil. Or he just wanted to make sure we were all reminded that his daughter has a fine set of knockers.Or he is just a filthy old man with incestual desires which he isn't ashamed of at all. Klaus Kinski, anyone? There was however one actor who struck me as really good. Yes, I am referring to the little monkey who played the witch's loudest emissary. I thought his performance was quite convincing. His animal trainer must be very good.Which begs the question: should more of Argento's actors be coached by animal trainers? Perhaps that would improve their performances. What worked for the monkey might work for the humans. Not to mention an obligatory ESL crash course for everyone, including the monkey (should he get lines the next time around).Dario should either make a movie in Italian or in English with actors who speak the language. This in-between "solution" has often compromised his films.We are told that the mother of tears loves chaos, which means she is basically just like Dario Argento: his chaotic scripts are only matched by the chaotic movies he makes out of them. Still, this time around the illogic was comparatively mild.What was the point of that lesbian scene? Just for the sake of it.

Bjorn (ODDBear) I saw "Mother of Tears" about two years ago and resisted the urge to comment on it then. I've found that Argento's films almost always improve with repeated viewings and that's the case with this film. Overall the film is somewhat disappointing but the positives are larger in number than I originally thought. The biggest beef I have (and I base this on what I personally think rather than basing it on hard fact) is the rushed feel of the film. I remember reading that Argento was going to complete his "Three Mothers" trilogy and soon afterwards it was done. It opened to disastrous reviews and when I got my hands on it I basically jumped on the bandwagon and trashed it. A lot of stupid things here; horrible performances by Asia, Adam James and Cristian Solimendo, a completely clueless sequence of events, a miserable depiction of Daria Nicolodi as a friendly ghost, over-the-top gore, low budget that really hurts the look of the film, laughably funny depictions of deadly followers of The Mother of Tears who look like an Alice Cooper fan club, cringe-inducing dialog and a silly resolution. Well, fortunately time (and a second viewing) healed most of this. This isn't all bad - in fact - some of it's very good. What probably derailed me at the start is the way Argento chose to film this final chapter. He doesn't go for the dreamy and colorful visuals and unearthly atmosphere like in "Suspiria" and "Inferno" but rather plays it pretty straight; with plain daylight scenes a plenty and a no-frills display of the night scenes (curiously he does insert a soundtrack very reminiscent of "Suspiria" (the WITCH...creepy voice) and it only serves as a reminder of the original masterpiece; so I question his wisdom there). Look-wise this film looks more like "The Card Player" and "Do You Like Hitchcock?", in short; like latter day Argento. With this in mind I was very irritated with the opening gore filled entrance of the Witch's evil minions who quite nastily dismember a woman. But in fact it's not a fault but a logical continuation of the "Three Mothers trilogy" as these stories are "Nightmares caught on film" and therefore; don't really follow any straight logic. I just wish Dario had chose to film this with more color-insanity and dreamlike atmosphere; it would have fitted better there. I blame this on rushing things. While there are visuals here to admire (the steady cam shot of Asia entering the Witch's lair a particular fav), this feels rushed. An obvious low budget does hinder Argento in displaying convincingly a second fall of Rome due to the Witch's arrival. And on that subject; the Witch's groupies are really laugh-inducing; and in a bad way. A second viewing does not change that but merely confirms it. Anyway; talking about the story and the script. It's best to think of them as separate entities. The original story concerning the Three Mothers and their evil influences from different parts of the world is very strong and compelling. "Mother of Tears" nicely ties all films together and there's a great scene at the hour mark where Asia's character reads an alchemist's book on the buildings constructed for the evil witches. But the script is shoddily written, has numerous moments of silly dialog and a very silly conclusion.But in the spirit of it's superior predecessors the film is best enjoyed when thinking of it as a nightmare caught on film. The loose logic of events actually serve as a plus and do manage to generate a few uneasy moments for the viewer. The gore (and there's plenty of it) is well done and it's long been said that The Mother of Tears was the most vicious of the Three. So the gore maybe isn't too out of place. In the end; "Mother of Tears" is an enjoyable Argento film. There's no denying the fact that for it's entire running time there isn't a dull moment and there's always something happening. Asia's performance improved on second viewing (but it's far from great) but Adam James is still intolerable. A larger budget and a more relaxed filming schedule is something I personally think would have resulted in a better film (along with a better written script) but it's fairly good nonetheless. It's been said that Argento's admirers are also his fiercest critics but thankfully we know from experience that there's always more to his films than is perceived on initial viewing. Maybe the third time I give this a spin I'll be completely blown away. Stranger things...