Mother of Tears
Reviewed by Bryan Schuessler
Dario Argento has been a long-time favorite horror film director of mine ever since I saw Suspiria, my first of his films.
His films always had a certain style and level of gore and violence that was a perfect balance. As the years went on, some of his films were changing and evolving-some for better and some for the worse. The Card Player was not one of his better films. I admit, I was a little bit apprehensive in throwing Mother of Tears into my dvd player, but I had high hopes because it was the 3rd and final installment of the Three Mothers trilogy. Well, I was sort of disappointed. I was expecting a film with more more style and flair, like his trademark color schemes that he used in Suspiria so effectively. I expected an uber-creepy soundtrack that made it not only visually pleasurable to watch but also gave my ears a mind-blowing experience.
Dario’s second installment to the trilogy, Inferno, was not as good as Suspiria, but it still packed a punch! I felt no punch to my nether regions upon finishing Mother of Tears. In fact, I felt kind of cheated. There was some decent gore scenes and some very decent shots of nudity here and there (casting Moran Atias a high-point in my book!), but the acting was sub-par and I do not think Asia Argento is a really strong actress, yet. She was best out of the whole lot, but it just didn’t do it for me. I felt the visual imagery that was incorporated into the special effects took away from the overall feel of the film. I am not a big fan of CGI and using computers and blue screens all the time. I feel that old-school prosthetics and latex are still more realistic than any Mac effect out there. Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but that is just my opinion on the matter.
So, Sergio Stivaletti did the effects on this one, along with Danilo Bollettini and they were pretty good. I really liked the scene where actress Jun Ichikawa gets her head slammmed shut by the train’s compartment door repeatedly, and the eyeballs pop out. That was fun to watch! I felt she played an evil witch perfectly. She was convincing and sorta scary! Ifelt the special effects were high-budget but the acting and characters were low-budget and that just mixed-up the whole feel of the film. The scene where the townspeople are going “mad” and embark on “seek and destroy” missions, it could have been much more large-scale. A mom tossed her baby off the bridge and some men start fighting and smashing up a car…COME ON! I have been to frat parties that have had more mayhem ensue following a bottle of booze! This is the coming of the witches and they are trying to dismantle Rome- there should be much more chaos and destruction. But the ending really killed it for me. It was extremely abrupt and confusing.
I just felt Dario made this film because fans really wanted it and that maybe he was not really into making it yet. He waited around 27 years to make this film. He should have really made it a gut-wrenching bloodbath if the acting and plot were kind of dragging. I had such high-hopes for one of my favorite director’s film, and was left wanting more of a better quality of film from him. Mother of Tears is definitely better than most of the crap that passes off as “horror” these days, but I will always hold Dario Argento to a much higher light.
