Mother of Tears (2007)

Movie Info

I am not going to open any cursed artifacts anymore…I promise

A strange casket is dug up in Rome.  When a restoration student named Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento) opens the box attached to the casket, she accidentally unleashes horror into the land.  Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias), the Mother of Tears, has been reborn.  Immediately, horror begins to spread in Rome as witches flock to the city and begin to gather.  Sarah must stop Mater Lachrymarum before it’s too late, but she can trust no one, and the police and Mater Lachrymarum’s servants are searching for her.  Mater Lachrymarum intends to bring chaos to Earth, and time is running out!

Directed by Dario Argento (who also contributed to the screenplay), Mother of Tears (La Terza madre aka The Third Mother) is an Italian-American horror film.  The movie is the third and final part of his Three Mothers trilogy based upon the 1845 essays written by Thomas De Quincey published as “Suspiria de Profundis”.  Following Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980), the film in production delays for years and was released to mixed to positive reviews.

I saw Suspiria years ago and enjoyed it, but I wasn’t able to see Inferno.  When I saw a copy of Mother of Tears at a Big Lots store, I picked it up.  While the movie is somewhat problematic and mixed in its scares and jumps, it is a rather entertaining ride.

Best scare in the movie…could we have more of this guy (and the creepy monkey)

The story for the movie has madness spreading through Rome and the horror is the culmination of the Three Mothers’ terror.  The Mother of Tears and her lackeys pursue Sarah who is the “woman in peril” which feels a bit of a throwback to the giallo days of Argento.  The horror builds and in some ways resembles the ending of the Suspiria 2018 remake.  Unfortunately, the path to the ending is unbalanced and has dead points.  It feels like it is building horror, but it also feels like there missed opportunities for some smart supernatural scares or sheer horror.

Asia Argento is cast by her father in the lead role, but when compared to some other famous “parent casting their kids”, it isn’t as bad as it might seem.  By the time of Mother of Tears, Asia had built a name for herself and it wasn’t complete nepotism.  The movie largely focuses around Argento, but Udo Kier has a role as Padre Johannes and Moran Atias stars in the title role (resembling someone out of a 1980s music video like many of her followers).  Ania Pieroni previously played the role in Inferno.

The Mother of Tears ran from her ceremony to join Flashdance: The Musical…what a feeling!

What is missing from Mother of Tears is some of the atmosphere created in both Suspiria and even Inferno.  The colorings and lights of both of those movies gave them a distinct feel and flavor.  Mother of Tears lacks this odd and completely distinctive Euro-horror drive and feels more like a mesh of Italian and American…plus that special effect of the “ghost mother” of Sarah played by Daria Nicolodi (Asia’s actual mother) is a little hard to take…at least it has a terrifying monkey.

Mother of Tears is a nice ending to the Three Mothers series that looked like for a long time would never have an ending.  It wraps up the story and feels bigger than the previous films.  Unfortunately, bigger doesn’t always mean better and it feels like The Mother of Tears could have been a great movie…especially considering how long it took to come out.  The Three Mothers returned in the 2018 remake of Suspiria which serves as a standalone film.

Related Links:

Suspiria (1977)

Inferno (1980)

Suspiria (2018)