La Terza Madre (Mother of Tears: The Third Mother) (2007)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Lee ?

  
  A disappointing and unnecessarily sleazy conclusion to Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy. I don't know quite what Dario was thinking with this one. Asia Argento just cannot act convincingly at all, there's little care taken into making this as stylish and… More
  A disappointing and unnecessarily sleazy conclusion to Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy. I don't know quite what Dario was thinking with this one. Asia Argento just cannot act convincingly at all, there's little care taken into making this as stylish and unique as Suspiria or Inferno. As a stand alone tits 'n' gore flick it's fine as it delivers in heaps.

• Drew S

  
  George Romero seems to catch a ton of shit for having "lost it" over the course of three films. Dario Argento has been fucking up around once every two years since, I dunno, 1990? And this, this is just unconscionable. For this to be in the same trilogy as Suspiria (which I… More
  George Romero seems to catch a ton of shit for having "lost it" over the course of three films. Dario Argento has been fucking up around once every two years since, I dunno, 1990? And this, this is just unconscionable. For this to be in the same trilogy as Suspiria (which I really disliked upon first viewing but have since come to appreciate), or even from the same director, just puts a lurching sort of nausea in me. It looks like shit, sounds like shit, and makes not an ounce of sense. The acting is horrendous; Asia Argento, who is reliable in some parts but clearly limited, is disappointingly awful in trying to project anything except anger or passion. Sadness, quietude and revulsion are completely out of her grasp, and though she at least convinces in projecting fear, the movie itself has no such luck. It might be the stunningly amateurish staging and blocking putting a damper on her attempts, but she just doesn't work at all. To be fair, if you were compiling a list of Mother of Tears' many failures, she wouldn't be too high up. Things that are more immediately offensive than her: the groan-worthy ending, the cheap and utterly bland setting and aesthetic, and its complete inability to generate any sort of tension or suspense or atmosphere or honestly ANYTHING that would make this worth watching. Even divorced from its horror roots, this doesn't work as any sort of film. As a gory adventure, it's about as exciting as taking a long, feverish Italian nap. Honestly, the gore is just about all Argento gets right, almost as a reconciliation for the rest of his limitations. It just isn't enough to crawl through this disaster, though. It usually is for most of his movies, but his typically excellent set pieces are diminished here, and the viscera brought forth in unsurprising and uninteresting ways. An utter disaster from start to finish, this is more depressing than anything else. There's absolutely no reason to watch this aside from woebegone fealty to Argento himself.

• Jeff "

  
  The third part of Dario Argento's three mothers trilogy is really a so-so film of horror. With Mother Of Tears, he seemed to just be bored with the script, and not give this project the attention it deserved. Inferno was decent enough, but with Mother Of Tears, I felt that Dario… More
  The third part of Dario Argento's three mothers trilogy is really a so-so film of horror. With Mother Of Tears, he seemed to just be bored with the script, and not give this project the attention it deserved. Inferno was decent enough, but with Mother Of Tears, I felt that Dario Argento could have done a lot better than this. The film almost relies more on gore and violence than atmosphere and tension and thats what made Dario Argento's works so thrilling was his use of tension, closeup shots, violence, a dark creepy atmosphere like in masterworks such as Deep Red, Suspiria and Tenebre. With Mother Of Tears however, only the violence remains, hints of atmosphere are indeed present but Argento's lack of previous style that made his earliest works soar, make this one a dud. What exists now only is a shadow of what was great. Argento seemed really bored with the 3 mothers saga at this point and it shows on screen. His signature style, like I've mentioned, is almost absent. It's a real shame, but I guess even the greatest of all Horror directors make bad films.

• Dead A

  
  Cheap --- that's all I can say.

• Bruce B

  
  A Outstanding Dario Argento Film, The final in the Trilogy of the Three Mothers Series. This is an awesome horror film. Asia his daughter is not on beautiful but very talented. The Mother of Tears is the third and final member of the unholy trinity of witches which have plagued… More
  A Outstanding Dario Argento Film, The final in the Trilogy of the Three Mothers Series. This is an awesome horror film. Asia his daughter is not on beautiful but very talented. The Mother of Tears is the third and final member of the unholy trinity of witches which have plagued mankind for over a thousand years. a centuries-old casket is accidentally unearthed, it contains talismans which will allow Mater Lachrymarum to regain her former power and begin the downfall of Rome, and eventually the world, by causing an ever-increasing number of people to commit extreme acts of violence and perversion as her evil influence spreads. This is worth 3 1/2 stars no more no less. I would add it to any collection.

• Tim S

  
  What a disturbing pile of ****. I was so disappointed.

• Conner R

  
  It's not anywhere near the briliance of Suspiria, but it's on about the same level as Inferno. The plot is a little bit corny and way too fantasy oriented. It does have some rather gory scenes though. I applaud Dario Argento for not using CGI, it's just way better to… More
  It's not anywhere near the briliance of Suspiria, but it's on about the same level as Inferno. The plot is a little bit corny and way too fantasy oriented. It does have some rather gory scenes though. I applaud Dario Argento for not using CGI, it's just way better to see the real thing. I did and always do love Asia Argento, she alone is worth this movie.

• Stephen M

  
  Although <i>Suspiria</i> and <i>Inferno</i> were essentially good-versus-evil fairy-tales, Dario Argento was wise enough back then to keep religion out of them. All that portentous mummery invariably just slows things down, turning a potential white-knuckle… More
  Although <i>Suspiria</i> and <i>Inferno</i> were essentially good-versus-evil fairy-tales, Dario Argento was wise enough back then to keep religion out of them. All that portentous mummery invariably just slows things down, turning a potential white-knuckle rollercoaster ride into a dreary ghost-train through Sunday-school. The opening of <i>La Terza Madre</i> feels more like a sequel to (Argento protégé) Michele Soavi's <i>The Church</i> than the eagerly anticipated final chapter of the <i>Three Mothers trilogy</i>. Despite being more conventionally plotted than either of its predecessors, what follows sadly amounts to nothing more than a badly connected series of set-pieces, a tediously repetitive cycle in which one esoteric scholar after another is gruesomely dispatched after first being pumped for information by Asia Argento. As for the death scenes, apart from the first - in which the victim is disembowelled then strangled with her own intestines(!) - they are bloody but uninspired: a lethargic Argento giving the people what he thinks they want. His portrayal of Rome succumbing to anarchy and violence as evil spreads across the land is woefully inept. The look of the film is disappointingly realistic after the heavy stylisation of both <i>Suspiria</i> and <i>Inferno</i>, so it is unsurprising that it fails to recapture their dreamy, fairy-tale ambience. <i>La Terza Madre</i> was touted as a return to Argento's classic era of film-making, which was an optimistic way of saying it's a hotchpotch of bits and pieces cribbed from his best movies: <i>Suspiria</i>, <i>Inferno</i>, <i>Deep Red</i>, <i>Phenomena</i>, <i>Opera</i>. The casting of his onetime muse was inevitable, but Daria Nicolodi's geriatric fairy godmother would still be unintentionally hilarious if the CGI effects used to create her weren't crap. I could go on and on... It breaks my heart to say so but this film is awful, at least as bad as Argento's dismal <i>Phantom of the Opera</i>. I'd like to think he still has another great movie in him but, surely, this should have been it :(

• Cassandra M

  
  Being such a big fan of Argento, I went into this film with a mixture of massive anticipation and worry that it might not live up to my expectations. With the exception of Sleepless, Argento hasn't made a really great film since Opera in 1987, and while I wouldn't quite call… More
  Being such a big fan of Argento, I went into this film with a mixture of massive anticipation and worry that it might not live up to my expectations. With the exception of Sleepless, Argento hasn't made a really great film since Opera in 1987, and while I wouldn't quite call the final instalment of the 'Three Mothers' series a return to form, it's certainly a lot better than the majority of his modern movies. The thing that really made the first two films in this series standout was the colourful sets and fairytale atmosphere, and unfortunately this film features neither. I have no idea if Argento decided to discard these things in favour of a modern setting or if it was the producers who were worried that a seventies style film wouldn't sell, but either way; it doesn't feature here and that's the thing I liked least about this film. The film is slightly more story-heavy than the two previous entries and this time we have more of a clearly defined point. The story is set in Rome and our central character is Sarah Mandy. The film kicks off with the discovery of an ancient urn, and from there strange things start happening. Rape, assault and arson increases and strange people start to gather in Rome. These events are due to the return of Mater Lacrimarum, the most beautiful of the three witches at the heart of this series. It soon becomes apparent that the only person who can stop the evil from enveloping the world is Sarah Mandy, who has a few supernatural powers of her own... As mentioned, it's the change in style that is the biggest problem with this film for me and the thing that really means it doesn't quite live up to the previous two instalments, but what the film lacks in atmosphere, Argento makes up for in gore (and then some) and it's clear that the great director has lost none of his eye for a brutal and stylish death scene. This film is far gorier than the sum of the gore scenes in both of the previous films, and it's great to see a modern film that doesn't hold back. The gore scenes range from quick to stylised and drawn out but all are very gory - with one notable exception which also happens to be the most shocking sequence in the film! Argento has donned the use of CGI and it's a bit of a shame because it looks rather cheap - but that's only a problem really in one scene. Argento films are not known for fluent plots and great acting, and there's a very good reason for that. This film has more than just a few holes and the acting is not anything to write home about either. As is the case with a lot of his modern films, Argento has cast his daughter, Asia Argento in the lead role. She's beautiful and not a bad actress - but Argento always makes her roles too 'clean', and it doesn't suit her considering the Hellraiser she is in real life! I also didn't like the supernatural subplot with her character; it's just sort of thrown in there and doesn't work very well. Argento makes more of an attempt to establish his mythology with this film than in the previous two and he even makes nods to the first two, though I think more could be made of this aspect of the series. The ending is abrupt but nicely done if you ask me. Overall, I did like The Third Mother a lot - it's only disappointing when compared to the other two films. In its own right; this is a great gory Italian horror flick and definitely comes recommended.

• _kelly .

  
  NOTE: please read my Suspiria review if what I say here inflames you. On second screening, I GOT the genius of Suspiria, but out of respect to my former self (and other viewers) who was able to view the film as "pretentious" and to also make my point about what modern horror… More
  NOTE: please read my Suspiria review if what I say here inflames you. On second screening, I GOT the genius of Suspiria, but out of respect to my former self (and other viewers) who was able to view the film as "pretentious" and to also make my point about what modern horror should be, I leave those defaming comments on Suspiria intact. The murder ataboutaround 10minutes in is AMAZING. Goretastic like one craves and with a great use of guts. And they just keep getting gorier and more creative. From Udo Kier's priest character to the medium's girlfriend, this is full of crazy kills. And the antagonists - the demonic forces, followers, and possessed people are just damn scary with a cool edge. From the ancient language speaking ravers to a fully fleshed pointy eared demon, the design is well done and the result is some very unique characters. The monkey is probably the coolest though. The acting is over the top melodramatic to say the least, but that didn't matter much to me when the version I'm watching has French audio and English subtitles. People complain that the story moves around too much, thus lack of atmosphere (am I the only one that equates "atmosphere" to a more static setting and slower pace with fewer plot details), but I think that a fast film overloaded with details fits this horror subgenre of end of the world sorcery battle much better. I'm a sucker for Catholic mythology, and unless you're going to do it perfectly as in The Exorcist, the "atmospheric" approach should be avoided. This is an action thriller horror movie, and not an atmospheric psychological-subjective horror like Susperia. I haven't seen Inferno yet, and I didn't really see what was so damn great about Suspiria on my first two views, so now I'm going to go back and see that again and Inferno the first time because I really like the story. As a horror movie, this has no "atmosphere" because it has a fast pace instead. But fuck atmosphere; that's not what modern horror needs. This is what modern horror needs - absurd kills and insane amounts of violence and a heavily loaded plot. Not some minimalistic over-lit underwritten character piece with not nearly enough blood like Suspiria. This movie piles it on, and I like it like that. Suspiria is slow and overimportant, read too pretentious for its own good; this is fast and rude, read made for the blood-addicted ADD generation. I prefer the latter style for this millennium and leave the former style to actual masters of it like David Lynch. My only complaint is that the ending isn't so much a showdown as it is a letdown. I expected a full on witch fight or at least a more hyped scene, and instead the main character just gets lucky without having to struggle for it.

• vieras e

  
  Why did the witches have such difficulties applying their make-up?

• Robert C

  
  Admittedly, when you start a trilogy with a film like Suspiria...you have a lot to live up to. As I mentioned in a previous review act two (Inferno) was a big disapointment for me, so I was nervous going into this third and final film of the trilogy. This film was definately… More
  Admittedly, when you start a trilogy with a film like Suspiria...you have a lot to live up to. As I mentioned in a previous review act two (Inferno) was a big disapointment for me, so I was nervous going into this third and final film of the trilogy. This film was definately better then Inferno, but not as good as Susperia. Sadly it seems that most of the money was spent on upgrading the quality of the visuals with little to no real attempt at developing the great mythology (that is the foundation of these films) to it's full potential. Wile there was the potential here for greatness, the film (sadly) falls short. Though it's genre it is not withour merit. Several horrific murder scenes mixed in with lots of blood, brutality and boobies! : )

• David L

  
  Mother of Tears is a film that was highly anticipated ( at least for me anyway), due to it being the third and final film in Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, the first two entries having been Suspiria and Inferno, both of which I have seen. Suspiria sets a high standard, and… More
  Mother of Tears is a film that was highly anticipated ( at least for me anyway), due to it being the third and final film in Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, the first two entries having been Suspiria and Inferno, both of which I have seen. Suspiria sets a high standard, and Inferno develops into a truly nightmarish and disorienting scenario. Both are excellent films in their own right, although the latter is best seen with knowledge of the first. So too is Mother of Tears best seen with knowledge of the previous two films; however, it does not stand well on its own. Unlike the other two, Mother of Tears is dependent on the canon of the previous films. Anyone viewing it without having seen at least Suspiria will be hopelessly lost. Also unlike the other two, a dreamlike atmosphere is neither achieved nor aspired to, and thus Mother of Tears comes off as an attempt to craft a more coherent narrative flow, with only limited success. Many plot points that should have been resolved (and would have been, in earlier films) are left open and never addressed after being introduced. Others are given loving care despite irrelevance. There is none of the magical charm of the earlier two films, in which the narrative's fractured nature draws the viewer in, and instead the viewer is subjected to a relentlessly unevenly-paced tense film that is more Fulci than Argento. The film is extremely tense and, in many ways, very unpleasant. I would say that most all of the deaths in Mother of Tears were excessiveand they may just be too much for some. In Suspiria and Inferno they were certainly horrifying, Mother of Tears is just too grotesque and maybe too raw. My opinion has always been that if excising the scenes would improve a picture, they are unnecessary; that is exactly the case in Mother of Tears, where people are constantly done away with for no reason. This wasn't always the case in earlier films, although certainly most of the characters in them didn't reach the end. I may have been confused when it was said in the film, but someone I believe claimed that Mater Lachrimarum was the cruelest and most beautiful of the three, although it was clearly stated in Inferno that the cruelest was supposedly Mater Tenebrarum. However, Mother of Tears seems intent on proving that Lachrimarum is the cruelest, with its horrific and excessive killings -- to the point of being absolutely ridiculous and nonsensical. This really was an obstacle to my enjoyment of the film, and I felt it detracted from the quality. The narrative, though an attempt at being more coherent than earlier films, does it no service and merely makes it frustrating. The acting is uneven, but this is not uncommon for Argento's output. The direction is, at times, frustrating because the camera work is more 'modern', which means it is unstable and so further raises the tension through irritation. There is also almost none of the artistry present in the two previous films here, which is a shame; it would have been nice to have seen the style return, although it is a far superior work to most other modern horror. The main character, Sarah, is engaging enough but does too little. Unlike Jessica Harper's Suzy Banyon, Asia Argento's Sarah seems to be all over the map and doesn't really establish a concrete presence, although by the end she is a more decisive and stronger character. However, the final confrontations in Suspiria and Inferno were both superior in atmosphere and characterisation than the one in this, which is too abrupt and incoherent to be really satisfying. Moran Atias sets the standard for the equally inane witches under her, supposedly like fairytale witches but coming off more as failed Bananarama impersonators. Even if Ania Pieroni might be older now, Argento really should have persuaded her to return; Atias is atrocious, and her extremely fake breasts are the most horrific aspect of what passes for her performance. Overall, Mother of Tears is still better than most modern horror films. However, it is nowhere near as good as either of its two predecessors. It cannot stand alone, and it is a poor introduction to the rich and deep mythology of the Three Mothers world. Was it worth waiting 30 years for? No. But it is an entertaining enough view but, unlike the other two; there are just too many faults in it and its frankly shameful narrative, as well as some seriously lacking performances. The Mother of Tears may be cruel, but Argento is moreso for not quite returning to form in order to close out this trilogy that he began three decades ago. Suspiria remains a vastly superior story of 'good witch versus bad witches'.

• A.D. V

  
  If I had to describe the movie in one word it would be uneven. From the acting to the plot to the FX it's simply...uneven. But it's also hard to discount so I decided to be generous and give it 3 stars simply because it's the final witch movie and the film references… More
  If I had to describe the movie in one word it would be uneven. From the acting to the plot to the FX it's simply...uneven. But it's also hard to discount so I decided to be generous and give it 3 stars simply because it's the final witch movie and the film references both Suspiria and Inferno a few times. Squeamish parents should be forewarned though because it has several scenes with children both dead and being murdered in very gory ways.

• Steve K

  
  What started as a reasonably fun trashy horror flick devolves into an amateurish mess that looks like it was shot by college students. What a disappointment. Lots of gore and nudity, but it really doesn't help. Asia Argento still strikes me as a hittable Eurotrash version of… More
  What started as a reasonably fun trashy horror flick devolves into an amateurish mess that looks like it was shot by college students. What a disappointment. Lots of gore and nudity, but it really doesn't help. Asia Argento still strikes me as a hittable Eurotrash version of Moira Kelly.

• Kylie B

  
  The body-horror effects are quite brutal and the plot isn't terrible, but the ghost effects are, and the confrontation was over far too quickly for my liking. I missed the old atmosphere from Suspiria too.

• Lafe F

  
  The third and final part of Dario Argento's "Three Mothers Trilogy". It doesn't have the bright colors and wild electronic music of the first two. It did not have the vibrant sensory overload which Suspiria and Inferno had. On the plus side, the gore was quite… More
  The third and final part of Dario Argento's "Three Mothers Trilogy". It doesn't have the bright colors and wild electronic music of the first two. It did not have the vibrant sensory overload which Suspiria and Inferno had. On the plus side, the gore was quite intense and creatively presented. I liked how they addressed the plots of the first two films. I loved the new-wave witches which landed in Rome. If the city was falling a second time, I hoped to see the evil on a larger scale; a few street fights didn't convince me. For consistency with the other two, there needed to be more animal attacks -- we simply had a cool little psycho monkey. Asia Argento is always fun to watch, even if she isn't the greatest actress. The plot gave her character some bizarre psychic powers. The story was certainly weird enough, but it wasn't executed with enough energy or Argento's awesome early style.

• Marcus W

  
  If Hollywood remade this it would star Lindsay Lohan and be directed by Renny Harlin. And people would laugh at it.

• Eduardo C

  
  Completely devoid of atmosphere, class, stylishness and any semblance of direction, "La Terza Madre" is a tremendous disappointment and perhaps the final nail in the coffin of what has become Dario Argento's career. His outpùt over the last decade had been of… More
  Completely devoid of atmosphere, class, stylishness and any semblance of direction, "La Terza Madre" is a tremendous disappointment and perhaps the final nail in the coffin of what has become Dario Argento's career. His outpùt over the last decade had been of systematically decreasing quality, but the hope always remained that going back to his roots would breathe new life into his art. After this, however, there are no two ways about it: the man truly has lost it. That the film was either shot or (for some incomprehensible reason) transferred to digital should tell you all you need to know about just how far he has fallen. Much like the work of his contemporary, Lucio Fulci, "La Terza Madre" is nothing but an excuse to pile on the gore. The film goes completely out of its way (and much to the detriment of its already troublesome pacing and what little mood it had reluctantly managed to generate) to focus on the violence. The first kill,: poorly edited, amateurishly staged and drawn out beyond comprehension, is enough to reveal where the film's priorities lie: blood and guts uber alles. Throw in an insurmnountable ammount of expository dialogue (a necessity, perhaps, due to budgetary restraints but no more the pleasant for it), putrid acting (Dario Argento tends to bring out the worst in his daughter) and a point-and-shoot directorial approach that any hack with a camera could have duplicated and you are left with a lifeless mass cobbled together seemingly at random by people with nary a clue as to what they were doing or, more importantly, why. The horror frat boys (as exemplified by Eli Roth, their idol and patron saint) will no doubt love the film, laughing and hollering their way through it and that is perhaps the saddest thing of all. If this film is any indication then Argento has become everything he was always unfairly accused of being, a parody of what he actually was, a one note running joke. Forget style over substance: his trilogy capper is gore AS style AS substance, and all the cameos in the world from former collaborators can't save it from itself.

• Rose G

  
  When the local cinema featured this movie I was more than excited to get in there and see this film. This was the first Dario Argento movie that I had seen and I expected a lot from this movie having heard a lot of good things about Argento's style. It was really a… More
  When the local cinema featured this movie I was more than excited to get in there and see this film. This was the first Dario Argento movie that I had seen and I expected a lot from this movie having heard a lot of good things about Argento's style. It was really a disappointment. I guess I should see his earlier films which, by the way, are so hard to find. The sound and musical score makes up for Asia Argento's horrible acting, but don't totally save the film from being a huge sleeper. A lot of scenes dragged on, and I really hated the fact that so many scenes were cut. The edited parts would probably the reason why I would think of buying the dvd of this film if I stumble upon it in stores.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings