Mother Of Tears - The Third Mother
(2007)
Medusa Film / Opera Film / Myriad Pictures / Sky Cinema / Film Commission - Torino-Piemonte : Medusa Distribuzione / Dimension Extreme / Optimum Releasing
5.5 / 10
Unfortunately, the blurb on the poster, "An Instant Cult Classic" quite overrates this film. We have waited twenty-seven years for this film and it falls drastically short of the hype and expectation I had as a fan of the trilogy.
Firstly, Argento made the decision to forgo the style and lighting of the two previous chapters for a more "modern" gritty style. This works okay with the film if it were a "stand alone"; however, because the previous films were so iconic this missing element actually hurts the film.
Along with the missing style is the disappearance of the lavish and grand sets.
I can understand the reasons for doing this, though, I for one would have liked it had he tried to tie it in with the preceding films.
The story, once again, expands on the Three Witches mythology and settings. Upon opening an urn, found outside a cemetery in Rome, an evil is let loose on the city and the world. It falls upon Sarah Mandy, irritatingly portrayed by Asia Argento, to try to halt the threat, and what a threat, what with all witches from around the globe descending on Rome... Except it's not as there's not a lot of witchery witchcraft going on.
The story in this chapter of the trilogy is more comprehensive and understandable though it doesn't have quite the same atmosphere or tone. This might be because of the number of writers scripting the tale - too many chefs...
On the upside, there are some nice and gruesome murders. I especially liked the train toilet door witch kill and the lesbian eye puncturing. However, these seem less choreographed than in the previous films again going for a more realistic feel. One of the story points I really loved was the encroaching travesty and violence which is affecting people's lives. This is represented by the people in the background shots arguing and fighting, this is a nice little touch. They missed an opportunity here to show how widespread the effects of the Third Mother had spread. Since Argento had switched over to digital (which wasn't a good idea as the look and feel are flatter than that of celluloid) he could have asked friends and family around the world to take some videos of extras skirmishing in cities around the world.
However, it's the end that is probably the worst scene in the movie as the Mother Of Tears gets "Ming'ed" at the climax of the movie and the CGI landscape is laughable, when our heroes climb out of a hole in the ground. Italians are geniuses when it comes to wetwork special FX, though not so good at the computer generated stuff.
If you're going to watch this as part of the trilogy then you have been forewarned. However, it does work well as a stand-alone movie, since it is so different, in every aspect, than the previous films.
Not brilliant, but not a turn off either.
Along with the missing style is the disappearance of the lavish and grand sets.
I can understand the reasons for doing this, though, I for one would have liked it had he tried to tie it in with the preceding films.
The story, once again, expands on the Three Witches mythology and settings. Upon opening an urn, found outside a cemetery in Rome, an evil is let loose on the city and the world. It falls upon Sarah Mandy, irritatingly portrayed by Asia Argento, to try to halt the threat, and what a threat, what with all witches from around the globe descending on Rome... Except it's not as there's not a lot of witchery witchcraft going on.
The story in this chapter of the trilogy is more comprehensive and understandable though it doesn't have quite the same atmosphere or tone. This might be because of the number of writers scripting the tale - too many chefs...
On the upside, there are some nice and gruesome murders. I especially liked the train toilet door witch kill and the lesbian eye puncturing. However, these seem less choreographed than in the previous films again going for a more realistic feel. One of the story points I really loved was the encroaching travesty and violence which is affecting people's lives. This is represented by the people in the background shots arguing and fighting, this is a nice little touch. They missed an opportunity here to show how widespread the effects of the Third Mother had spread. Since Argento had switched over to digital (which wasn't a good idea as the look and feel are flatter than that of celluloid) he could have asked friends and family around the world to take some videos of extras skirmishing in cities around the world.
However, it's the end that is probably the worst scene in the movie as the Mother Of Tears gets "Ming'ed" at the climax of the movie and the CGI landscape is laughable, when our heroes climb out of a hole in the ground. Italians are geniuses when it comes to wetwork special FX, though not so good at the computer generated stuff.
If you're going to watch this as part of the trilogy then you have been forewarned. However, it does work well as a stand-alone movie, since it is so different, in every aspect, than the previous films.
Not brilliant, but not a turn off either.
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