Movie Review - Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother

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.

Video Nasty - Inferno: The Second Mother

Inferno - The Second Mother

(1980)

Produzioni Intersound : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / Anchor Bay Entertainment / Arrow Film Distributors

8.25 / 10

In my opinion, this was wrongly given a video nasty label as it towers above the rest in that dubious genre.  Once again Argento gives the audience a beautifully shot horror movie, filled with elegant locations, bewitching choreographed death scenes, and mood lighting to chill the bones.

This time the story is larger than the first chapter as it encompasses both Rome and New York.  We are no longer confined to just one building with its tenants and this gives Argento more scope to show how widespread the occult has become and to strengthen the story.  We are shown a hidden room in a cellar.  This is an ingenious set in the movie as the room is flooded, so our heroine has to dive in when she loses a bracelet through a whole in the floor. With the use of music, camera angles, and shots through the murky water he creates a nice uneasiness.

This is one of many excellent scenes that give the movie its strength.  The mysterious Alchemist in the labyrinths of a library.  The inexplicable beautiful woman, in a Rome lecture class, with her cat.  Kazanian, the bookstore owner, in Central Park.

It's also great to hear Keith Emerson, of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, again as he composed some of the music for the soundtrack.

As with Suspiria, it's the story that is the comedown of the movie.  For it too, suffers from being muddled and confusing, though not to the extent of Suspiria.  But it's not enough to distract from the story and not reason enough to not watch the film.

This is better than Suspiria and builds on the mythos of the witches, their powers, and their histories.  Argento has shaped the movie to be a "stand alone", so it doesn't matter if you've watched the first movie or not.

I would recommend this film, not just to horror fans, but to film buffs in general, as Dario Argento, in this period was trying something new in the genre, which hasn't really been seen since.  This is a movie to enjoy.

Nergling - The Video Nasties Scare - Inferno

Movie Review - Suspiria: The First Mother

Suspiria - The First Mother

(1977)

Seda Spettacoli : EMI / International Classics / Image Entertainment / Nouveaux Pictures

7.5 / 10

Suspiria has a special place in my heart as it was totally breathtaking to watch as Dario Argento's visual and audio style is something to behold.

Right from the start, as Suzy Bannion, elegantly portrayed by Jessica Harper, walks through the airport Argento gives the viewer a bright and colourful shot of her walking to the doors.  He doesn't like to use filters but would rather use lighting and colour to create atmosphere.  Each time we get a shot of the entranceway Argento brings in the electronic music then cuts it when we see Suzy again.  This gives the feeling that something strange is awaiting her once she departs from the airport.

Then when she's in the cab on the way to the academy he uses the driving rain, tense music and colours of red and blue to create an uneasy mood.  This is throughout the film and was tremendous as it showed me another way to shoot movies, especially horror films as they relied too much on darkness.  Even when in the dark Argento still gave the audience enough light to make out everything, opting for a blue haze.  It also makes him work to find new ways to create suspense and tension.

The other outstanding element is the lavishness of the sets.  These are very stylistic and beautiful and add a magical facet to the story and the film.  Later in the film, we realise why the academy is featured in such a prominent way.

As I said in my review of Argento's Tenebre, he is a master of murder and death.  Here it's the first murder that affirms the point.  Argento makes it feel as though your watching a ballet, gruesome though it is.

On this rewatching, I had to admit that I must have annoyed the neighbours in my youth when I originally watched it.  I couldn't remember the music being so loud it overpowered the actor's lines.  This could be something to do with the remastering, so when I watched this at night I had to ride the volume control up and down so I didn't get any neighbourly warning knocks on the wall.  So be warned on that.

Another drawback is the muddled story as you're never really sure where it's going or what's happening; though this might have been what writers Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi were going for, to add to the unease of the story.  That said it does distract from the film a little.

If you like horror films and not seen an Argento movie yet then this and the other two in the Three Mothers Trilogy are a good place to start.  You will see there are other ways to envisage horror films.