Mother Of Tears – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

Dario Argento is a name that all horror aficionados should recognize. Arguably most famous for his “Mother” diptych, Suspiria and Inferno, Argento returns to tell the story of the third and final Mother to mixed results.

As often happens, a routine renovation to a small Italian church unearths a forgotten chest and coffin both covered with cryptic runes. The priests send the chest to Rome to be examined by famous art historian, Michael Pierce. However, Michael is gone when the chest arrives and his two assistants go ahead and open it, unwittingly releasing the most powerful of witches, the Mother of Tears. One assistant is immediately killed in an incredibly gory scene, but the other—Sarah—manages to escape.

Soon Italy experiences an explosion of violent crime and suicides as the Mother expands her power. Witches from all over the world converge on Rome to pay homage, and Sarah finds herself on the run from both the police and the minions of the Mother.

In this movie, Argento pretty much abandons the style that made Suspiria and Inferno such classics. In place of atmosphere, Argento focuses on gore and nudity, making this one of his more exploitative films. However, Argento is such a good director that even a mediocre movie like this is compelling to watch. Even though it’s blunted, Mother of Tears still possesses some of the sense of mystery and mythology that so many enjoyed in the other two Mother movies, and that’s just enough to carry the film through some of its less successful moments.

And there are quite a few places where the movie falls short. The reliance on graphic violence and gore feel forced and unnecessary, and some plot points rely on incredible coincidences that strain believability—even in a movie about witches. But the weakest part of the movie has to be its incredibly anti-climatic ending. I won’t go into detail so I won’t spoil it for anyone, but needless to say, it was not what I was expecting.

Although not as visually impressive as some of his other films, Mother of Tears is a good-looking movie. It’s presented in Widescreen with an English language track in 5.1 Dolby Digital. Both the visual and audio transferred well.

The Making of Mother of Tears (running time: 33:18) – This is presented in Italian, but there are English subtitles. Most of this is behind the scenes footage of Dario directing, but there is also footage from the premiere and interviews with his daughter, Asia. The most interesting aspect for me was the history behind the Mother movies and Argento speaking about the thematic differences between Suspiria, Inferno, and Mother of Tears.

A Conversation With Legendary Filmmaker Dario Argento (running time: 7:56) – Here Argento talks about the origins of the Three Mothers, repeating much of the same information in the previous featurette.

U.S. Trailer (running time: 2:13) – This was a little jarring to watch after seeing the movie because the actors voices are completely accentless. I’m really not sure why they did that.

Italian Teaser (running time: 1:07) – This was much better than the U.S. trailer. It played on the fame of Dario Argento, and generally had a creepier feel that I enjoyed.


It’s hard not to be disappointed by this movie in comparison to the other Mother movies, but taken on its own, it’s not bad. There’s more gore than I would care for, but the acting and overall story were good enough to make up for that. Mildly recommended.

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Dimension Extreme presents Mother of Tears. Directed by Dario Argento. Starring Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Adam Jones, and Udo Kier. Written by Dario Argento, Jace Anderson, and Adam Gierasch. Running time: 102 minutes. Rated NR. Released on DVD: September 23, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.