MOTHER OF TEARS

MOTHER OF TEARS: For years Argento apologists have bided their time while the director considered completing his “Three Mothers” trilogy. But as the law of sequels has so often has proven, no film could possibly be worth the wait. And Mother of Tears finds Argento operating nowhere near the height of his powers in a film that feels more like the work of an Argento imitator rather than the genuine article. Reunited with his favorite muse, actress/daughter Asia Argento, the director fills in the blanks of his supernatural story with direct references to previous fan favorites Suspiria and Inferno, leaning on a logical narrative mystery in contrast to the surreal nightmares of the first two films. Despite several inspired flashes of the bizarre (that devil monkey serving as Satan’s bloodhound really freaked me out!), Mother of Tears fails miserably to recreate the atmosphere of unrelenting doom that made the series stand-out in the director’s hit-or-miss oeuvre. Still, Mother of Tears is salvageable up until the catastrophically embarrassing conclusion in which the head witch is revealed to be nothing more than an extra in Scandal’s cheesy 1984 music video for “The Warrior.” None of this will stop curious fans that have waited two decades to see Mother of Tears make it to the screen, but be prepared to shed a few of your own. The unrated cut released under the Dimension Extreme label adds several snippets of gore along with a Making Of featurette, trailers and Argento interview.