Before I start, I have to say one thing: I you ever loved Dario Argento's classic films, spare yourself the trouble. Please, by everything that is sacred in cinema, don't watch it. If you see it anywhere, move on, do not stop, whatever you do, Do not sit there and watch this... thing.
Mother of Tears is a very apt title for the movie indeed. It WILL make you cry. Because it's so bad and it completely ruins the foundations it was built upon. To make us wait almost thirty years just so you could ruin your trilogy on the silver screen, Dario? I know you love torturing people, but this is probably your cruelest murder trick, ever.
MOT has none of the dreamlike, surreal atmosphere of Argento's great films. It has no beauty. No style. No particular rhythm that makes it operatic. The movie tries to build a certain tension, but never manages to capture your interest fully. You care for none of the characters. The storyline lacks any trace of subtlety. The lines are heavy-handedly delivered by actors who have no presence, no personality. Udo Kier is wasted, as is Asia Argento. The dreadful end-of-the-world atmosphere needed for the story to work is just not there, probably because the means didn't allow for a larger production. It just would have required something much more ambitious. As it stands, the end-result is a disappointing film that doesn't pack any punch.
Things are explained so thoroughly by various random characters, that it's as if Argento completely gave up on ways to make the story come to life through other means. We don't need a lecture every ten minutes by Captain Obvious' cohorts to understand a film. At the same time, Argento criminally lacks to develop vital plot devices. Sara's magical powers are never truly used. The showdown against the Mother of Tears is the worst letdown you could imagine. She pales even in comparison to the Mother of Sighs, when she's expected to be the cruelest, most powerful of the three. The movie never truly succeeds to make you believe in its universe.
The ending sequence feels rushed, and clearly, Argento just wanted to indulge, copying bits from older, more successful films. You'll recognize moments that are attempting to mimic Suspiria, and even Phenomena, but those scenes will lack any of the visual strengths that their predecessors possessed.
Claudio Simonetti's work is at times passable, but overall it's nothing special. It is technically well-done, but has no personality and the melodies are sadly forgettable. The music to the closing credits are sung by Dani Filth. Yes folks.
You will laugh at the witches. You will laugh at the possessed folks outside Udo Kier's church. You will laugh at the supposedly distressing random acts of violence all around Rome. You will laugh at the policemen. You will laugh at the nonsensical script. You will laugh at Daria Nicolodi's abysmal "ghost mom" performance. You will laugh at the cheap scary moment that will make you jump out of your chair, because it's so unlike Argento to resolve to such cheap tricks in order to get a reaction out of you. You will laugh at the poor CGI effects. You will laugh when you shouldn't be laughing.
As for the gore... ...probably the only worthy thing in the whole movie? While some death scenes are especially nasty, they are deeply lacking. It's easy to be repulsive. Any hack of a horror schlock director can do it - look at Eli Roth. But nothing here will make you cringe like the sudden, shocking deaths in Deep Red. Nothing here has the style and cruel beauty of Suspiria's murders. Forget all about the original, imaginative ways to kill people that Argento has shown in the past. Eye-gouging, vaginal impalement, 'zombies' strangling a woman with her own intestines and then proceeding to hack at her body, lying lifeless on the floor (think Zombi 2's scene where the zombies are eating Paola Menard's corpse)... if anything else, what you have here is a postmortem Lucio Fulci production, complete with bad actors, random scenes of nudity, nonsensical plot, and unpolished ending.
I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I waited so long for this. But in the end, I felt betrayed. We all knew Dario had lost his touch... but this is truly the bottom. This is the film that should never have been made. If anybody else had shot this, and called it the last part to Dario Argento's magnum opus, everybody would have been up in arms over it. But it truly IS Dario's work. All we can do is weep.
Mother of Tears is a very apt title for the movie indeed. It WILL make you cry. Because it's so bad and it completely ruins the foundations it was built upon. To make us wait almost thirty years just so you could ruin your trilogy on the silver screen, Dario? I know you love torturing people, but this is probably your cruelest murder trick, ever.
MOT has none of the dreamlike, surreal atmosphere of Argento's great films. It has no beauty. No style. No particular rhythm that makes it operatic. The movie tries to build a certain tension, but never manages to capture your interest fully. You care for none of the characters. The storyline lacks any trace of subtlety. The lines are heavy-handedly delivered by actors who have no presence, no personality. Udo Kier is wasted, as is Asia Argento. The dreadful end-of-the-world atmosphere needed for the story to work is just not there, probably because the means didn't allow for a larger production. It just would have required something much more ambitious. As it stands, the end-result is a disappointing film that doesn't pack any punch.
Things are explained so thoroughly by various random characters, that it's as if Argento completely gave up on ways to make the story come to life through other means. We don't need a lecture every ten minutes by Captain Obvious' cohorts to understand a film. At the same time, Argento criminally lacks to develop vital plot devices. Sara's magical powers are never truly used. The showdown against the Mother of Tears is the worst letdown you could imagine. She pales even in comparison to the Mother of Sighs, when she's expected to be the cruelest, most powerful of the three. The movie never truly succeeds to make you believe in its universe.
The ending sequence feels rushed, and clearly, Argento just wanted to indulge, copying bits from older, more successful films. You'll recognize moments that are attempting to mimic Suspiria, and even Phenomena, but those scenes will lack any of the visual strengths that their predecessors possessed.
Claudio Simonetti's work is at times passable, but overall it's nothing special. It is technically well-done, but has no personality and the melodies are sadly forgettable. The music to the closing credits are sung by Dani Filth. Yes folks.
You will laugh at the witches. You will laugh at the possessed folks outside Udo Kier's church. You will laugh at the supposedly distressing random acts of violence all around Rome. You will laugh at the policemen. You will laugh at the nonsensical script. You will laugh at Daria Nicolodi's abysmal "ghost mom" performance. You will laugh at the cheap scary moment that will make you jump out of your chair, because it's so unlike Argento to resolve to such cheap tricks in order to get a reaction out of you. You will laugh at the poor CGI effects. You will laugh when you shouldn't be laughing.
As for the gore... ...probably the only worthy thing in the whole movie? While some death scenes are especially nasty, they are deeply lacking. It's easy to be repulsive. Any hack of a horror schlock director can do it - look at Eli Roth. But nothing here will make you cringe like the sudden, shocking deaths in Deep Red. Nothing here has the style and cruel beauty of Suspiria's murders. Forget all about the original, imaginative ways to kill people that Argento has shown in the past. Eye-gouging, vaginal impalement, 'zombies' strangling a woman with her own intestines and then proceeding to hack at her body, lying lifeless on the floor (think Zombi 2's scene where the zombies are eating Paola Menard's corpse)... if anything else, what you have here is a postmortem Lucio Fulci production, complete with bad actors, random scenes of nudity, nonsensical plot, and unpolished ending.
I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I waited so long for this. But in the end, I felt betrayed. We all knew Dario had lost his touch... but this is truly the bottom. This is the film that should never have been made. If anybody else had shot this, and called it the last part to Dario Argento's magnum opus, everybody would have been up in arms over it. But it truly IS Dario's work. All we can do is weep.