For those who do not know the work of Italian horror master Dario Argento, one could describe it as a cross between Alfred Hitchcock and George A. Romero. He was a chief architect in the giallo film movement in Italy. Thrillers with a penchant for blood. (Giallo is yellow in Italian and refers to the yellow covers of pulp novels.) In 1977, he began a trilogy of horror films about three powerful black witches confined in buildings in Germany, the U.S. and Italy. The first film, SUSPIRIA, with its dark fairy tale quality, is considered by many Argento's best film. It was liked by me, not loved. He followed that film with INFERNO in 1980, which is not very good at all. Now thirty years later, Argento has a chance to complete his Mother trilogy.
Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento, XXX) works at a museum in Italy where an ancient urn has been brought in for examination. That evening, the assistant curator is brutally murdered by four black-cloaked men and Sarah must flee for her life. In the urn was a talisman that will awaken the power of Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears (Moran Atias, TV's CRASH). Soon suicides and murder start plaguing the streets of Rome. Sarah, with the help of her lover, the museum curator Michael Pierce (Adam James, TV's BAND OF BROTHERS), begins to look into the legend of the Three Mothers, discovering that she's involved more than she might have known. However, police investigator Enzo Marchi (Cristian Solimeno, HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE) is keeping a close eye on Sarah, thinking she might be mad when she claimed that while escaping from the museum a voice came to her and unlocked the doors.
First and foremost, Argento does not hold back on the gore. The first murder is so gruesome and over-the-top it's almost parody. When a victim is strangled with her own intestines within the first 10 minutes, you know what kind of movie you're in for. At the end when Sarah must descend into the witch's coven, there are all kinds of twisted, bloody and primal sights to endure. However, unlike the recent string of torture porn flicks, Argento presents the gross without malice toward the audience. The depravity is done to provoke in a mischievous way, presenting a sick world of evil, without cruelly testing the audience's will to withstand the visual and mental onslaught.
Star Asia Argento, Dario's daughter, has a quality about her that is captivating, and for the most part allows an audience to forgive her weaknesses as an actress. This film is truly a family affair as Asia's mother actress Daria Nicolodi reprises her role as Elisa from INFERNO. She was also a writer on the first two films in the trilogy.
The film reminded me of the demonic collaborations in the 1960s between Roger Corman and Vincent Price. I would assume the Technicolor grandness of Corman's horror work influenced the bright color palette of SUSPIRIA. The mystery elements reminded me of THE DA VINCI CODE, but only in scope, not in quality. Argento does a good job of making evil lurk everywhere through exaggerated deaths, demonic forces, and sexualized witches. It's like a legend told to friends by a darkly imaginative tween who has seen some of his older brother's R-rated or worse flicks. Argento still has that innocent troublemaker streak. He likes to push buttons, but does so all in fun. MOTHER OF TEARS isn't great, but it's entertaining. Now that Argento has finally finished his trilogy, I hope he can get back into giallos like the ones he made at the start of his career.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
