The Mother of Tears Preview
By: Harmony Wheeler |
Tuesday May 13, 2008 |
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Horror movie fans can cry for joy |
| The famed Italian horror movie director Dario Argento's The Mother of Tears comes to theaters this summer. When art student Sarah Mandy opens an ancient urn in Rome, it awakens the witch Mater Lacrumarum, the Mother of Tears, and triggers a chain of mysterious and terrible events. Evil returns to cast its dark shadow over the city. Unaware that her mother was a white witch, Sarah is drawn deeper and deeper into the conflict until she must confront and defeat the Mother of Tears. The Mother of Tears completes a trilogy that has taken Argento 27 years to finish. Suspiria came out in 1977 and Inferno came out in 1980. Suspiria was a hit, but audiences complained that the ending of Inferno fell short of expectations. Fans hope Mother won't fall short the way Inferno did. Mother received mixed reviews at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2007. Critics say that, while it isn't as good as Suspiria or Inferno, it's the best film Argento has made in a long time and stands out as an individual movie. The acting is only so-so and characters lack development. The narrative also confuses viewers and the CGI is poorly done. It's a typical Argento film in this way. However, critics say it's the bloodiest film Argento has made. People don't go to Argento films for a good story; they go to Argento films for the way Argento films the blood and gore. Argento is known for the way he makes ugly horror sequences seem beautiful. IMDB.com quotes Argento as saying, "Horror is the future. And you cannot be afraid. You must push everything to the absolute limit or else life will be boring. People will be boring. Horror is like a serpent; always shedding its skin, always changing. And it will always come back." Mother does not lack in violence. It includes killer monkeys, demons, decaying bodies, and much more. In one scene a woman is strangled to death by her intestines. In another scene a woman kills her own baby. This is pure Argento horror.  "Many times, people will say, 'Oh, this is graphic,' but I think of Renaissance painters," Filmmaker Magazine quotes Argento. "Their imagery is very strong and passionate. I wanted to do that without any sense of restrictions." Argento is a risk taker and tries to make every movie different. His films include nudity, lesbians, and any other controversial subject a person can think up. They have even been called horror porn. It is for this reason that so many people flock to his films. Fans can expect Mother to live up to that risk-taking standard. Argento's daughter, Asia Argento, stars as Sarah Mandy. She has been involved in many of her father's films and has experience as an actress, director, and writer. Separate from her father's films, she has starred in Marie Antoinette, xXx, and George A. Romano's Land of the Dead. Asia's mother and Dario Argento's ex-wife, Daria Nicolodi, plays the spirit of Sarah's mother in The Mother of Tears. She wrote the screenplay for Suspiria and starred in Inferno. Udo Kier also returns for Mother after starring in Suspiria. Let's hope that, along with these horror veteran actors, Mother will bring back the same great elements that made Argento famous. |
