When workers doing construction in a small Italian village unearth a strange urn chained to a coffin, they unwittingly awaken the powers of Mater Lachrimarum, the Mother of Tears. The sole surviving member of a trio of terrible witches, Lachrimarum uses her powers to cause a wave a violence to sweep through Italy. The only person that has a chance at stopping her reign of terror is art-restoration student Sarah Mandy, who appears to have supernatural powers of her own.  As the two slowly move toward the climactic confrontation, the stage is set for the conclusion of the third installment in the “Three Mothers” trilogy from famed Italian horror director Dario Argento.

Based loosely on Thomas de Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis, the witches represent the three Sorrows, joining the ranks of three Fates and three Graces. The new film picks up where Argento left off in 1980 with the previous film Inferno.  The earlier installments covered the rise and death of the other two mothers, Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness, and Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs. Considering that the original film Suspiria was released in 1977, there has been quite a span of time across the trilogy.

If all that sounds a bit complicated, you’re not far off the mark. The story in Mother of Tears is dense and tangled. It doesn’t help that the presumed heavy of the piece, Lachrimarum, played by Israeli model/actress Moran Atias, has such limited presence. I’m struggling to recall if she even had any lines.

Most of the action focuses on Sarah, played by Argento’s daughter, Italian actress Asia Argento. As the witness to the first violent manifestation, she’s thrown into the conflict early in the film. As she learns more about Lachrimarum and her own ties to the three witches, she reluctantly concludes that if anyone is going to stop the witch, she will have to do it herself.

Throughout the film, much is made of the power that Lachrimarum wields and how difficult it will be for anyone to defeat her. I don’t want to give anything away, but suffice it to say that when the final confrontation finally arrived my response was outright laughter. Can you say weak? And that really tends to sum up this film for me. As a horror film it is quite laughable.

There is very little tension or anything remotely scary. The only gasping I would expect to hear from the audience is in response to how bad Mother of Tears truly is. Most of the “horror” comes in the form of shocking and violent acts, with frequent gratuitous nudity (and lesbianism) thrown in for good measure. If that kind of gore works for you, I suppose you could find something to like about this film; but I think most horror fans expect something better in this day and age.

Mother of Tears is not rated by the MPAA, but in my opinion this would be a hard R or perhaps even NC-17 for violent content and sexuality.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Michael attended a press screening of Mother of Tears.