Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Unfortunately, the blurb on the poster, "An Instant Cult Classic" quite overrates this film. We have waited twenty-seven years for this film and it falls drastically short of the hype and expectation I had as a fan of the trilogy.Firstly, Argento made the decision to forgo the style and lighting of the two previous chapters for a more "modern" gritty style. This works okay with the film if it were a "stand alone"; however, because the previous films were so iconic this missing element actually hurts the film.Along with the missing style is the disappearance of the lavish and grand sets.I can understand the reasons for doing this, though, I for one would have liked it had he tried to tie it in with the preceding films.The story, once again, expands on the Three Witches mythology and settings. Upon opening an urn, found outside a cemetery in Rome, an evil is let loose on the city and the world. It falls upon Sarah Mandy, irritatingly portrayed by Asia Argento, to try to halt the threat, and what a threat, what with all witches from around the globe descending on Rome... Except it's not as there's not a lot of witchery witchcraft going on.The story in this chapter of the trilogy is more comprehensive and understandable though it doesn't have quite the same atmosphere or tone. This might be because of the number of writers scripting the tale - too many chefs... On the upside, there are some nice and gruesome murders. I especially liked the train toilet door witch kill and the lesbian eye puncturing. However, these seem less choreographed than in the previous films again going for a more realistic feel. One of the story points I really loved was the encroaching travesty and violence which is affecting people's lives. This is represented by the people in the background shots arguing and fighting, this is a nice little touch. They missed an opportunity here to show how widespread the effects of the Third Mother had spread. Since Argento had switched over to digital (which wasn't a good idea as the look and feel are flatter than that of celluloid) he could have asked friends and family around the world to take some videos of extras skirmishing in cities around the world.However, it's the end that is probably the worst scene in the movie as the Mother Of Tears gets "Ming'ed" at the climax of the movie and the CGI landscape is laughable, when our heroes climb out of a hole in the ground. Italians are geniuses when it comes to wetwork special FX, though not so good at the computer generated stuff.If you're going to watch this as part of the trilogy then you have been forewarned. However, it does work well as a stand-alone movie, since it is so different, in every aspect, than the previous films.Not brilliant, but not a turn off either.

After all the bad reviews and negative posts on IMDb I thought the movie was going to be horrible. But like I usually do when I watch movies I kept an open mind and usually have very small expectations (in reality, my only expectation is more than often political incorrectness). But still surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. I actually think this is a good movie. Now first of all 'La Terza Madre' is politically incorrect which to my taste already gets a big plus. Second of all it has that same simple plot that 'Suspiria' and 'Inferno' have. I don't mind simple plots since movies are about moving pictures, sometimes people want movies to be like books which I find a bit ridiculous, because honestly books and movies are two different media (although I love reading books). So 'La Terza Madre' if you will, can say has a thin plot like 'Suspiria' and 'Inferno' have. But I feel this one had a little more touching story, with Asia and her mother Daria trying to have contact with each other. All in all it was the same as its predecessors story wise. Except this one seems to me to be less dream like than its predecessors. But it still has the fairy tale approach and it is told like a fairy tale. Because it is simplistic in its approach. Also not (obviously) realistic and has its own logic, which a lot of people don't seem to appreciate with today's "realism" obsession.The themes are basically the same also: mysticism and alchemy (plus some terrorism, which should be obvious and Gnosticism which require some research of it to understand). Might explain why people often feel the script is hokum. So nothing has changed much with the Trilogy. Except 'La Terza Madre' is not as artistic as its predecessors and a bit less visual and a little more talky. I prefer visuals but it wasn't more talky than other movies of its time so it didn't bother me that much. The murders are typical Argento, which means they have sexual tension (very obvious in the lesbian murder scene). But they are not as artistic as they usually are with Argento movies, but honestly I don't mind if they are not actually artistic. Dario can't do it exactly the same way all the time. Besides, murder is an act of atrocity whether justified or not. Murder is depraving and degrading, which we often try to forget about in movies. Asia Argento did a pretty good job in acting in my opinion and I feel the acting in the movie is above average compared to other horror movies. Also with a budget of $3.500.000 the special effects were convincing enough. The cinematography is not typical Argento, but I still feel it is Argento since the camera moves around a lot and still distinct enough to stand out compared to mainstream movies. 'La Terza Madre' doesn't fall into everyone's taste. It is politically incorrect, pretty violent, mischievous almost naughty and kind of humorous in its approach. So with all that in mind I'm rating the movie 8/10, so I enjoyed the movie.

Sure it's not the new "Inferno" or "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", but we finally have glimpses of the old "Argento's style" back! A good, gory, horror movie, average scary scenes, nice FX and great story.This is the third movie about the "three mothers", "inferno" and "suspiria" are the other two, and it close the circle of the three demons story.As I said we are still a little far from the great directing we had in the first 70ish Dario's movies, but at least it's far better than the latest releases we have seen! The story goes on nicely, Asia is perfect in the leading role, Udo Kier find his "usual" bad ending in one of the best scenes of the movie (and of latest 20 years horror movies!), demons and gore scenes are really well made with the right amount of suspense.. what else do you need in a classic gore story! Sure, in this "twilight" era, when horror movie seems closer to its sunset, you'd like to see more movies like this!

I think Dario Argento's "Mother of Tears" operates under the adage that some things are better left buried. Thirteenth century artifacts are uncovered inside an urn found buried with the crypt of a man during the excavation of a church where bodies were being "relocated". The moment the urn is opened, an evil is released which will almost immediately unleash upon Rome a possible apocalypse as the Third Mother prepares for total domination of the world. "Chaos. Blood. Tears." And, does the city come unglued! A woman tosses her baby off a bridge (yeah, Dario shows the baby's head slam into stone while hurling to its doom!), violence erupts in the streets, with the carnage tearing Rome apart, a sickness that is spreading like the plague. The moment the urn's candlewax seal (the priest is responsible for the seal, attempting to keep its contents sealed until an archaeologist named Michael could examine them, his expertise in "esoteric science" appropriate for determining the purpose for the artifacts) is broken, terror awaits society, unprepared for the evil that will produce a corruptive influence on all who fall under the Third Mother's spell. It seems that Asia Argento's "student of archeology" is immune to the power of the Third Mother, but how will she be able to stop her before the madness that is enveloping the world becomes to vast to contain? Mater Lacrimarum, the third witch, is the Mother of Tears, considered the most beautiful and cruel of the three (and the other two were pretty damn evil), and as long as the "talisman" (a cloth that drapes over the gorgeous naked body of Moran Atias) is liberated from the seal, evil will reside. The screenplay (co-written, and based on a story, by Dario Argento) is busy, to say the least, with Asia's Sarah Mandy actually the daughter of a "white witch" (played by her mom, and the former lover of Dario, Daria Nicolodi), herself blessed with certain powers (like invisibility). "Mother of Tears" is all over the map; it is really demented. The violence is of the preposterously extreme variety. I mean eyes are gouged out, a face is crushed by a door, a woman is vaginally skewered by a sword, one victim is strangled (after being disemboweled) with her own intestines, and poor priest Udo Kier is bludgeoned repeatedly in the skull with a hatchet! There's a monkey that seems to guide members of Lacrimarum's henchmen—their eyes, so to speak—and children are constantly butchered (one scenes shows the hand of a Lacrimarum follower reaching into the belly of a dead child, another shows a partially devoured child corpse!). This movie is a bloody mess. But, it all makes sense because Mother of Tears is the most sadistic and vile witch of her trio so the slaughter and plague of violence derives from her desire for total anarchy, death, and destruction. My complaint concerns the CGI and "ghost" shenanigans with Nicolodi, helping her daughter escape peril and capture; it looks and feels tacky. Dario follows his daughter as she enters the ruins of the Rome manor, built by an alchemist responsible for the other two (built in New York for Inferno, and Freidburg, Germany for Suspiria), eventually descending into the hidden chamber to face her enemy. The ending is pure Corman, a bit disappointing as the collapsing structures look less impressive thanks to cheap computer graphic effects. The story includes a lesbian psychic who teaches Sarah about contacting her mother and the archaeologist/scientist, Michael (Adam James), being pursued by screeching girls with giant hair and thick eye liner (they look like they stepped right out of the 80s). Dario just hurls the kitchen sink at you. Bottom line is that this film has continued to divide the Argento faithful. While I consider it a lot of grisly, and over-the-top fun, others think Argento has forever lost his mojo. All I know is that I cringed and laughed at a lot of the graphic violence because Argento has no barometer in regards to "how far to go". Everyone is fair game in his movies.