THE MOTHER OF TEARS

An ancient urn dating back to the nineteenth century is found, chained to a coffin, in the cemetery of Viterbo. The urn is immediately sent to the Museum of Ancient Art in Rome and opened: inside, some statuettes, a sacrificial dagger, and a tunic are found. From that moment, the spirit of Mater Lacrimarum is released, the last component of a triad of very powerful witches who gave rise to the cult of black magic. Rome immediately plunges into chaos, with acts of violence, murders, and suicides; meanwhile, dozens and dozens of witches arrive from all over the world in the Italian capital to worship their mother and give life to what is defined as "The second era of witches." In this apocalyptic scenario, Sarah Mandy, a restorer at the Museum of Ancient Art and the only witness to the resurrection of the Third Mother, moves. The girl is wanted by the police because she is considered an accomplice in the massacre that occurred at the Museum and, at the same time, is chased by the followers of Mater Lacrimarum because she is a potential obstacle to the coming of the new reign of terror. Tremble, tremble… the witches are back! Twenty-seven years after the last chapter, Dario Argento decides to conclude the trilogy about the three Mothers, very powerful witches celebrated in the masterpiece "Suspiria" (1977) and its sequel "Inferno" (1980). "The Third Mother" is a highly anticipated film by fans of the master of Italian horror and, in the premises, should have relaunched the image of the Roman director after the flop of "The Cardplayer" and the unexciting television parenthesis of "Do You Like Hitchcock?" In the premises, that is clear! Because in practice "The Third Mother" is far from the gems that Argento gave us in the 1970s and 1980s. Presented in world premiere at the Rome Film Festival in the "premiere" section, "The Third Mother" has the merit of completing the beloved saga about the three witch sisters, forming an ideal corpus with the two previous films. In fact, even if this third chapter can be enjoyed in a completely independent way from the predecessors, it intelligently refers to the events that occurred in 1977 and 1980, mentioning Suzy Bannion, the architect of Mater Suspirorum's death, and the architect Varelli, as well as bringing back the famous text "The Three Mothers." Two "legendary" actors from the saga return in this third chapter, namely Udo Kier, in the role of Father Johannes, and Daria Nicolodi, in a cameo in which she plays the mother of the protagonist. The film benefits from a decidedly frenetic pace, 1 hour and 40 minutes of chases, massacres, madness, and satanism, which make the viewing of the work fast and fun, although one cannot help but notice a certain superficiality that worryingly hovers over the entire story. Complex plots and script refinements have never been the strong point of this saga, but in "The Third Mother" many themes and many events are treated with haste, thus giving a partial sense of incompleteness. If the introduction may seem absolutely excellent, with a gruesome murder in which a baboon, three living statues, and the entrails of Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni ("Demons 2," "The Phantom of the Opera") are the protagonists, some drops in tone scattered throughout the film appear decidedly inappropriate (Sarah's momentary invisibility, for example). Other ideas, then, are simply embarrassing and sterile, such as the idea of giving the protagonist supernatural powers and making her interact with the ghost of her mother, a choice guided by the simple moral obligation to bring Daria Nicolodi ("Deep Red," "Inferno") back into the scene, but which generates moments of involuntary comedy rather than pathos. The idea of plunging Rome into chaos and violence is certainly winning, thus giving the entire film that touch of apocalyptic dramaticity that was missing in the more intimate previous chapters. The level of violence present in "The Third Mother" reaches very high peaks, probably constituting the apex of the explicit atrocities shown in Argento's cinema and representing the main reason for interest for splatter enthusiasts. But let's come to the technical-artistic aspect. The direction, unfortunately, follows the trend of Argento's latest works and does not present any of those crazinesses that made the director famous. The photography, stunning in the two previous chapters of the saga and here curated by Federico Fasano, is normalized in this film and loses much of the baroque and surreal charm that now characterized the Mothers saga. The soundtrack by Simonetti is diligent but not incisive, while the makeup effects curated by Sergio Stivaletti are excellent. The cast features excellent character actors from Italian and international cinema and, in general, gives a good performance, starting with Asia Argento, in the role of Sarah Mandy, who appears decidedly more restrained than usual and adequately conveys the sense of disorientation typical of her character. Mater Lacrimarum is played by the Israeli model Moran Attias, a stunning woman and decidedly effective in the role of the Third Cruelest Mother, capable of arousing a mixture of unease and fascination. In conclusion, we are faced with a pleasant and fun work, clearly superior to Dario Argento's latest feature films, but unable to return to the glories of the past. A decent film, with many flaws and from which the maximum was expected… but unfortunately, it has settled for the standard of the average productions that characterized the end of the 1980s and some works of the 1990s of Argento's production.