Part of Critical-Film's 2009 September Screams

-Suspiria review
-Inferno review

My first impressions of Mother of Tears was that Argento was trying to outdo himself and his other works. Only ten minutes into the film we get a murder that is so needlessly excessive that it easily tops any other murder sequence Argento has directed in terms of sheer violence and all around nastiness – A woman has her mouth torn to shreds and teeth shattered through means of a pairing device inserted into her mouth, then she is disembowelled, her organs spilling onto the floor as she tries to walk away. If that weren't enough she is then strangled with her own intestines. It's a sequence that's needlessly excessive, mean-spirited, and nearly devoid of Argento's signature style. Something about it seems hopelessly out of place. In fact, I never got the impression that this was a Dario Argento film at all, until nearly the halfway mark.

Synopsis from Dimension Extreme DVD Case:

Argento's daughter, Asia Argento, stars as Sarah, a young American art student who naively opens an ancient chest releasing unimaginable evil into Rome. As violence and murders reach epidemic heights, Sarah must use her untapped magic powers to destroy the last great witch in human history.

The supernatural element is much more apparent this time around as we see people turn invisible, spirits/demons attempt to press through doors, manipulating the objects much like the latex wall in the original Nightmare on Elm Street. It's quite clear we're dealing with something on a much broader scale then the previous two films in this series, Suspiria and Inferno, as people begin rioting in the streets, burning churches, and all sorts of evil things. Crime and suicide rates rise, and it's all tied to the growing power of the remaining 'Mother', Mater Lachrymarum.

Where the link between the three films was only suggested in Inferno by way of the book, “ The Three Mothers ”, there is a direct reference to the events and characters from the film Suspiria, making The Mother of Tears a more literal sequel than Inferno. This is particularly unfitting as, with the exception of Argento's signature violent murder sequences, this film is quite far removed from the prior films in terms of style, though there is one impressive shot that follows Asia Argento through 'The Mother's house in one amazing continuous shot.

The murders are as excessive as ever, with every act of violence being taken to the extremes; a girl's head is crushed in a door until her eyes pop out, Udo Kier's face is chopped to bits with a knife, and a woman's holiest of holeys is violated in the most painful way possible. Dario Argento has been called a misogynist, and while I don't believe this is true, he's only doing what is required of him as a horror director, it's acts like these that spur that controversy.

Gone are the days of Argento's use of shots that swoop around the outside of buildings, a la Tenebre, or any number of beautifully shot segments in Deep Red, or the incredible use of vibrant color in Suspiria and Inferno. We are now left with a director who seems to take a more mainstream approach to his films. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but his recent efforts are no comparison to his classics. While we must accept that there will never be another Deep Red or Suspiria, we have to look at what we do have... Dario Argento is still making movies, and some of them are pretty good. While his recent films lack the visual flourishes that made his productions of the 70s and 80s so great, he has never wavered when it comes to violence – not in sheer excessiveness, nor in the stylish touches added to the violence. When it comes down to it, that's more than I could reasonably hope to ask for.