Dario Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy started in 1977 with Suspiria, followed by the next installment, Inferno, in 1980. Argento fans have waited patiently from then till now to get the final chapter, Mother of Tears. Was it worth the wait?

A young American art student, Sarah, unwittingly opens an ancient urn that unleashes the demonic power of the world's most powerful witch. Crime and suicides plague the city as witches from all over the world converge on Rome to pay homage. Sarah must use all her own psychic powers to stop the "Mother of Tears" before her evil conquers the world.

My, how the mighty have fallen. OK, it wasn't that it was that unwatchable. I wouldn't have walked out (or in this case, shut it off), but compared to Suspiria and Inferno, this is unsatisfying. It felt like watching a cable horror film or a Masters of Horror episode. Meaning it was mediocre. Some stuff was so over the top in the coven at the end that it was b-movie camp of the Skid Row '40s Bela Lugosi kind. Yes, it's very campy, but not intentionally. Maybe hammy is the right word, actually. Could have been worse, and of course, could have been ten times better. Not a satisfying conclusion to the series, but also not one that I'd say needs to be forgotten. It has its moments like when Udo Kier's priest character from Suspiria shows up and, of course, (the actress looks almost like the orignal one from Inferno) the Mother of Tears is pretty accurate to what Inferno showed us of her. She is the beautiful one. And the most deadly. Not that we see much of it here. That's my other complaint: where is all the action, gore, and violence? The movie is mostly Asia Argento running around. Also, there is some useless CGI. The plot at times is either incomprehensible or just kinda hokey, which goes back to what I said about Skid Row b-movies of the '40s.

The highlights are some of the glimpses of genius Argento might have pulled off in his better days: a baby being thrown off a bridge and on its way down hitting the railing (oh, it's funny as sh*t), someone being impaled through the vagina, I get to see a glimpse of Asia Argento's boobs (always a plus), and of course, someone in the witch orgy at the end sucking sh*t from someones ass with a tube (at least that's what it looked like, haha). And, of course, it has one of the coolest posters ever.

All and all, I think Argento fans should see it and will probably, like me, get something from it as the campy final part of the series, but don't expect too much and it'll be a decent viewing.

On a scale of zero to four stars, I give Dario Argento's "Mother of Tears"  .

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