👻 Supernatural Horror—2007 | 💎 Hidden Gem #118 | 🏅 Top 50

"What you see does not exist. What you cannot see is truth. This is the home of the Mother of Tears."

This film's rating is a crime against horror. I almost passed it up and I'm glad I didn't go with the consensus. This is a great ending to The Three Mothers trilogy.

La Terza Madre is a huge step up from Inferno, which is also underrated. What Inferno has going for it is a bunch of beautiful set pieces in a building full of evil, plus a drowned-cat-rat-murder. There's no gore and it's not frightening, it's just very pretty and very fun. It does not push boundaries at all. That's okay but it doesn't maintain the ferocity of Suspiria.

There are spoilers below for descriptions of violence and for the general plot of Inferno and Suspiria. There is general thematic discussion for La Terza Madre but I’ve been careful not to spoil any surprises past the first act.

Suspiria was successful both because of the beauty of the sets and cinematography and, part in parcel, the actual theatrical brutality of the protracted violence as well as a sense of looming dread from an unknown malice. The music is perfect for this—Goblin's Suspiria is unparalleled—and the story helped, but if it had just been pretty colors and the level of horror in Inferno (that is, basically none) nobody would remember Suspiria at all. It exists to terrify first and foremost, it just does most other things well too. Inferno has no razor wire pit, no being eaten to death by your own dog, no stabbing in a beating heart—realistically, it is very underrated but this one point is important: it fails to be frightening or gruesome.

La Terza Madre has exactly what was missing, and it almost feels that Argento is making up for lost time with it: this is one of the most gory and demented films I've ever seen. There is less protracted torture than in Terrifier 2, to borrow a recent example, but the gore is worse easily. Including the state of Allie’s corpse after the bedroom scene. Exactly that image was already in this film. It is here, and worse, the only difference being that the corpse no longer seems to be alive. This is hard to know, with all of the bodies having their organs eaten out of them, but this one is missing half of its scull, its brains look like guts, and it is no longer moving, so who knows. The point is, this has some ghastly stuff occurring. It's frightening. It's gruesome and brutal. Yes it is slightly unhinged, but this is Argento, and that is desirable. Many of you have seen Phenomena—this is a pretty cogent narrative beside The Bug Whisperer.

What is also successful here is the sense of threat from the witches. Neither in Suspiria nor Inferno is it clear at all why the three mothers are a problem except to those who are in their path. It is said that they rule the world and are terrible, but what of that is actually shown or seen? In Inferno, Mater Tenebrarum has an apartment. Her great crime is trying to get rid of people who are looking for her apartment. This is the extent of evil in Inferno. Suspiria, Suzy Bannon just accidentally finishes off an already weakened Mater Suspiriorum through being plucky and around. La Terza Madre is quite different in this regard.

Here Mater Lachrymarum starts by destroying Rome. Before the first act is up, a mother has thrown her baby into the Tiber, mobs are sacking buildings, someone is brutally disemboweled—there is chaos everywhere. And that is just the start of her attack on civil humanity. As the film goes on this delirium of violence escalates. This is not something one wants happening in one's back yard, or city, or really anywhere at all.

This has Suspiria's sense of menace plus the most graphic violence of any Argento I've seen, and the weaknesses are....? The ending making sense? Have any of the endings made sense? Usually the ending is Argento's favorite trick: burning down the entire set. Mater Tenebrarum is apparently dead after the events in Inferno, but how exactly she died from a little fire when she embodied death replete with a goofy skull mask and could teleport is unclear. Does this make any sense? Absolutely no. Is it still awesome? Yes, but next time with more bloodshed please.

Well here is the bloodshed and the apocalyptic menace. Claudio Simonetti's score has much more in common with the music in Suspiria, though his closing theme riffs somewhat awkwardly off of Emerson's operatic climax for Inferno. Here, in general, is better and darker music that is much more suited for Argento's work. Emerson did okay, but he's never been very good at being dark or edgy. Operatic is about as close as he gets.

So there's the score, the violence, the incoherence, more threat, more dread, and in fact Asia Argento does wonderfully as lead here. I do not see the problem here at all; holding this to the standard of the previous two means it's a huge success. It only fails if it's expected to be something it's not: clean, sane, polished, consistent, and with a sensible conclusion.

I wonder to what degree the extremely disturbing violence in this has colored people's willingness to engage. It is the same here as it was in the 70s and 80s—Argento is pushing hard against what is acceptable to show. That means this is proportionately more grotesque. That is how it should be. It pushes beyond the graphic violence in Fulci's work. It's non-stop and intense.

The Mother of Tears doesn't play it safe. And nor should you: watch this and decide if there's something here you can enjoy. I think there will be.

Enthusiastically recommended.

Some Lists:

👻 Supernatural Horror—2007
🏅 Personal Top 50 Horror Films
💎 Slightly Hidden Horror Gem #120
🌱 Hidden Horror Candidates
📽️ Viewing Next
🗂️ Index of Lists (needs an update)

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A Creature Was Stirring | There’s Something in the Barn | The Portrait | The Sacrifice Game | Aux Yeux des Vivants (Among the Living) | Leave the World Behind | In My Mother’s Skin | Raging Grace | Sinister 2 | Naga | Entrance I The Black Cat | Sacrifice I Last Night in Soho| The Holdovers | Lux Æterna | Climax