Once upon a time, Dario Argento was hailed as a true auteur of the horror genre. However, you wouldn't know it by watching his latest picture, Mother of Tears. I've seen only a few Argento films, but I can tell the man is far from the top of his game here. While Argento once brought a real artistic flourish to tales of malevolence and murder, he's since been relegated to playing stories strictly for shock value. Such an approach carries the viewer's interest at least partially through Mother of Tears, but it doesn't lead anyone to the horror promised land.

While digging at an Italian cemetery, a construction crew uncovers a centuries-old coffin and a mysterious urn buried with one another. The attending priest ships the urn off for an old friend to investigate, but plucky researcher Sarah (Asia Argento) and a colleague can't resist having a crack at it first. They should've left well enough alone, for the pair have barely opened the urn before Sarah's pal is beset by demonic creatures that make mincemeat out of her. It's obvious there's more to this strange artifact than meets the eye, but Sarah has no idea what kind of evil it's been spawned from. The property of an ancient and deadly cult, its opening has reawakened their leader, a powerful witch known as the Mother of Tears (Moran Atias). When someone close to her is threatened, Sarah becomes pulled into the fray, forced to fight the Mother's evil minions and stop their dark influence from spreading. 

Considering the history behind the project, Mother of Tears is quite disappointing. It's supposed to be the closing chapter of Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy, a series which started with Suspiria and continued with Inferno. Unfortunately, Mother of Tears redefines the term "underwhelming." Although Suspiria wasn't a perfect creation, it was a visually distinct film. Mother of Tears, on the other hand, seemingly goes out of its way to look, feel, and sound as bland as can be. Don't expect a snazzy color palate or relentless score in this movie; I've seen episodes of The Jeffersons more flashy than what goes on here. It  looks like a made-for-TV affair helmed by some uncaring newcomer, not by a horror maestro with decades of experience under his belt.

Still, when compared to more dismal efforts such as Do You Like Hitchcock?, Argento returns to form in the gore department with Mother of Tears. The laundry list of nastiness is far too ghastly to dive into in print, but where the red stuff is concerned, Argento's grindhouse mentality appears in full swing. Mother of Tears at least never pretends to be a serious horror film, reveling in a sleazy festival of gratuitous violence and nudity. These moments, plus the unspeakable death scenes, indicate that somewhere along the line, Mother of Tears could've been a pretty awesome film. It's too bad such scenes engage in a tug-of-war battle with the movie's cheesier elements.  The acting comes across consistently off-key, the CG effects seem even worse, and when it's not randomly diving in and out of subplots, the story plods on and gets a lot cheesier as it moves along.

My description of Mother of Tears makes it sound like a miserable slice of cinema, yet it's actually pretty watchable. There's a tongue-in-cheek spirit running rampant in the movie, even though it's not enough to fully excuse the film's more crummy sections. Mother of Tears may be passable party entertainment, but hardcore gorehounds would be better off searching elsewhere for their fix.

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by the Weinstein Company and rated "R" for strong graphic violence and gore, language ans some sexuality/nudity.)