[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by Delirium

I really like Mother of Tears too. It's not Argento at his peak, no, nor in the same league as Suspiria/Inferno (considering it's supposed to complete the trilogy). It's not scary either, and doesn't have the trademark Argento aesthetic.

But I can't say I didn't thoroughly enjoy it. It's campy, gory, fast-paced, fun, apocalyptic mayhem - a hark back to Italian horror at its most delirious and over the top. Suspiria and Inferno are perfectly crafted arthouse horrors. Mother of Tears is a somewhat sloppy unashamed b-movie, and works perfectly well on that front, with a genuinely entertaining performance from Asia. They're polar opposite films, but work in their own ways.

So I stand by that film! Despite the anticipation, the negative press I heard was overwhelming, but I loved every second. Enough to buy the DVD and the French Blu (damned forced subs!).

I'm no Argento apologist either - I found the Card Player quite dull, didn't like his Masters of Horror stuff, and Giallo just left me incredulous.

I heartily agree. I thought it was great fun.

I've never thought of myself as an Argento apologist, but reading on here has made me feel like just that. I simply don't find most of his films anywhere near as bad as almost everyone else seems to. I can only call Phantom Of The Opera and Giallo bad films. And thought Giallo was perfectly watchable, being ruined by Adrien Brody and a shoddy script not by Argento's job!

OK, so he pays the price for having made such good films early in his career, but you can say that of many directors, none of whom seem to get the battering that Argento does. Argento has not made anything anywhere near as bad as My Soul To Take or Cursed, for example, but where is Wes Craven's beating?

None of his latter films are as good as The Bird With The Crystal Plumage or Suspiria - but then not every Hitchcock was a Shadow Of A Doubt or Vertigo either. Most of his supposedly bad films, seem perfectly entertaining and very well crafted bits of low budget entertainment. Some of them (The Stendhal Syndrome, Sleepless...) are even better than that, and I suspect that time will do wonders for their reputations as it has for Inferno, Tenebrae and Opera - none of which were especially well regarded and were unfavourably compared to Bird, Suspira and Deep Red upon release.