MOTHER OF TEARS – Even though practically everyone feels tempted on occasion to bang on about the fact that Dario Argento hasn’t made a genuinely good movie for over two decades, they should at least hesitate when they get to MOT. Maybe it’s not very good, but it has enough of the director’s little quirks and excesses to be a fun watch. The third Sister has returned and chaos is breaking out everywhere etc – this tends to take the form of goths who wander the city glaring or giggling spitefully at passers-by, but then again maybe things could get serious as there’s a bit where someone chucks their baby off a bridge at random. Mean spirited, Dario! Not as mean spirited as that f*cking monkey though. Whenever anyone gets a cooch impalement, or has their innards ripped out after a revolting facial disfigurement, there’s this evil little tw*t screeching away in the background. Dario’s quite fickle as the simian in ‘Phenomena’ was benevolent and a bit of a hero in the end. Anyway, MOT is what it is, a very lowly descendent of a noble lineage with a head full of former glories but which can’t claim to be much better than the company it keeps ie mostly direct-to-DVD era shitty horror films. There are a few banging gore scenes, but most of it is Asia Argento going around looking concerned. On the other hand, its constant silliness means that it doesn’t plod. Entertaining, and it makes you wish Argento had done the same sort of thing with most of the films he's put out since ‘Opera’
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