HALLOWEEN MOVIE COUNTDOWN (DAY 1-3): The Three Mothers Trilogy

Hey Kiddies!
So it’s October, which means cold weather, dead plants, and HALLOWEEN!!! It also means that horror movies should be playing in rotation on TV, or you should be getting in the holiday spirit by watching them. Some of you like myself have grown out of the whole trick-or-treating ordeal. Instead you may be out at a party or stuck with dishing out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. Or maybe you just ignore the kids knocking at your door, kick back with a bowl of candy and watch a scary movie. Well for this whole month I’m going to try and recommend some movies that will get you into the spirit of Halloween. Most will be familiar but hopefully I'll mention a few that will catch your interests. :)

'The Three Mothers Trilogy' (Suspiria, Inferno, Mother of Tears) Dir.-Dario Argento
If you consider yourself a true horror fan then you already know the name Dario Argento and are familiar with the mans work. If not then I suggest checking out his 'Three Mothers Trilogy'. It's not every day that a movie about witches are made. I can only think of 4 movie at the top of my head that are about/ or have witches: 'The Blair Witch Project', 'The Wizard of Oz', 'The Witches of Eastwick' and 'Witches'. Argento based his trilogy around The Ladies of Sorrow, three sister/ witches each a representation of mourning, hopelessness, and madness. Each of his films deals with one of the three sisters and the chaos that they cause.

Suspiria (1977) Dir.- Dario Argento

'Suspiria' the first of the three deals with The Mother of Sighs (hopelessness). The movie is about an American girl that enrolls in a dance academy in Germany. Strange noises are heard at night and soon students start to go missing. The dance academy however is the home of the Mother of Sighs and all the teachers there are really just part of her coven. Suspiria is considered Argento's masterpiece and considered the best out of all three movies. Like most of his movies it is beautifully shot and the colors that he used in each scene cannot go unnoticed. I wouldn't say that the film will scare you, it was made in 1977 so some scenes are cheesy and outdated. Also you have to remember that this is an Italian horror film so somethings may not make sense at all; it's ok a lot of his films do that.

Infero (1980) Dir.- Dario Argento

The second film in the trilogy is 'Inferno', and deals with The Mother of Darkness (madness). She is suppose to be the youngest of the three sisters and the cruelest. Which means she is pretty badass. Her house/coven is in New York City and is covered up to seem like an old apartment building. One of the tenants ends up discovering everything about the Three Mothers and that her apartment building is one of there homes. Sad to say she goes missing and her brother ends up following her trail. I personally like this film the most out of the three. I totally dug the Mother of Darkness, she was wicked awesome! And the story dove a lot more into the back story of the three mothers in general which I find really interesting overall. But I found it more to be a mystery in itself and figuring out which tenant was the Mother of Darkness. Again some stuff in here is not going to make a whole lot of sense and thats ok cause it's Argento. It is made in 1980 so not really a scary movie, and the effects aren't all that great but you can't help but appreciate it for what it is.

Mother of Tears (2007) Dir- Dario Argento

Alright, so after almost 30 years Argento finally decided to make the finale movie in the series, 'Mother of Tears'. This film deals with the oldest of the three mothers and the most powerful. After an art restoration student opens up and ancient urn she awakes the Mother of Tears, who starts to a wave of destruction and death across the city of Rome. Only one women, a young art student, has the power of a white witch to stop the Mother of Tears before her destruction spreads global. I'm going to be honest, I think that this is the weakest out of the trilogy which I find disappointing. This is a fairly recent film and so the effects aren't outdated like the other two and it's got it's fair share of gory moments. But I think the main problem with the film is that the storyline in general isn't all that great and neither is the acting. Plus for supposable being the most powerful of the three I found her actually to be the weakest and not scary at all. The Mother of Tears really just runs around naked throughout the film telling her minions and her pet monkey what to do. I would only recommend this film just so you can say that you saw the whole trilogy.But hey I maybe wrong and you may actually enjoy this one more.