Dario Argento
La Terza Madre

Premise: I love "Suspiria," I consider it one of the most beautiful films of all time, I liked "Inferno," and I am one of those many enthusiasts around the world who were waiting for the conclusion of the trilogy about the three mothers, I consider Dario Argento a genius! A pupil of Mario Bava who in some respects has managed to surpass his master... Nevertheless, I PROMISE not to write a biased review! I don't want to limit myself to saying "Long live Dario" throughout the text, but I also don't want to bash the film without a minimal analysis as almost everyone else is doing! "The Third Mother" is a return to directing that was successful exactly halfway, defining it as a bad film is an exaggeration, but to shout about Argento's great return seems too bold. Let's try to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of this highly anticipated film worldwide, starting with the weaknesses:

Dario Argento has been surrounded by a sea of wrong people! In recent years, the actors in his films seem to come straight out of the worst soap operas on state television, watching the cast act feels like witnessing a mix of performances between "Cento Vetrine" and "Carabinieri," for a moment I feared a cameo by Arcuri! Extras look at the camera and the background characters perform actions completely devoid of sense with respect to the narrated context. And what's worse than a poorly acting actor? Unsynchronized dubbing!! And here I got really pissed off! I mean... we are in 2007! An era where we should have flying cars and teleportation, Dario Argento returns with a film anticipated for over 20 years, and in the editing room, they couldn't synchronize the words with the actors' lip movements! This is the real horror of the film! At some points, the levels of dubbing are so low that for a moment I missed "Fist of Fury" by Bruce Lee! Where the lips moved first and after eight seconds, you'd hear "hello." So there are two possibilities, Dario Argento is surrounded by incompetents and can't do anything even though he is the director. Or he has simply lost it. But I believe more in the first option, so the cast and dubbing are to be scrapped. Even the cinematography doesn't reach Argento's levels, sure... it is impossible to expect a photographic miracle like "Suspiria," that can't be done anymore! But at least I would have expected the usual play of light and shadows that distinguish Argento's films, but for many years now, the soap opera style hovers everywhere in his films. What a pity. Mortal sin! Finally, the screenplay, very rushed with a finale that wraps up in three minutes! Like a commercial. The last shot taken from "Suspiria" highlights a lack of ideas at the end.

The strengths:

Everyone has struck down this film based solely on its flaws, yet... "The Third Mother" has its good merits. The director, despite the blunders he made, is still Dario Argento! And you can't ignore that just because the actors can't act. The shots are beautiful (though no longer obsessive), the Argento style is recognizable in every frame, from the details of objects, to breathtaking sequence shots, one above all in which Asia goes down into the underground, investigates, and comes back up, all without breaks in the shot. Even the suspense is well-curated at some points. Argento plays a lot on the element of surprise to give the audience in the theater a jolt, twice the audience literally jumped out of their seats! Sure... playing it all on the "shocks" to give the audience may not be the best directorial choice, yet... unlike many other films... here it works wonderfully! I hadn't jumped from my seat since the times of Alien! So a note of merit to Dario for making me scared after over 20 years! Even the soundtrack by Simonetti, without too many pretensions, is engaging and manages to give an extra evil touch to the witchcraft sequences. What took the audience by surprise (but they already knew), is the brutal component which has increased dramatically compared to previous films. The choice to include pure splatter in the absence of psychological terror may seem an unfortunate choice but, even in this case... it works wonderfully! In some sequences, there's a pleasant air of Fulci, which has given a bit of justice back to Italian horror cinema, in an era dominated by our emulators like Eli Roth and Tarantino. Italian splatter is ours! The Third Mother contains artisanal gore scenes that are worth the entire ticket price. Someone will say that Argento plays on blood because he no longer has psychological thriller ideas, but... in my opinion, he has simply adapted to the modern audience who prefer more what they see than what they don't see.

Recapping: Dario Argento is still good! But unfortunately, he has somewhat sold out to the modern cinema system for kids. We all long for the good old Dario but... given that masterpieces like "Suspiria" can no longer be made for various reasons... let's make do! It’s not the best, but... let's make do.