Warning: This contains graphic content and spoilers, but really, I don’t think my words could ever take away from the absolute shock and horror that one would actually experience while watching the film.
Concise version: Mother of Tears is the most fucked up film I have ever seen.
Longer version: Usually horror films are lost on me. They fail to horrify. I roll my eyes at whatever predictable thing jumps out of the bushes or from beneath the cellar steps.
Within the first few minutes, I felt nauseous and on edge, even if the movie was campy and still very predictable in certain ways. For example, unearthing a coffin and the urn chained to it is going to bring about disaster. There’s no surprise that a holy man sends the urn off to a museum and then suffers a stroke out of stress over its contents. When two silly museum employees impatiently open the sealed urn and begin reading what is inscribed on its contents, I don’t think anybody would be shocked to learn that this calls up demons who then kill one of the workers.
And so forth.
No, the twist is in the extreme brutality, creative violence that is found everywhere. People are eaten alive. The shots of this are not from a distance or implied. It’s close up. It’s disgusting. There are images carved into my brain which will keep me awake tonight, no doubt. There’s physical assault, sexual assault, rape, and then an entirely different category which could only be described as extremely violent yet consensual sexual acts. Maybe. They’re under a witch’s spell or something, so concepts like consent get kind of blurry.
There’s also an evil screeching monkey.
I had trouble sitting through American Psycho and actually never finished Trainspotting. After watching this, I could do a Trainspotting, American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream, and Faces of Death marathon…before breakfast.
What made this watchable was its goofy moments. The discovery of the awful urn is priceless. Later, we see a group of witches borrowing makeup techniques from Siouxsie and the Banshees and Tim Curry’s character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show aggressively cackle their way through an airport and train station, looking like they were on their way to a no wave show rather than to destroy Rome. The big payoff scene, while absolutely gross, is also kind of funny. The lead character–Sarah–had gone through a bit of trouble to bathe and change into a clean dress and high heels just a few scenes before. Remember that as you watch.
One other thing that I enjoyed was that Sarah never really needed to be saved by any male characters, despite her poor choice in footwear. (Note to Self: If people are killing their babies, setting churches on fire, randomly beating one another in the street, wear pants and sneakers, not my strappy sandals.) Men made attempts to rescue her, but they didn’t do much of anything.
This film is a must-see, if not for any reason other than I need someone else to talk about it with.
Mother of Tears plays through August 2nd at Real Art Ways. You’ll want to skip the popcorn while watching this one.