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Although often compared unfavorably to Goblin’s music for SUSPIRIA, keyboardist Keith Emerson’s score for the sequel, INFERNO, is every bit as in tune with the film, perfectly matching the mood and action. Unlike Goblin’s heavy rhythms, shrieking vocals, and shrill synthesizers of the previous film, Emerson employs a much more subtle approach, weaving a score out [...]

One of the most memorable elements contributing to the success of SUSPIRIA (1977) was the soundtrack. Combining elements of music (a synthesizer-heavy rock combo) and sound effects (heavy breathing, murmuring voices), Goblin provided something that went far beyond traditional background scoring, to become an integral part of the film. In a fashion somewhat similar to Ennio [...]

This film is a fascinating and frustrating phantasmagoria of the mysterious and the unexplained, a strange journey into realms beyond human understanding, where events happen without rhyme or reason, and little or no explanation is given. Although framed as a conventional horror film (with a protagonists searching for the secret of an evil power lurking in [...]

SUSPIRIA was one of those films I missed the first time around. When it hit U.S. screens in 1977, I found the advertising campaign decidedly uninteresting; for some reason, it suggested a schlocky gore movie to me. Not that I was opposed to explicit horror: I had been sneaking into R-rated movies like THE EXORCIST [...]

 …Our Ladies of Sorrow. I know them thoroughly, and have walked in all their kingdoms. Three sisters they are, of one mysterious household; and their paths are wide apart; but of their dominion there is no end.
- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundis

Although it will never achieve the status of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or Bram [...]

Mater Lachrymarum, Our Mother of Tears. She it is that night and day raves and moans, calling for vanished faces. She stood in Rama, when a voice was heard of lamentation – Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted. She it was that stood in Bethlehem on the night when Herod’s sword [...]

We all know a boy’s best friend is his mother, but mom and apple pie do not always equate with wholesome goodness when it comes to cinefantastique. In movies, the old cliche about the female of the species being as deadly as the male usually refers to a luscious femme fatale, but there are also [...]

Moran Atias as Mater Lachrymarum
It took Dario Argento – Italy’s horror icon – thirty years to complete the “Three Mothers” trilogy he began with 1977’s SUSPIRIA, his biggest international hit. A mere three years later, he gave us the first sequel, INFERNO, but since then fans have had to wait while he pursued other interests: [...]

DarkDreams.Org – the website dedicated to the cinema of Dario Argento – has a report by Alan Jones of the Italian premier of THE THIRD MOTHER, which took place on October 31 at the Adriano cinema in Rome:
As to the film itself, well, it’s not the conclusion to the SUSPIRIA and INFERNO trilogy any of [...]

E-Splatter.Com has the latest news on MOTHER OF TEARS, the third film in Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers Trilogy (which includes SUSPIRIA and INFERNO). The soundtrack album is due in November. The movie will screen at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California this February. A DVD will come out in the UK in February [...]

Two reviews of Dario Argento’s MOTHER OF TEARS, which kicked off the Midnight Madness series of screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival.

First, from the fest’s official blog:
Argento’s shlock opus, Mother of Tears, stretches credibility as even a Midnight Madness entry. [...] the new film wallows in its own stupidity for enormous tracts of time [...]

The Los Angeles Times has posted an article called “Argento is man of the witching hour,” which anticipates the world premier of Dario Argento’s MOTHER OF TEARS at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it will kick off the Midnight Madness section. The article truly whets the apetite for the film – which fans have [...]

It has been twenty-seven years since Italian horror director Dario Argento filmed INFERNO (1980), the second of his “Three Mothers” trilogy, which began with SUSPIRIA in 1977. Now, he has completed MOTHER OF TEARS, and you can see the trailer below.

What’s cool about the trailer is that it seems to deliver the goods that fans [...]