Inside they discover artifacts of Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias), the last surviving member of the Three Mothers, an ancient trio of powerful black magic witches.

She is pursued by Mater Lachrymarum's familiar, but manages to escape when a disembodied voice guides her through locked doors that are magically thrown open.

As she makes her way through a train station, Sarah is spotted by a gang of witches who have arrived in Rome in order to pledge their loyalty to Mater Lachrymarum.

Pursued by the witches as well as police detective Enzo Marki (Cristian Solimeno), Sarah escapes when the disembodied voice from before teaches her to make herself invisible.

Elisa challenged and severely wounded Mater Suspiriorum, the eldest and wisest of the Three Mothers, who retaliated by causing the crash that killed Sarah's parents.

Enzo Marki, the police detective who has been tailing Sarah, joins her to venture into the catacombs where Mater Lachrymarum's cult lurks.

Argento and Daria Nicolodi recast De Quincey's Three Sorrows as three malevolent witches who rule the world with tears, sighs and shadows.

When released in 1977, the first film, Suspiria, introduced the major stylistic elements of the series, including the bold use of primary colors and elaborate setpieces for each murder.

"[2] Although Nicolodi mentioned her version of the script again in an interview for Alan Jones' book, Profondo Argento: The Man, the Myths and the Magic, it was not used in whole or part for Mother of Tears.

On 29 November 2003, at the Trieste Science Plus Fiction Festival in Northern Italy, Argento revealed that he hoped to start filming The Third Mother in August 2004 and was currently working on the script.

[7] This early script began immediately after Inferno, with a witch who survived the destruction of Mater Tenebrarum's home watching a detective (Ennio Fantastichini) investigating a series of murders at a university.

[8] Other tentative cast members were Chiara Caselli as a psychiatrist, Max von Sydow as a mysterious university professor, and Giordano Petri as a young investigator who takes the case when Fantastichini's character is killed.

[9] In mid-April it was announced that Argento would return to Italy in June to immediately begin filming The Third Mother, which would be "a big budget feature, produced by Medusa along with a major American company [Myriad].

[17] Medusa's main objection is to "the depiction of perverse sex in the witch gathering satanic scenes and one cannibal killing of a major character.

[18] It was confirmed on 28 May 2007 that the film would receive a rating of 14 in Italy, necessitating the removal of "all hardcore gore" which would later "be re-instated for the dvd release".

[21] Several black-and-white photographs of the filming were published on 19 January 2007 in the book Dario Argento et le cinéma by Bernard Joisten.

Mother of Tears premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2007, just moments before midnight and Argento's 67th birthday (on the 7th).

[26] According to reporter Alan Jones the audiences' reaction was mixed: the acting quality varied and the script contained too much exposition, but the cinematography was beautiful.

[26] The day after the Cannes screening, on 18 May at 3:45 pm, co-scripter Jace Anderson and actress Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni were on The Third Mother discussion panel at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors convention on the West Coast.

The Cannes promo reel was also screened during Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors East Coast convention in Secaucus, New Jersey on 1 July at 12:15 pm[29] Cataldi-Tassoni introduced the footage.

This was followed by a limited theatrical run in June courtesy of Myriad Pictures and a DVD release by The Weinstein Company via Dimension Extreme DVDs on 23 September 2008.

The website's critics consensus reads, "As excessive and ketchup laden as predecessors Suspiria and Inferno, Dario Argento's Mother of Tears completes the trilogy with the same baroque grandeur and soggy 1970s sensibilities.

Variety's Dennis Harvey wrote, "This hectic pileup of supernatural nonsense is a treasure trove of seemingly unintentional hilarity...this "Mother" is a cheesy, breathless future camp classic.

"[34] Jim Ridley in The Village Voice felt the film was further evidence of the declining quality of a once great director's abilities, stating that "for people who revere the horror maestro's vital work—roughly the period between his debut, 1970's proto–De Palma giallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and his 1990 segment of the anthology film Two Evil Eyes — it's painful to watch the Hieronymus Bosch of '70s horror sink this low...If you believe someone of Dario Argento's proven talent would make a movie so deliberately sucky, feel free to join in.

"[36] Writing in The New York Times, Nathan Lee described the film as "...silly, awkward, vulgar, outlandish, hysterical, inventive, revolting, flamboyant, titillating, ridiculous, mischievous, uproarious, cheap, priceless, tasteless and sublime...[I]t may be the most entertaining film of [Argento's] career...It's true that The Mother of Tears, strictly as visual storytelling, suffers by comparison with the first and second Mother movies, or one of Mr. Argento's better baroque thrillers, like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

"[38] Cinefantastique's Steve Biodrowski also felt the film was worthy of praise, noting that "the experience of watching Mother of Tears is like a delirious descent into primordial chaos, where the powers of darkness hold sway...As a long-awaited coda to Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy, [it] may not be exactly what was expected, but it is perfectly satisfying resolution...."[39] Argento has noted that he is dismissive of critical reaction, saying that "the critics don't understand very well.

[15] The music was influenced by his own work for Argento's Masters of Horror episodes ("Jenifer" and "Pelts") as well as composers such as Carl Orff, Jerry Goldsmith, and Bernard Herrmann (among others).

[15] The score also incorporates electronic music and influences from Simonetti's earlier work on Argento films, such as Suspiria and Phenomena.

[15] The piece at the end of Simonetti's "Mater Lachrimarum" is called "Dulcis in Fondo" and was performed by his heavy metal band, Daemonia.

[15] At the preview during the Cannes Film Festival, journalist Alan Jones described Simonetti's score as an "unqualified success".