31 January, 2016

2015 Films: #32. Goodnight Mommy


An On Demand purchase for the evening of Saturday 30 January 2016 in Chicago. This Austrian film received an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it seemed like a good horror choice. The picture is written and directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. A mother (Susanne Wuest) recuperates from plastic surgery in their isolated Austrian lake home (even in Europe, nothing good happens in an isolated home in the woods!) with her two sons (played eerily to perfection by Lukas Schwarz and Elias Schwarz). Elias and Lukas seem like any other 10 year old boys by swimming in the lake, exploring the woods and doing kid stuff. The only problem is that their mother seems a bit different. They start to feel that maybe, the person underneath the bandages isn't their mother.

As the film goes on, the twins become more convinced that they're living with an impostor. After she medicates herself, the twins tie her down to the bed and interrogate her. Despite her please, they don't believe her. The mother gets a chance to escape when she's ordered to change the sheets on the bed but she gets knocked unconscious by a trap that the twins set. When she awakes, she's bound to the floor and Elias interrogates her some more. The mother pleads for her life and promises to go back to the way it was but to no avail. There's a big reveal (if you're paying attention you can figure it out) and then things end badly.

This is a disturbing film. I mean, when it's creepy evil kids (regardless of nationality) things can get unsettling. Franz and Fiala keep it the story simple and use the countryside imagery to set the tone of isolation. If you're into creepy tension mounting horror films, then this is a must see. It's a really good film that's worth watching. Those twins are some twisted f*ckers.



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