Arthouse horror had a banner year in 2014, as three particular films, each dealing with either copulation or procreation, firmly entrenched elevated horror into the film criticism lexicon. While the unshakable menace of It Follows served as a metaphor for sexually-transmitted disease, and as motherhood degenerated into something monstrous in The Babadook, the austere and unsettling Austrian psychological horror film Goodnight Mommy directly pits mother against offspring.
Dread spawned from the overwhelming sense that someone is not who they appear to be makes for compelling drama, and perhaps even better horror. Films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Stepford Wives, and They Live may focus on vast conspiracies at a societal level, and The Thing achieves this on a microcosmic scale, but this theme of someone being replaced by an imposter can be even more uncanny within the confines of the family unit. Throw in some heavy bandages concealing facial alterations that add physical changes to perceived behavioral ones, and, especially through the eyes of a child, there’s significant cause for alarm.
Such is the scenario faced by twin brothers Elias and Lukas (Elias and Lukas Schwarz) when their single mother (Susanne Wuest) interacts with and often chides them, all while her face shows heavy bruising through openings in mummy-like gauze following cosmetic surgery. The twins’ mother is particularly cruel to Lukas, refusing to even acknowledge him and instead speaking only to Elias. She won’t even make the kid supper. When Elias asks why she treats Lukas that way, she simply gives that most frustrating of parental responses: “You know why.”
The boys have masks of their own—homemade tribal masks that, splashed with green and red paint, contrast the clinical white bandages which enshroud their mother’s face. As the situation grows increasingly sinister, these masks also call to mind any number of slasher villains in a film that creeps along slowly and quietly before erupting into brutal violence that would be sadistic if it wasn’t so earnestly administered.
Mother—how many horror films have such a villain?—certainly seems cold and heartless. In addition to ignoring Lukas, she metes out physical punishment on Elias for even listening to his brother. This creates a strange atmosphere where one boy begins to lurk in the shadows, increasingly talking to his twin as though he’s perched on a shoulder while holding a red pitchfork.
There’s something unnerving about these boys, who we first see running through cornfields, drifting along the surface of a placid lake and giggling through a burping contest in the family’s palatial estate. First, they suspect, and then directly accuse, their mother of being an imposter. They seem to have reason to think so. After all, the twins do find an old photo of a similar-looking woman wearing identical clothes to their mom, and eventually, once her bandages come off, the boys do discover that a familiar birthmark is now simply penciled onto her cheek.
As the twins bind their mother to her bed with the very bandages that they so distrusted, Goodnight Mommy teeters over into third-act frenzy. The mother’s slow realization that she’s at the complete mercy of unhinged sons who don’t even believe she’s really their mom is the stuff of nightmares. It gets worse from there, as a close call with loose tape placed over her mouth when a few door-to-door Red Cross workers make their way inside the house leads to the boys supergluing mom’s mouth shut. Realizing she won’t be able to eat or drink, the boys unsteadily deploy a small, sharp scissors in a scene not for the squeamish. It’s also a harrowing reminder of childhood impulsiveness without full comprehension of the consequences, making the mother’s predicament all the more frightening as her aggressors can’t be reasoned with.
And now we come to the spoilers, as this film relies so heavily on its third act twist that it’s difficult to see how the forthcoming English-language remake—starring Naomi Watts (who else?) in the mother role—could possibly be of interest to anyone who’s seen the Austrian original. As the mother’s predicament grows increasingly dire, it’s revealed that Lukas died in an opening scene where Elias called out to him while floating on the lake and was met with only a surfacing swell of bubbles. In retrospect, the twist is rather obvious, making a revisit of the film notably less impactful. No wonder mother doesn’t speak to or feed Lukas, because he’s not really there. Traumatized and ultimately murderous, Elias suffers from dissociative disorder that keeps his brother alive solely in his mind. Couple that with a Capras delusion—a condition in which familiar people are perceived as imposters—and the table is set for Elias to end up burning his mother alive.
Writer-director duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala would go on to follow up Goodnight Mommy with 2019’s The Lodge, which involves snowbound children psychologically tormenting their father’s fiancé (who is a death cult survivor) some span of time after their mother committed suicide. Mothers—biological or figurative―don’t fare well in these movies. It’s worth mentioning at this point that Franz and Fiala are an uncommon aunt-nephew filmmaking team. Family reunions must be a hoot.
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