There are no jump scares nor is there a reliance on many of the traits that are often overused in a horror movie, yet “Goodnight Mommy” is one of the most frightening, most gut-wrenching films I’ve ever seen.
We are introduced almost immediately to the film’s central conflict: two young, identical twin boys return to their modern but secluded house after a day spent playing outdoors to find their mother with her face covered in bruises and swathed in gauze and bandages. It is clear that she has had facial reconstruction or plastic surgery of some kind. What is not clear to the twins however is whether the bandaged woman living in their house is actually their mother or an imposter.
As we have no background on this family, we are forced to place our faith in these twin boys as they wrestle with the option of trusting this woman as being who she says she is and plotting to uncover her true identity. At times, their “mother” seems to satisfy their inquires about her true identity. After all, underneath the bandages, she does resemble the woman in the family pictures. Yet the boys’ mother does little to earn their trust as she frequently loses her temper, locks her boys in their room and physically abuses them when they misbehave, all actions that the twins agree their real mother would never do.
As both boys and mother evolve throughout the course of the film, it becomes increasingly difficult to decide which characters our allegiances lie with. The final traumatic moments in which the twins tie their “mother” to her bed, char her skin with sunlight refracted through a magnifying glass and glue her mouth shut while they prod her with questions as to the location of their real mother, had me unsure of whom to sympathize with. On one hand, we have rooted for these boys up until this point, but at the same time, to see them torture this woman so maliciously, no matter how little we trust her, is still a difficult pill to swallow.
There seems to be symbolic imagery of death and decay scattered everywhere throughout the film. For instance, one of the boys’ hobbies includes breeding cockroaches in a tank. Later, the boys find an injured cat, in a tomb of all places, which mysteriously dies shortly after. But the real question is, do all these images serve as symbols for physical death, as echoed in the mother’s plastic surgery, or something much darker and less tangible like mental death and decay?
“Goodnight Mommy” serves a purpose other than to shock and horrify. It is a thoughtful social allegory that explores the traditional family structure and wrestles with themes of betrayal, trust and the relationship between mental and physical reality.
The film was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language category at this year’s Oscars. Don’t let the fact that this is a foreign film with subtitles discourage you from seeing it. Co-directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, “Goodnight Mommy” is a film that will take whatever preconceived expectations you had, wrench them apart and burn them at your feet. Not recommended for the squeamish.
