Review of Goodnight Mommy (2015) by Griffin J — 02 Apr 2016

Goodnight Mommy is an Austrian horror film that centers around two twins named Lukas and Elias who are growing suspicious of their mother, recovered after a recent accident. She starts to not recognize certain aspects of her own life, and even seems to willingly ignore one of her own sons. After enough mysterious behavior, the twins begin plotting against her.

The film is no doubt creepy through out, with excellent shots of horror that manage to linger for just long enough to achieve that scary atmosphere. The soundtrack also highly contributes to the film's consistent murky tone, and the story never gets stale despite taking place in one house. However, compared to other horror films that mostly take place with a family in one house (The Babadook, The Conjuring, Poltergeist, The Shining), the issue with the narrative is that there aren't really any characters to root for, which lessens the impact the movie is trying to achieve. The mother consistently acts out of place, and never really answers her sons when they ask her what is going on, and the boys by the final act are just... well... little psychos. Where other horror films would make you cringe when traumatic events happen to characters with whom you have been following closely, here, a lot of the character motivations and certain plot elements are left completely ambiguous.

It also doesn't help that the side characters all feel extremely out of place, almost like they live on a different planet than the one our three main characters do. Maybe that is intentional to show how damaged this family is, but it does create a slow and uninteresting second act.

However, the ending is excellent, with a twist that you may or may not see coming, with only a small visual clue that had half of my theater arguing over during the credits. It isn't the most original or terrifying horror film, but it is certainly one of the year's best. Considering this movie's success, and the high quality of It Follows, The Babadook, and The Cabin in the Woods I would venture to say we are on a pretty nice streak of horror films recently! Hopefully it lasts.