Review of Goodnight Mommy (2015) by Jack F — 13 Dec 2015

It's been a good time for horror movies.

On the heels of films like "The Conjuring," "The Babadook," and "It Follows" comes "Goodnight Mommy," a downright unnerving Austrian film that, like the other films mentioned, relies more on mood and atmosphere than shock and awe.

Oh there are some grisly moments, but it's easily the most subdued of this particular group of movies. Although there are traditional scary movie moments, "Goodnight Mommy" is really more of a psychological horror movie, examining how traumatic experiences can damage one's psyche, and oftentimes blurring the line between what's real and what's merely going on in the characters' heads.

Real life twins Elias and Lukas Schwarz play, fittingly, two 10-year-old brothers named Elias and Lukas. We're introduced to them doing normal kid stuff, playing hide-and-seek, swimming in a lake, daydreaming, etc. Lukas is clearly the bolder of the two, displaying far more "alpha male" traits than his milder sibling. As they're playing, a cab pulls up to their house and a lone passenger emerges. This is their mother (Susanne Wuest), who is returning from the hospital after receiving cosmetic surgery. As such, her head is completely wrapped in bandages, with only her shriveled, shrunken eyes visible to the boys.

Elias and Lukas immediately begin to suspect that something is not right. Mother seems a little...off. She's short with them, imposes strange new rules, and forbids them from disturbing her while she is sleeping. Indeed, while watching old home movies, it appears to the audience as well that the boys are onto something. Personality-wise, the bandaged specter currently residing with them seems to be a completely different person.

Could it actually be someone else?

This is the question the twins wrangle with. But "Goodnight Mommy" isn't as cut-and-dry as that. It's made pretty clear right away that the boys have their own psychological issues, which leads the audience to question just how much of what we're seeing is actually true. It's one of the great strengths of the film that it manages to keep much of the proceedings rather ambiguous. For instance, what exactly happened to make their mother require surgery? Was anybody watching them while this was going on? There are implied answers, but never anything direct, and the film works better because of it.

Visually, "Goodnight Mommy" gets a lot of mileage out of Mother's mummified visage. It's remarkable how unsettling her appearance makes her look, even when doing such mundane things as cleaning a house or closing the blinds on a window. Suanne Wuest moves about with kind of an ungainly lurch, at times giving the movie a sort of dream-like feel. Given the apparent mental problems of the characters, it wouldn't surprise me if the whole film was shot to come off as one long nightmare.

Eventually, the movie takes a turn that appears to answer its biggest question, but again, it's hard to be 100% sure of what you're seeing. From whose point-of-view are we witnessing this, the boys' or the mother's? And for that matter, are any of them reliable?

"Goodnight Mommy" is a quiet, creepy little film, the kind that gets under your skin. It doesn't reach the heights of "The Babadook," as I found that Australian gem to be an almost perfect blend of traditional and psychological horror. "Goodnight Mommy" isn't as refined. But it's still effective in its own way. If you're looking for a little depth to go along with your horror, Mother, Elias and Lukas will fulfill that desire perfectly.