Review of mother! (2017) by Keenan S — 01 Jun 2018

Imagine a strange hybrid of a film that combines Rosemary's Baby with A Delicate Balance with biblical metaphors and commentaries about environmentalism, politics, and the state of the world. Then, imagine someone trying to mash all these ideas together while in the throes of a weeks long drug binge.

That is what Mother! is. The horror genre has experienced a beautiful resurgence since the later part of the last decade, churning out wonderful homages (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers), elegant and classical (The Witch, The Babadook), brilliant commentaries (It Follows, Get Out), really fucking weird (The Killing of a Sacred Deer), and more so.

Mother!,unlike many of those other films, however, was given a wide theatrical release and boasted an impressive $30 million budget. What makes this so odd is that Mother! is basically a big budget art house film given a wide release (This is the kind of film I would have expected from the New Hollywood era in the 70's - not in the modern era).

As such, Mother! is a bitterly divisive film with some hailing it as a masterpiece while others think it's one of the worst films ever made. I can definitely see why people hate it and it's not an easy recommendation (If you're curious to watch it, be sure to rent it).

That being said, I found Mother! to be a hypnotic, fascinating, and compelling horror film. It doesn't always work given how many themes and ideas it crams into its utterly bizarre story (At one point, a baby is killed and eaten.

This is only a tip of its many moments of insanity). It kind of reminds me of a horror equivalent to 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) - interesting, thought-provoking, but it also has its head up its ass.

The plot involves a May-December married couple who live in a beautiful house. The husband is a poet struggling with writer's block and rebuilding his life after a fire destroyed almost everything he owned, while the wife is a happy homemaker constantly tweaking and improving the house.

However, things get strange when mysterious people start showing up and disrupting their tranquil existence. What makes this even more odd is how the husband allows these people to come over and stay.

As more odd characters disrupt their marriage, the wife starts going insane and experiencing strange visions about the house. That right there is the simplistic summary of the plot, because otherwise, you're thrown headfirst into the maw of madness that will leave you disoriented and confused.

It's a fever dream of a horror film, but one that always kept me engaged and wanting to know what was going on. I enjoyed Mother!, warts and all, and appreciate its unique qualities in an age where so many films simply coat tail one another.

We need more daring and original ideas in our films. Maybe in twenty years Mother! will get the appreciation it deserves.