Film

FILM REVIEW: Goodnight Mommy

'Tis the season for some psychological art-house horror

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With Halloween approaching, it's only be appropriate to steer yourself into the clutches of the German psychological art-house horror film Goodnight Mommy, now playing at the Cable Car Cinema. With an atmosphere that’s anxiety inducing and filled with a slow-burning dread that only a mother could love, this one is guaranteed to have you squirming in your seat alongside the rest of the gasping audience in attendance looking for a frightful time at the movies.

The film follows twin brothers Elias and Lukas, two young children who live their lives inseparable of each other in a picturesque modern home with their mother. The two boys are clearly explorers from the get go and life for them is complete fun and games. What kind of tension could there be you might ask? The fact that their mother returns home with bandages wrapped around her face after having endured facial reconstructive surgery (which seemingly pays homage to a particular character in the 80s horror film, Hellbound: Hellraiser II). To the boys, their mother isn’t the same person that they know and from then on, the film delves into an existentialist search for identity as well as issues of abandonment. If you’re into heavier and tragic thematic horror displays, then this will be the one to scream for.

It’s best to go into this film as blind as possible as I did; not even a glimpse of the trailer should be allowed. This certainly allows the film to tear into your psyche and reveal itself as it becomes uglier and even borderline nihilistic. Seeing the film on its opening night with a large audience in the very personal auditorium of the Cable Car was an experience in and of itself as the bleak atmosphere, gray color palette and tonal quality of the score truly tortures the viewer. This is truly the only way to experience the scope of the horror on screen.

Playing all next week at the Cable Car, see Goodnight Mommy as it should be seen: in the dark and filled with the most unassuming of spectators. You’ll be sure to chew your nails off as my friends and I nearly did.

Goodnight Mommy
German w/ English subtitles, written and directed by Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz
Rated R, 99 mins.

can;e car, goodnight mommy, horror, film review, Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz

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