It is clear
about halfway through Goodnight Mommy
that the Austrian horror film will make a perfect companion film to either
Michael Haneke’s Funny Games or Under the Skin, though the obviousness
of which would be more fitting depends on the effectiveness of the film’s red
herring on each viewer. Filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala lay out
clues to figure out the reality of the film’s narrative early on, but often
pairs them with enough evidence to counter with an alternate possibility. This
makes the film far less about a final twist and much more about the uncertainty
and doubt following the most likely answer to the central question.
The question
involves the identity of a mother (Susanne Wuest) arriving home to her
nine-year-old twin boys after having cosmetic surgery. With her face covered in
bandages and her behavior somewhat erratic, the two boys named Elias and Lukas
begin to notice changes in their mother that they find suspicious. Physical
alterations are enough to make them doubt the woman in bandages is their actual
mother, and a quiet battle begins between the young boys and the woman they
believe is an imposter.
What follows is
rather sparse in terms of plot, but makes up for it in amount of tension
expertly pulled from the premise. Goodnight
Mommy is more powerful because of the purposefully limited information
provided in the screenplay, allowing the audience to fill the gaps. It is also
not necessarily a film with a twist ending, but rather, a film that provides
hints early on and slowly increases them. Everyone will figure the film’s
inevitable ending out at some point, which almost makes the film increasingly
dreadful. Knowing what will happen does not make it any less horrifying, it
just increases the amount of dread brought with the anticipation.
To say much more
might influence a viewer’s experience with the film; I avoided watching the
film’s trailer for this reason. What I can say is that it leans more in the
direction of intelligent horror movies which have become increasingly popular
recently with the success of The Babadook
and, to a slightly lesser degree, It
Follows. At the same time, I feel obligated to provide a warning about
violence that was not needed with The
Babadook. While nowhere near as disgusting as many Hollywood
counterparts in the last 15 years, some of the images in Goodnight Mommy are truly nightmarish.
The Blu-ray
release of Goodnight Mommy also includes a conversation with the filmmakers as
the sole special feature. Franz and Fiala discuss the story and its inspiration
in this brief extra. The film itself provides the kind of rich visual spectacle
that comes alive in high definition, for better or worse. This is also the type
of movie that relies heavily upon soundtrack (mostly effects, with a minimally
intrusive score) in order to help establish the eerie mood, and that is
presented excellently in 5.1 DTS-HD.
Entertainment Value:
7.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8.5/10
Historical
Significance: 8/10
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