"She's So Different..."
As you may have gathered from my review of The Forest last week, the horror genre, a genre in which I am a huge advocate of in general, I believe, is in danger of being split straight down the middle in terms of mass marketing with a rather bleak possibility of future horror releases simply consisting of both highly publicised and widely released movies, those that rely on cheap jump scares and completely rip off previous examples, and then minimal releases, those that aren't afraid to convey societal conventions and bring something new to the genre, albeit being in danger of being left behind due to their lack of releases across the globe. Look at Bone Tomahawk a few weeks back, a film in which although had a rather star-studded cast, was ultimately impossible to locate within the major chains of cinemas even though I believe it can be regarded as arguably the best horror movie to be released in recent times. Unfortunately for Goodnight Mommy, this particular horror-chiller is a movie which falls undoubtedly into the latter category, a film which will not be widely seen or spoken about amongst the masses but serves a purpose in attempting to freak out those dedicated enough to search it out.
Being wary of not giving too much of the plot away, Goodnight Mommy, helmed by the directorial one-two of both Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, focuses on the lives of twin siblings Elias and Lukas who in the confines of their isolated lakeside house begin to wonder whether their mother after returning from facial cosmetic surgery is really who she says she is. Cue creepy bandaged-wrapped mother-dearest, taking cues from iconic horror movies such as the many incarnations of The Mummy and the undeniably creepy Eyes Without A Face, and unnerving imagery which had me covering my face for two scenes in particular, and you end up with a good old fashioned creep-fest, one which uses the understated notion of ambiguity to inject its' scares rather than the irritable screeches that have encompassed most horrors over the course of the past few years or so. If you are a lover of the genre and want something that really, really isn't The Forest, check out Goodnight Mommy and revel in its' skin-crawling creepiness, ending with a twist so 1990's, it can be seen as the love-child of both M. Night Shyamalan and David Fincher. Find it, see it, love it.
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