Goodnight Mommy
If Mommy is really Mommy, why does she continue to approach her twins as if one of them is not there?
I can’t even give you an outline of the plot without giving the whole thing away. Let me simply say that Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’ Goodnight Mommy rivals Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) as the most psychologically chilling movie to ever appear on the big screen.
Nine-year old twin boys, Lukas and Elias, live in a country home in Germany. They are playing in a cornfield chasing each other when they rush back to their home as a car arrives. Entering the house is a woman with her head covered in bandages following facial surgery.
The woman (Susanne Wuest) claims to be their mother, but the boys begin to doubt her. They are unable to recognize her given her bandages, and why does she refuse to serve food to only one of the twins? The boys grow increasingly offended with the growing tensions in their home, and violence seems to be the only course of action to get “mommy” to admit her true identity.
What unfolds is similar to the discovery of Tony Perkins’ true identity in the above-referred to Psycho. To this very day I am thinking of him standing behind a shower curtain when staying in a hotel, and you simply will be left both numb and petrified when you see what takes place in this home.
The film is in German with English subtitles, and that provides a bit of relief when you are able to divert your eyes momentarily from the horror that unfolds in front of you. This is a clever, diabolical film that you are not likely to easily forget.
