Movie Review: Goodnight Mommy

credit: Goodnight Mommy

It’s interesting to see who can figure out the tricks that are placed in various movies and who needs every last bit of information they can get in order to figure it out. As a remake of a movie that was seen years ago, Goodnight Mommy is one of those movies that might not appeal to everyone but is still a story that is haunting in a way that makes one believe that what we think is real is right to be questioned. Mother is a former actress that’s been living on her own for a while, thereby remaining estranged from her twin sons Elias and Lukas. When the boys come to stay with her, they’re excited at first, but upon learning that there will be a long list of rules that they have to abide by, it’s not hard to imagine that they’ll soon find themselves in trouble since their mother needs a great deal of rest after getting cosmetic surgery, which forces her to wear a facemask that covers all but her eyes and her mouth. When the boys do run afoul of her rules, they find out that she’s not the kind, caring individual that they remember, as she’s distant and more than a little irritable, especially with Elias. She pays almost no attention to Lukas, which is odd. 

credit: Goodnight Mommy

The boys are well-adjusted and get along fine with each other, but Mother is kind of strange. 

Unless one has already seen the original movie, it’s tough to say how close they are and how far apart they lie in terms of content and storyline, but the truth is that the storyline is fairly close, with only a few real differences to be noted. Mother is fairly aloof throughout much of the movie and doesn’t pay much attention to her sons, apart from the time she takes to scold them now and then. She does try at times to be a good mother, but it’s almost as though she’s forgotten how and can’t be bothered to be reminded. Her inability to do much more than lie around and heal makes her appear to be kind of a negligent parent, making it easy to wonder why any father would bother leaving his kids with her, no matter that they might need time with their mother. 

Their attempt to simply survive with their mother becomes a type of horror story. 

This movie isn’t exceptionally scary, and it doesn’t feel as though it was intended to be, but apart from the dreams that Elias experiences, of his mother peeling off her skin to become something black-skinned and horrible, it isn’t much more than a bit of a thrill that comes from not knowing who one is dealing with. The truth is that a lot of different women could have resided under the facemask, and the boys’ suspicions weren’t completely unfounded since the fact is that Mother wasn’t acting like herself, and it’s fair to think that someone else might have moved in and done any number of things to her just to claim her opulent home. One has to admit that her private residence is something worth stealing, but the suspicion is what drives the story and keeps the twins willing to disobey as they attempt to find out the truth. 

credit: Goodnight Mommy

Mother’s reaction to her sons is a bit brutal.

When Elias dares to state that Mother isn’t who she says she is, the reaction he gets is kind of harsh since she yanks him out of bed and tosses him in the bathtub, where she then sprays him with cold water while telling him to state that she is his mother. If ever there were a reason to call Child Protective Services, this would be one of them, especially since Lukas can’t do anything to stop her. As the movie goes on, it becomes apparent that the boys don’t trust their mother and that Mother is slowly but surely coming unhinged. There appears to be a reason why she’s acting the way she is, but at the same time, it’s very easy to think that this would be terrifying for just about anyone, especially children. 

The twist at the end isn’t hard to reconcile. 

Much like many other stories that have used this element of surprise, it’s not hard to deal with the fact that Elias is delusional and that his twin, Lukas, has been dead and gone for some time. A firearm accident took Lukas’ life a while back, and Elias couldn’t take it, which means that he’s been seeing his brother as though he were alive ever since. Mother couldn’t handle this and, as a result, was tough on Elias and irritated with him constantly, as her own depression fed the problem and made her lash out. But in the end, when Elias has accidentally killed his mother by knocking her out of the loft in the nearby barn, he sees his mother and Lukas appear to him, thereby making it clear that his young mind is still fractured.