I suppose everyone has his or her limits when it comes to horror movies. Two of my most intimate friends draw the lines at burning bodies and vampires. I have been trying to pinpoint my own lately, and I think that last night I found it.
Goodnight Mommy is a fine film. It's brilliant technically, and it harnesses a special kind of dread I found intoxicating. Soon after their mother returns from cosmetic surgery with a bandaged face, twin brothers Elias and Lukas (played by real brothers with the same names) begin to suspect that her strange behavior belies a darker secret. As their suspicion evolves to outright fear, they take drastic measures to protect themselves and determine her true identity.
It's a cold, calculated film that takes nothing for granted and quickly gives in to its darker interests. The film is clean and bright, with distinct images and an almost sanitary feel. The house is bare and smooth, obviously owned by someone with wealth and style, and full of the niceties of urban life, though the house itself is isolated in the countryside. There is almost no score, which adds to the realism and the stark atmosphere of silence and dread. You might say it's a sophisticated thriller, one whose horror finds a niche in sharp modern decor (not unlike Ex Machina, remember?), and you wouldn't be wrong.
But it's also a particularly violent film, and for that reason I left it feeling deeply disturbed. Not unlike, I suppose, the horrors of Sinister or even Hard Candy, this movie does not shy away from its bloody violence and indeed toys with justifying itself. We have child endangerment, home invasion, mental illness, and body horror all wrapped up into one. I think that what specifically sends me over the edge is realistic torture, and -- Lo, and Behold -- that's in here too. I don't want to spoil anything, but the second half of the film was really hard for me to watch. Granted, I haven't seen the Saw sequels or the Hostel pictures, but this kind of violence is different for me than the splatter-tastic squeal-and-giggle gore of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd or the Evil Dead franchise. I can handle those. This is real, unflinching and vicious, and pure torturous torture. It hurts to watch; and then to have the relationship involved be mother-and-young-sons is almost too much for me to stomach.
Goodnight Mommy is anything but unpredictable, but even knowing the final reveal will do little to relieve the horrors we see leading up to it.
IMDb: Goodnight Mommy
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