Reviews: Goodnight Mommy (2014) Movie Review
Subgenres: Psychological, Thriller, Dysfunctional Family, Isolation, Madness, Medical
This in-depth review of Goodnight Mommy (2014) explores its story, characters, and scares in detail, offering insights for every horror fan.
Goodnight Mommy (2014) is a German drama fantasy horror movie that had a very misleading trailer. The movie is nothing like what the trailer perceive it to be and not scary at all. First time full length director and co-writer Severin Fiala did an incredible job pairing up with director and co-writer Veronika Franz (Dog Days (2001), Paradise: Love (2012), Paradise: Faith (2012)). It the first time Severin and Veronika worked together, and I hope they continue working together because their talents combined is amazing. The scares in this movie are something that I will not call a scary moment or define it as that. The scares are more like a minor fright or seeing a shadowy figure and brush it off thinking that it is your mind playing tricks on you.
Goodnight Mommy revolves around an actress mother and her young twin sons living in a countryside home. The boys spend the majority of their time playing together because there is nothing else to do at that age, and there is no one else. I felt sad and empathy for the mother, Die Mutter (Susanne Wuest - Judas Goat (2014), Antares (2004), Thank You Mr. President (2009)) when I saw her face. She is not recognizable because she has recently undergone surgery, and her face is all bandaged up. The twin boys, Elias, and Lukas are determined that the person that returned from surgery is not their mother. What will Elias (Elias Schwarz) and Lukas (Lukas Schwarz) do? The relationship between everyone changed and acted as though their mother is a complete stranger. The violence and gore start unraveling from this point on in the movie.
I recommend all viewers to see Goodnight Mommy at least once because it is a must-see. I like that the mother was only shown in her bandages, and the directors left every image of her to the audience imaginations. What will you think of the mother or is it really the mother? I also applaud the directors for putting a few minutes of comedy relief in the movie toward the end when we see the Red Cross. The film changed direction in the second half, but I still enjoyed it. I was in total awe when I saw the kind of violence they were doing to each other, unbelievable but worth seeing. I must say, the movie is gory but not scary and might even be a little creepy at times. There is no jump scares and spine chilling moments. I did not like that I guessed every one of the twists and some parts of the movie were very predictable. I gave this movie a six because I wish the directors would have explained a little more of the story. Why would a mother leave two young boys in a house in the middle of nowhere for what I assume more than one day to undergo a surgery? The directors should also have gave us a little backstory to the characters so that the viewers could have understood them and connected with them.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Goodnight Mommy Rating Scores
- Our Score: 6/10
- Overall Score: 7.15/10
- IMDB: 6.7/10
- MetaCritic: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.5/10
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