Dulces sueños, mamá

Twin boys move to a new home with their mother after she has face changing cosmetic surgery, but under her bandages is someone the children don't recognize.

If you enter in to this film after seeing the trailer, you might be disappointed or at least mislead. Whoever edited that thing make the music scarier, the action more intense, and that is just simply not what the film is about.

Instead, we get a slow burn that is on some levels a horror film, but on other levels a sad story that has far too much grounding in reality. The true scariness of the film is not the mask, as you might think from the trailer, but rather the interactions of a family that is unable to completely build trust.

I went into Goodnight Mommy without knowing anything about this movie except that it's around 100-minutes long and that I had 100 minutes to spare. And it ended up being a very decent and enjoyable movie.

Co-directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, Goodnight Mommy follows a very horror-esque approach to match its growingly eerie tone. The movie tells the story of a pair of twin brothers who suspect their mother who just underwent a face-altering Costmetic surgery, of being a doppleganger. With incidents that end up making the boys grow more and more suspicious, they eventually default to having no other choice but to protest their mother through growingly violent means.

The success of Goodnight Mommy is that it's written in a way that makes you sympathetic to why the boys feel and react the way they do, even though you know it's the adult who's in the right. You feel like the violence against her is justified and then you realize that from an objective point of view, there's no reason for us to be rooting for the twins.

It's enjoyable in a very engaging way, and even the twist ending (yes, it's a twist ending movie) landed effectively. The movie, from a technical standpoint, is beautiful... with the overall imagery and the isolating production design adding to the charm of the movie. There's nothing too brilliant about it, but there's nothing to compain about either. It was a decent way to spend the 100 minutes I had without any regrets.

Ich seh, Ich seh aka Goodnight Mommy's previews were all over the internet a few weeks back. Hailed as one of the creepiest trailers this season, it had turned enough heads with its visuals and characters alike. 'Creepy' was slapped all over the trailer and the fact that it was more an art-house movie than a commercial movie, intrigued me more. Had Sundance's The Witch trailer not released earlier this week I would still have stuck to Goodnight Mommy's disturbing trailer.

From the get go you'll know that Goodnight Mommy isn't your average horror movie. Rushing through the movie like any horror movie wouldn't do justice and you wouldn't get the gist of it. Goodnight Mommy counts on being more atmospheric than in-your-face. Along with its 3 leads, its eerily disturbing locales had a life of its own and contributes a lot to the unnerving factor of the movie. A look at the initial scenes with a house in the middle of nowhere and two 9 year old twins playing would make you think that there's something very off about everything that follows.

The plot is paper thin but ain't much straightforward. From the first scene itself you'll find yourself piecing the plot together like a jigsaw puzzle. It isn't brain teasing but it all ends when 'the hunter becomes the hunted' (I wont spoil that implication). Halfway through you'll be questioning the events happening in the movie at the same time your mind will be stern on what it has already grasped in the first half. The leads were terrific, be it the Elias & Lucas Schwarz Twins or the Susanne West's The Mother. The Twins' performance were natural and as naive and, may I say, 'mischievous' as any 9 old's could get while Susanne West's almost covered face could emote more than you can ever imagine.

The weaker points here are the story and the ending. While the trailer boasts like it could be the next best thing in horror genre it isn't so. Call it brilliant marketing, the trailer beckons you to label this as a horror masterpiece. And as they say "Don't judge a book by its cover", the same applies here. Pure horror fans will be disappointed here as there are a lot less scares compared to other movies.

Towards the end or possibly much earlier than that, you'll be able to figure out where its headed and it doesn't help that the ending was equivocal. Its a common horror trope to make the ending ambiguous and while works out well for commercial horror movies, the same just didn't work out here. You will be left with questions that's not pleasing to ponder through.

Goodnight Mommy will shock you, disgust you and rattle you at times, but it wont scare you…much. This movie deserves to be watched in patience and taken in with a pinch of salt. Goodnight Mommy revels in its atmospheric dread and a certain mystique that runs almost till the end. Considering its a movie coming from debutantes, Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz, its a commendable effort indeed. This isn't a bad horror movie, its just not what its advertised to be.

I love movies that try to be original and do something new, that's why Goodnight Mommy caught my interest right off the bat. It sets a very nice tone and had me excited to see a dark/stunning story unfold. Unfortunately this movie was mostly build up with a very mediocre third act.

It's obvious that this movie was going for an artsy feel but it's like they completely bailed on that about 70% through and that really ruined the whole film imo. Plus through the whole film I kept thinking "Man I really hope they aren't going to try and do that, because if they do this will just turn into a clichéd mess" and they absolutely do what I didn't want them to.

Goodnight Mommy is a decent effort, and I'm sure it will be praised by many people who are desperate for a good horror movie, but I find it hard to give in to the hype because this really just wasn't that great of a movie.

5/10

I ended up liking this movie more than I thought I was going to from what I was feeling about halfway through.

It started off as a spooky/creepy horror/thriller, then not a whole lot happened... then moved into body horror. If they had shaved off about 20 minutes of what was, to me, kinda superfluous filler... I think this would have been much more successful. I get building tension and being atmospheric however there were times it dragged a bit.

It was shot beautifully and the acting was good all around. The "twist" was so obvious from about ten minutes in that I feel like it must have been purposeful (?) and almost the director/writers basically saying "that's not the point", or that's what I hope at least because a twist it was not.

This is a really cool concept to take and do a full blown horror with. This almost felt a bit like "introductory horror". Regardless I still think it was successful for what it was and I would recommend as long as you are patient with slow burns.