Mother, May I?

In this movie, we follow a couple, Emmett (Kyle Gallner) and Anya (Holland Roden), as they visit Emmett's recently deceased mother's home. Soon, Anya begins to behave in a way eerily similar to Emmett's mother, who had abandoned him when he was a child, leading to a strained relationship. They originally came to the house to meet with a realtor and sell it, but with Anya's increasingly strange behavior, they now have something much more unsettling to deal with.

The premise had the potential to make for a decent movie, but the execution was dull and uninspired. The film focuses heavily on its characters, and both leads deliver solid performances. Kyle Gallner's involvement convinced me to watch this, as he is the male equivalent of a modern Scream Queen and usually chooses interesting roles. However, not even he could make this movie more engaging.

Labeled as a psychological horror, the film incorporates some psychological elements, but there is little to no actual horror. Instead, it consists mostly of dull conversations that escalate into arguments, leaving many unanswered questions. Even the final conclusion fails to captivate, making the 99-minute runtime feel like a waste. [3,8/10]

Mother, May I, or paraphrasing, Mother, Should I give this a go?

I think so yes, first of all, for our new male lead horror actor, Kyle Gallner, emphasis on male. A lot of new scream queens lately, which of course is a good thing, seeing people embracing this genre and becoming a symbol of it. But we do lack on the male part, we still rely heavily on Tony Todd, Lance Henrikssen, Robert Englund and so on.

But honestly if you remove Mr. Kyle from the equation, I have to say, Mother, May I is overall a little bland. I won't call it generic, it just doesn't offer as much as it promises, yet it does manage to hit some soft spots, just without a real echo to them.

So for a die hard horror fan, yes, for a one time view, this movie should be on your list, with the clarification that it is a psychological war here, with a little bit of mystery, but no horror, or tension or scares.

If this is what you're looking for, you might actually be pleasantly surprised, I hope. A movie in the type of Goodnight Mommy, The Lodge, or It Comes At Night.

Definitely no The Ritual sadly.

So all in all, another piece of the horror puzzle has been found, take it or leave it.

Cheers!

If you're looking to fashion a double feature, you could definitely pair this film with Run Rabbit Run.

Though, this film is neither as creepy, or well done as that film is.

One thing is for sure...they definitely share some thematic similarities.

With the wife taking on the characteristics of her husband's dead mother here; where the daughter takes on characteristics of her dead sister there.

And both focusing on the psychological toll it takes on the main characters- when they are forced to face a cognitive dissonance breakdown, when their understanding of the world falls apart.

The difference here being that we are looking at the effect it has on both parties, here.

With the mystery at the center of this film being much more confounding.

As two broken people use a shared traumatic experience to heal their underlying mental wounds.

While not a bad film, it doesn't quite live up to the mastery of Run Rabbit Run.

Which you can't help but compare it to (if you've recently watched both, like I have).

To be fair though, this one does have an air of darkly comedic undertones to it.

Despite it's sincerity.

Whereas Run Rabbit Run is a more pure psychological thriller.

Both films are great though!

So make a double feature out of it.

5.5 out of 10.

I rated this film a six because it is actually far above average considering what most movies today are. However I just couldn't bring myself to give it more than that because I couldn't get into it. I understand the basic premise behind the movie and what the director wanted; I just didn't really care for it in the end. You aren't exactly completely sure what is going on throughout the film but I think that is what they were going for. Letting the viewers decide for themselves if they think their take is correct or not. It just felt a bit too tedious to me. I think the film could have done more to bring the whole thing together more coherently and then it could appeal to a wider audience because of that. Overall I'm not pleased I watched it but I can't exactly call it bad, because it's not. It's just not my cup of tea.

Mother, May I is categorized as a horror/thriller. Just the mindset I was in tonight, a good, hopefully scary movie. Well it turned out to be a huge disappointment. It's not a horror movie at all, or I must have missed something, and even as a thriller it didn't do the job. Instead what you get is a boring story, very repetitive and at a slow pace. The acting fron the small cast was just okay, nothing mesmerizing at all. Writer/director Laurence Vannicelli didn't convince me at all. It for sure doesn't want me to watch other movies from Laurence Vannicelli. I really wonder why they would categorize this one as horror.