Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine year old twin brothers await their mother’s return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is.
Goodnight Mommy is an Austrian slow-burn horror with striking visual craft — the rural summer setting is rendered with an almost clinical, sun-bleached beauty by cinematographer Martin Gschlacht that gives the film much of its unsettling power. The two child leads deliver remarkably naturalistic and unnerving performances, and Susanne Wuest under bandages is genuinely disquieting. The plot builds dread effectively but leans heavily on a twist that, once telegraphed, drains some of its impact — and the final revelation, while emotionally resonant, has become a familiar genre beat. Novelty is present in its European art-horror sensibility and restrained pacing, though it shares DNA with other psychological chillers of its ilk. The ending is haunting in imagery but divisive in execution, leaning into ambiguity that some will find hollow rather than profound.