The Disturbing Twist in 'Goodnight Mommy,' the Creepiest Horror Film You'll See All Year (Spoilers!)
(Warning: This post has many spoilers!)
Almost immediately after the credits began rolling at the end of the new horror film Goodnight Mommy, I bolted the theater and began some intensive research about the demographics and politics of Austria, the country which delivered this jet-black nightmare of a horror movie. I was convinced that perhaps there was an overpopulation problem in the European country, because the film seemed explicitly designed to discourage young people from ever wanting to have children.
Writer/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s movie — in theaters now and recently selected as Austria’s Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film — is a slow, quiet, and increasingly chilling portrait of familial discord, childhood confusion, and the mind-altering power of grief. We begin with vintage footage of a stiff blond family in traditional clothing (lederhosen for the boys, dresses for the girls) singing Brahms’ “Cradle Song,” a lullaby about the fact that you just may not wake up in the morning. That’s scary enough, and it’s compounded by a decidedly Aryan performance that could have been retrieved from Hitler’s personal video collection. Then the movie zooms to the present day, where two young twin boys (played by Elias and Lukas Schwarz, whose characters are also called Elias and Lukas) play in vast green fields that surround a large, isolated house.
Also Read: Let’s Talk About the Twist in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Visit’
Soon, their TV host mother (Susanna Wuest) arrives home from the hospital after some kind of surgery, her face wrapped in bandages and her personality just as bruised and unrecognizable. She sets down strict rules that put severe limits on the boys’ play time, explaining that she’ll need lots and lots of rest. It’s unclear who, if anyone, was watching these kids while she was away, but she’s certainly on her own now. We don’t actually know much of anything, since the film eschews upfront explanation for the very occasional moments of exposition, from which we learn that there was a recent divorce and car accident.
The Mother — she’s never named — has become a killjoy, and the boys are understandably scared; they’re mostly left to sit in their room, playing with a massive cockroach collection that will later feature in some of the movie’s most squirm-inducing scenes. Soon, the boys begin to suspect that perhaps the woman who came home to them isn’t actually their mother. There’s some circumstantial evidence — the disappearance of a facial mole, some sketchy photos — but no hard proof, except that this is a horror movie and there has to be some kind of twist.
And yep, there is indeed a twist. Just not the one the boys were expecting.
Lukas and Elias begin to get aggressive with their suspicions; first they try to go to the police, and when that fails, they hold the woman hostage and demand to know the truth. They subject her to torture, with a brutality that grows in proportion to their desperation. The truth they eventually receive is not the one they were looking for, though an audience member with a keen eye for detail and a fondness for The Sixth Sense may have seen it coming.
Let’s jump back to the first act, when the newly returned mother makes breakfast for just one of her young sons. Elias wants to know why they were left one meal short, but the still-healing mommy doesn’t want to entertain such a silly question. We’re left to think she’s tired, inattentive, or cruel, an impression that grows throughout the film. It’s almost impossible to tell the difference between the twins, which, along with the language barrier (the film uses subtitles) for non-German speaking audiences, further obscures the fact that only one of the twins ever speaks to the mother.
Also read: We Dare You to Watch This Scene From ‘Goodnight Mommy’
So, here’s the twist: The car accident that so damaged mommy’s face also killed Lukas, but Elias, young child that he is, just can’t accept such a horrible truth. He’s been talking with an imaginary version of his brother this entire time, colluding with a ghost to uncover a mystery that does not exist. His mother, desperate to be freed of her shackles and the increasingly brutal torture her young child is inflicting upon her, even agrees to begin playing along, to prepare a plate for an empty chair.
There’s no relief for Elias, who is by now entirely possessed by the past, which means doom for the mother, as well. Destruction brings no catharsis for an audience, either — especially not for parents of young children.
It’s not a total shocker, and the buildup can be tedious — Goodnight Mommy says more with its silences than its sparse script. But seeing these children become slowly unhinged is terrifying, and if anything, is a powerful argument for proper grief counseling and the value of a good babysitter. The real horror is in knowing that there’s no way to predict the future, or how unexpected tragedy can destroy a young mind… though a kid having a gigantic cockroach collection might be a decent indicator that there’s a good chance for trouble down the road.
Watch the trailer for ‘Goodnight Mommy’ below:
