Claiming that she made a surgery on her face, a mysterious woman, impersonates the personality of a single mother with twins sons, Lucas and Elias, who notice that this woman is not their own kind mother, so they do their best, in order to save their mother and fire that woman out of their home.
With minimal resources, writer/directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz have crafted an insidious chiller, drawing measured performances from real-life twins Lukas and Elias Schwarz.
Beneath it all is the nagging and heartbreaking feeling that these boys have lost their protector. That vulnerability-combined with their isolation, their confusion-can be harder to stomach than some of the more graphic scenes.
Goodnight Mommy employs similar psychological tactics found in film noir and the gothic by arousing the same cultural moods of paranoia and mistrust, which have resulted from a disruption to a seemingly, civilized ideal.
The tension in Goodnight Mommy owes everything to our not knowing who to trust. Things don't always need to come rushing out of the darkness to be frightening.
