Goodnight Mommy

by Addison Hemingway 

Photo: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Matt Sobel 
Starring: Naomi Watts, Cameron Crovetti & Nicholas Crovetti 
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour & 32 minutes  

In 2014, Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz co-directed the twisted and terrifying horror film, "Goodnight Mommy. This Austrian film falls, rightfully into the psychological horror category for its cringy gore, dreadful suspense and mind-bending plot twists. This grim story explores the plot of two young twin boys, reunited with their mother after a mysterious accident and her subsequent complete facial reconstruction surgery. As the situation becomes even more unusual, the boys are confronted with the eerie possibility that the mother they returned to is an imposter. The film was so successful in creeping out audiences, it was given the opportunity for an American remake that premiered in September.
           
The 2022 remake of "Goodnight Mommy" was written by Kyle Warren and directed by Matt Sobel. This film examines a brutal family trauma through the dark, enigmatic lens of a 9-year-old boy struggling with the terrifying, universal anxiety- that the person you trust most, isn't who they say they are. What made the original film so terrifying was the powerful dread and suspense curated by witnessing all the events that unfolded through the distorted imagination of the young twins. This crippling anxiety along with grotesque visuals is sure to make one's skin crawl.
           
However, to draw an audience for the lesser-known foreign horror flick, Naomi Watts was cast in the role of the mother. While casting an Academy Award-nominated actress certainly gained attention for the American remake; her role of a hideous figure shrouded in mystery was overshadowed by her professional popularity. Hollywood's fixation with beautiful women put Watts' character at the center of the movie. This diverged significantly from the original plot and caused the fear and suspicion we are supposed to have for the mother to dissipate throughout the movie. In a recent interview, Jordan Peele, one of the biggest names in horror today, expressed the importance of keeping the audience afraid of "the monster.” In the 1975 horror blockbuster, "Jaws", the shark doesn't make a visual appearance until one hour and 21 minutes into the two-hour movie. What was so brilliant about the original Austrian film was how frightened both the twins and the audience were of the mother until the very end. In the remake of "Goodnight Mommy," we become too familiar with Watts’ character to develop any real fear of her.

Another significant way the new adaptation diverges from the original film was in its lack of squirm-worthy moments. The directors of the 2014 film knew that a truly terrifying horror movie must ignite all the senses. There are many ways to accomplish this- Fiala and Franz did so with tanks of hissing cockroaches, long periods of ominous silence followed by jump scares, and an interrogation scene of Mommy that the new director possibly felt was too disturbing for an American audience. Sobel and Warren were too preoccupied with steering the direction of the plot that they didn't take the time to adequately creep the audience out.
           
The effort to suppress some of the darker themes of the film also extends to the resolution of the plot. To comfort the audience and end the movie in a way that many American movie fans would find satisfying, the remake tried to tie up any loose ends. In the original, the twins are never forced to confront their trauma and never become utterly convinced that the mother really is his mother. The lack of closure in the original might have been upsetting to some of the audience, but what is horror if not upsetting? This American remake would have been slightly more successful had the producers leaned into the audiences' discomfort over an open ending.
           
It's disappointing that an American remake of such an intensely frightening film could fall so short of its inspiration. Not to say the American remake of "Goodnight Mommy" isn't scary, but it is sorely lacking in the eerie suspense and stomach-churning action that made the original 2014 film such a chilling success.
 
“Goodnight Mommy” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The original is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi.