Goodnight Mommy Trailer Is A Genuine Creepfest

By Jeffery X Martin

Major American studios have proven they have no desire to make decent horror movies anymore. It’s all superheroes around here, buddy, and if you haven’t jumped on that bandwagon, then it’s Pixels for you.

The independent filmmakers are doing it, and if you want to get your creepy on, you’ve got to head towards video on demand or films from foreign shores. The Scots are having an amazing run of horror right now, and much has already been made of the French New Wave of horror. That might be over now; the American remake of Martyrs may be enough to cash that particular bowl.

Right now, there’s strong buzz around the trailer for the Austrian horror film Goodnight Mommy, and it makes sense. If there’s one thing that crosses cultural lines, it is humanity’s inherent fear of Creepy Kids. Make those kids twins, and the fear factor gets ramped up exponentially.

These Creepy Kids live with their mother, who has just returned home from having plastic surgery on her face. She’s bandaged up, and the children start to believe she’s not the same person under all that gauze. What we get after that is a nightmare of fire and hissing cockroaches, a bizarre mash-up of Under the Skin and The Reflecting Skin (I guess it’s a skin flick). Stark trees and straight lines give the scenes an austere, almost antiseptic feel. It’s almost too clean to be scary, which is where some of the best horror takes place.

It’s always worth it to remember that the trailer is not the film. We’ve all been burned by great previews for crappy movies. But this trailer does show a keen directorial eye from Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. The composition is flawless, the colors stark. Americans might categorize it as “arthouse” horror, but even in the trailer, there’s a strong undercurrent of ickiness that most horror fans are going to want to check out.

Or you can wait until the American remake, which will inevitably come. It will have similar scenes, a few shots lifted wholesale, but the actual scariness will be watered down and the radio friendly alt-rock soundtrack will move hundreds of thousands of units. This all seems like a waste of time. All this movie really needs is a major American studio push.

It seems like the thing American moviegoers are the most afraid of is subtitles.

Goodnight Mommy opens in theaters on September 11.