Movie Review: Goodnight Mommy

Based on the 2015 Austrian horror film of the same name from writers/directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, Matt Sobel’s remake of Goodnight Mommy, starring Naomi Watts falls very much in the column of why bother when weighing the benefits of an English-speaking version versus a craftier, often scarier incarnation. 

In the opening frames of the film, twin brothers Elias (Cameron Crovetti) and Lucas (Nicholas Crovetti) are dropped off by their father to spend some time with their mother (Watts) at her country home. Almost immediately, the pair sense that something is amiss with mom and, as they watch the bandaged woman purporting to be their mother, the twins begin to suspect that something sinister has happened to their actual mother, possibly even involving this obvious imposter. 

Even the appearance of local law enforcement, in the guise of Officers Sandy (Crystal Lucas-Perry) and Gary (Jeremy Bobb), does little to calm the boys’ increasing anxiety and unease over their purported mother’s seemingly erratic behavior. This inevitably leads the twins to formulate a plan to get to the bottom of their missing mother once and for all, whatever the consequences. 

While the mood and atmosphere of the film remains sufficiently creepy to justify the horror moniker, there exists little in the way of drama or suspense once the so-called crux of the story starts to unfold. It is one of those films that may reveal its intentions to you far earlier than it wanted to or should have, and it suffers enormously for it. 

Director Matt Sobel – whose earlier Take Me to the River (2015), displayed far more promise than his latest film – does little to make the updated Goodnight Mommy his own. Instead, Kyle Warren’s script relies more on jump cuts and sound cues to invoke scares than anything more tangible before descending into a somewhat confusing game of cat-and-mouse that ultimately tries to deliver a “gotcha” reveal that many will probably have guessed already. 

Naomi Watts in “Goodnight Mommy.” Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video. Copyright: © 2022 Amazon Content Services LLC.

While there are elements within Goodnight Mommy that might mislead one into crediting it with more than it is due – Watts does an admirable job with the role of the mother straddling reality and the macabre, but there is little she can do to save something that deteriorates as quickly into a clunky horror film as Goodnight Mommy ultimately becomes.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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