After a festival tour including Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New Directors/New Films and more, the Austrian horror feature Goodnight Mommy will finally be hitting U.S. theaters this fall. Coming from writing and directing duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, the story follows two nine-year-old twins Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) that have a cruel fascination with their bandage-wrapped mother (Susanne Wuest).
We said in our review, “The calculated stakes raise slowly and much can be said about the directors ability to create and maintain tension. The two twins are the stand-outs here, purveying a creepy indifference through much of the film and guiding us through this deeply unsettling journey. There is plenty for them to react to and yet it never seems to change their expression. Taking a nod from fellow Austrian Michael Haneke, Goodnight Mommy is one thriller that enjoys turning the knife that is your offspring.”
Check out the U.S. trailer and international poster below.
In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine year old twin brothers await their mother’s return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is. What ensues is a terrifying observational struggle with fatal consequences on par with THE SHINING and DEAD RINGERS.
Goodnight Mommy opens on September 11th.