Goodnight Mommy
[Palm Springs International Film Festival 2015 report]
Nine-year-old twins Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) come face to face–so to speak–with the tyranny of their mother (Susanne Wuest)–or is she?–newly home from plastic surgery, with her head wrapped in bandages. And then…oh god oh god oh god. This intense, macabre tale (in German, from Austria) falls somewhere between the Grande Dame Guignol of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the low torture porn of The Human Centipede; where that line falls for you, only you can decide. I only know that the von Trapp family, this isn’t. –YSM