Masked monsters are inherently scary. More than the mask, we fear the monster that hides behind it. In Goodnight Mommy, twin boys who have been away from their mother arrive home to discover that their mother’s face is completely hidden under bandages, showing only her eyes and her mouth. One boy wonders, “What do you think she looks like under there?” The other boy says, “I don’t think that’s our mother.”
The boys have good reason to be suspicious of the bandaged woman they believe replaced their mother. She behaves oddly and imposes new house rules: “No running, no shouting in the house.” She declares her bedroom and the barn off-limits. She rips apart a drawing made by one of the boys of their once-happy family. She dances in front of a mirror in the dark. She keeps secrets that the boys will do everything to reveal. They lock her up, tie her up, and yell “You aren’t our mother!” Ultimately, it is the alienation between mother and child that is the scariest thing about Goodnight Mommy, exploring what it is like when a mother who was once a protector has become a tormentor, a once familiar face you no longer recognize.
Goodnight Mommy is a remake of the critically acclaimed Austrian film of the same title, and director Matt Sobel promises a fresh take on the original. In an interview with People, Sobel says that the new film leans more towards the psychological thriller genre as opposed to horror.
"If I had to point to a key difference between the films, I'd say the original is more interested in tone and aesthetic, while our reimagining favors character and psychology.”
The focus on character explains the powerful casting of Naomi Watts in the titular role of mommy. Watts brought depth to her role as a journalist and mother in the remake of the horror classic The Ring. She is particularly memorable portraying mothers. She earned an Academy Award nomination for The Impossible and can be seen in the family drama Penguin Bloom. The twin boys are played by Nicholas and Cameron Crovetti who also play twins in the HBO series Big Little Lies. Nicholas can also be seen in the dark comedy superhero series The Boys.
When Is Goodnight Mommy’s Release Date?
Goodnight Mommy starts streaming worldwide on September 16, 2022.
Where Can You Watch Goodnight Mommy?
Goodnight Mommy will be available for streaming on Prime Video. A standalone Prime Video subscription in the US currently costs $8.99 per month or $108 per year. A 7-day free trial is available. Viewers outside the US can check the Prime Video website to find out their regional rates.
Watch Goodnight Mommy’s Official Trailer
The trailer begins with one of the boys running away from a burning barn, establishing that things will go from bad to worse for the characters of Goodnight Mommy. The trailer then goes back to the happy moment the twin boys arrive back in their home, their excitement turning quickly into dread when they see their mother’s head fully bandaged and her face unrecognizable. “I hate it that you have to see me like this, but it’s nothing to be afraid of,” their mommy says.
But there’s plenty to fear. Their mom imposes stifling new house rules and displays bizarre behavior, living pretty much in the dark and peeling off the skin of her big toe in one of the trailer’s creepiest scenes. Increasingly paranoid, one of the boys creeps up on his sleeping mom to peel her face mask off, only to get caught. Psychological terror escalates to physical violence as the boys barricade their mom in her room, later tying her down in bed. The trailer ominously ends with the mother saying, “You’ll learn to love me someday.”
What is Goodnight Mommy About?
The official synopsis released by Amazon Studios reads:
When twin brothers arrive home to find their mother’s demeanor altered and face covered in surgical bandages, they begin to suspect the woman beneath the gauze might not be their mother.
More Horror Movies To Watch Like Goodnight Mommy
Society has traditional expectations about parents and children: Mothers are loving, children are lovable, and their bond is natural and strong if not unbreakable. This is why the reverse is fodder for horror and stories where the monster is the mother or the child are among the scariest in the horror genre. What could be scarier than the monster who lives in your home? Here are some of the best horror movies to watch if you like Goodnight Mommy.
Orphan: First Kill: Affluent husband and wife Tricia (Julia Stiles) and Allen Allbright (Rossif Sutherland) are overjoyed when they are reunited with their missing adopted daughter Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) only to realize that the child they bring back to their home is an impostor. She is, in fact, a middle-aged serial killer masquerading as a little girl. Sounds like a standard set-up for murder and mayhem, except that Esther is not the only sociopath in that home.
Hereditary: Toni Collette plays Annie Graham, a diorama artist and troubled mother of a depressed teenager Peter (Alex Wolff), and a deeply weird daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) whose unnerving arts and crafts hobby also involve cutting the head off a dead bird. After Charlie is decapitated in a horrific car accident, Annie blames Peter who was driving and becomes unhinged when she learns that her children are being groomed as leaders of a cult devoted to a demon called Paimon.
The Omen: After their baby dies in childbirth, American diplomat Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) agrees to secretly replace their son with a baby boy whose mother died when he was born. Unaware that she is raising a changeling, Richard’s wife Katherine (Julia Stiles) struggles to care for the boy Damien who rejects her and uses his scooter to knock her off a balcony. Death seems to follow this little boy with a cold stare and a cruel smile. At Damien’s birthday party, his nanny jumps from the roof, hanging herself in full view of the guests. Damien, it turns out, is inhuman, born from a jackal, and unless killed, will grow up to become the future president and the harbinger of Armageddon.
The Babadook: An overworked single mother Amelia (Essie Davis) who is traumatized by the violent death of her husband finds it difficult to love her precocious son Sam (Noah Wiseman) who believes a wicked character in a book he found is real and lurking in their house. Already on the verge of nervous breakdown balancing work and the demands of a son whose behavioral problems get him kicked out of school, Amelia discovers that the monster in the book is trying to get her to kill her son.