Chad

clckworang

This one really caught me by surprise. I had been really wanting to see it, but all I knew about it was the basic concept: boys believe woman returning from surgery isn't their mother.

I had no idea that the film was going to go to the dark places it did. That kid was brutal. While I wouldn't necessarily call the movie graphic, it's one of the few this month to make me squirm. The super gluing of the lips and then the subsequent cutting of that glue was especially unnerving for me as was the magnifying glass scene.

I'm undecided on the ending. Looking back at the movie, there are a lot of little things that make more sense knowing one of the boys is dead, especially when she made the boy say he wouldn't talk to his brother, but I think I would have preferred a more straight ahead version of the story that didn't involve a dead kid twist. Plus, there are still some question marks as far as the mom goes. Why was she so violent and restrictive when she didn't seem to be prior? I guess that can be rationalized by an unreliable narrator or perhaps her reaction to the accident.

We never do learn more about that accident, do we? The surgery was just cosmetic, wasn't it? I guess I was thinking the mom might have waited to have the procedure until more time had passed since the accident and the son mentally recovered more, not that she could have predicted what happened.

All in all, I really liked the movie. It started a bit slow, but once it picked up steam, it completely sucked me in. I think it's also one that could use a second viewing.

clckworang

Just wanted to add that the more I think about the film, the more I remember all these little things that I let pass by me, like only making meals for one and the discussions about it. Now that I think back over things, I realize just how much information we were being told early in the film that I just didn't process correctly. And what's the perfect gift for a kid without someone to play catch? A boomerang. Yeah, I should have been paying more attention early in the film.

jacob_b

W...T...F...was that?!?!?! The first half and second half are completely different films. That kid is just down right nasty. I heard people picking up the twist early on but for some reason, especially after they found the picture of mom and I guess friend, I thought the picture was a twin and the mother may have been trying to just have one strong kid and ignore the other, kind of maybe how her life was brought up. The twist does make sense, but damn, curious how mom's answers never satisfies the boy and what the accident was.

Undeadcow

I loved the psychological elements to this movie and the oddball instance that this woman is not really his mother but it seems to be played more for shocks than any sort of logical narrative. If the 'twist' is predictable it's because we've seen it before. Some of the imagery is striking and it's wonderful that the twins add a hallucinatory quality to things because they look so similar and almost seem to imply two perspectives from the same individual. I think the film would have been a lot better if it just ended with the mother tied to the bed.

This movie makes me think of a dozen other similar movies, only those have less torture porn essence.

Spiderbite

They way I interpreted it was that there was an accident that killed the twin. The brother didn't let go. The Dad split and the mom, having a hard time with both issues went to get a face lift. She comes back to find that her psycho son thinks there was more to the surgery than there was.

The only props I can really give this film is the eerie feeling it gives throughout. The rest was very predictable fare. I guessed the twist before the mom even showed up just the way one twin kept calling the other's name and the other never answering or talking. It just seemed obvious from the start and the ending was just as predictable. I knew nothing about this movie going in and I am usually pretty slow on catching stuff like that.

Have we seen this movie before? Is it a remake of something else or is there an American movie with a similar plot? I just kept thinking the entire time that I had seen a movie almost exactly like this one plot-wise.

Even though the mom seemed at times cruel and distant, the torture was unjustifiably brutal. Baskin's grossness made sense due to the situation. The gross torture here seemed more to shock the viewer than really necessary for the story.

This movie is a slow burn with some nice atmosphere but it is nothing you haven't seen before if you watch horror regularly.

Why So Blu?

Such an underrated flick. Loved that the marketing, or what there was of it, didn't blow the ending. Also, the directors are hardcore celluloid fans. They insisted on shooting in 35mm as opposed to digital.

Trevor

Proud to say that the twist completely shocked me. Looking back, should have seen it coming, but I am usually good at turning off my brain and just getting immersed in the moment. It served me well here.

numbercrunch

i am embarrassed to say i didn't see the twist coming either. i thought we were going down the standard "mom's possessed" road

jacob_b

I didn't call the twist until about a minute or so before it was actually revealed. They did a really good job on giving a red herring.

TheBigDave

I was disappointed in this movie. The slow burn was interesting and I was hoping it would build to something good. Unfortunately, it just led to torture porn which I really dislike.

I'm surprised so many people fell for the twist. I saw it coming in the first couple minutes when the mother was serving breakfast. I thought it was pretty obvious throughout the movie. And I was hoping it was all a red herring and the eventual reveal would be something different.

rbrown498

This. I think that I figured out the twist about seven minutes in. I, too, was hoping that it was a tease, but no go.

As to Spiderbite's question, it has echoes of quite a few movies in it. The mom's bandages recall Eyes Without a Face; the bound-to-the-bed torture scenes are reminiscent of Misery; the whole "my sibling is dead but I refuse to believe it" comes from A Tale of Two Sisters and its American remake, The Uninvited (and kinda sorta The Other, too); and so on and so on. There's so much stealing from other films going on that I could easily imagine Rob Zombie having a hand in the screenplay, except that this is still basically a good movie.

And to give my take on clckworang's questions, I think that the the mother and Lukas (and perhaps Elias, too) were in a car accident that killed Lukas and messed up Mom's face really badly. I think that surgery was less cosmetic than reconstructive, especially in light of her having to draw her beauty mark back on after the surgery. What bothered me was, who was taking care of Elias before she came home? I didn't see any signs that anyone else (besides the frozen food guy) lived there or stopped by regularly.

I thought that it was a beautifully-shot film, and the magnifying glass and superglue scenes made me squirm, but like Spiderbite said, it seems designed mostly for people who haven't seen a lot of horror films.

ross_r

Well I always see stories on the news about some kid killing a parent. I always wondered what kind of nut job would do such a thing. The movie Goodnight Mommy presents a look in the mentally deranged mind of a kid that would do such a thing, and it captures pretty well the warped reason for doing it. This film does a good job of capturing the madness from the eyes of the mentally ill.

clckworang

I guess it all depends on how you go into watching a movie. Are you looking for a twist? Are you distracted? For me, I had a couple of friends who were talking during the beginning of the movie, so I was struggling to really pay attention. That's why things really started to come together for me after the movie ended, and I could think back on things without distraction. Plus, some movies you expect a twist and are really looking for what it could be. I wasn't expecting anything like that here. I don't know why, but I just wasn't.

WillieMLF

I was thinking Elias was staying with dad during moms convalescence in the hospital. My wife kept on mentioning that she assumed that Elias had ordered all the pizza, and he was just 'hanging' out at the house while mom had her brief outpatient procedure.

I thought it was really good during parts, and felt early on that one of the twins was dead (mom only took one shell). I wasn't sure if they were playing the guessing game for laughs, or the mother had really had been replaced.

What was the deal with all the bones? I really need to watch this one again, as I didn't have the time to soak it all in. Does anyone have this on blu?

jacob_b

Same expect the beginning kind of dragged a bit for me so I wasn't too drawn in. But I wasn't expecting a twist either.

I also don't see how some keep pointing to a car accident. There is just no mention at all about cars and she told her son it wasn't his fault, so he must have been blaming himself, thus a car wouldn't make sense.

I also got to go back to the part where they are playing that game where you write something on your head to see what the kids are doing.

Spiderbite

Kids blame themselves for all kinds of things that wouldn't necessarily be their felt.