Goodnight Mommy

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Introduction by Caryn Coleman of The Future of Film is Female on Wednesday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m.!

“The dread of parental abandonment is trumped by the terror of menacing spawn in Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s exquisite, cerebral horror-thriller. Lukas and Elias are nine-year-old twins, alone with their fantastical playtime adventure-worlds in a countryside home, until their mother comes home from facial-reconstructive surgery. Or is she their mother? Her head entirely bandaged, and her personality radically changed, the boys begin to wonder what this stranger has done to their “real” mother. They set out to uncover the truth, by any means their childish minds can conjure.

As with most fairy tales, it turns out that children can imagine and endure things that cause more mature minds and bodies to wither from fear. Ultimately, this is a heartbreaking tale of love and loss wrapped in one of the scariest films of the decade.” -MoMA

Screening as part of Shadows of Change: Women and Horror in 2014, programmed by Caryn Coleman and co-presented by The Future of Film is Female

• Country Austria
• Language German with English Subtitles
• Year 2014
• Running Time 99 minutes
• Format DCP
• Director Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
• Cast Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz, Susanne Wuest
• Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.