Goodnight Mommy

After undergoing cosmetic facial surgery, a mother returns home to her modern, isolated lakeside house with her ten-year-old twin sons, Elias and Lukas. Her head is covered in bandages, with only her eyes and mouth visible. The twins are unnerved by their mother's appearance and are further taken aback when she begins to exhibit strange behavior. She pointedly ignores Lukas and appears to only acknowledge Elias in conversation. Though it is the middle of summer, the mother orders the twins to keep the blinds closed during the day, imposes a strict rule of silence inside the house, and only permits them to play outdoors. The mother also acts cruel and lashes out at Elias physically when he displays mischievous or disobedient acts, something the boys comment that their mother would never do.

The twins begin to suspect that the woman beneath the bandages is not their real mother. These doubts are confirmed when they find an old photograph of the mother with another unknown woman wearing identical clothes and bearing similar physical traits. Suspicious that the woman residing in their house is an impostor, the twins tie the woman to the bed and torture her to make her confess, sealing her mouth with tape to prevent her from screaming for help.

In the meantime, two employees of the Red Cross appear to collect donations. Although they initially await the return of the mother, they finally leave after Elias discreetly steals a large amount of cash from his mother's purse and offers it to him. Meanwhile, the woman removes the tape and calls for help, but is too late to attract the employees' attention. The twins seal her lips with Super Glue, but cut them back open with scissors when they realize she is unable to eat.

After she urinates in the bed, the twins briefly free the woman to let her use the restroom, allowing her to subdue them and escape. The twins, however, have set up a booby trap that knocks her unconscious. The woman awakens glued to the living room floor. Elias starts to set fire to the house to pressure her into telling them the truth, but she firmly insists that she is their real mother.

The mother then reveals that Lukas is dead, having passed away in an accident prior to the events of the movie; Elias has been hallucinating his presence. She tearfully insists to Elias that Lukas's death was not his fault and begs him to free her so they can both move on from the tragedy. Elias asks her what Lukas is doing, but she, unable to see the apparition of Lukas threatening to set fire to a curtain, cannot answer. Elias, believing his real mother would be able to see Lukas, grabs his arm and lights up the curtain. The mother burns to death before the firefighters arrive. The film ends with a ghostly shot of the mother reunited with her sons at a cornfield near their home.

• Susanne Wuest as Mother
• Elias Schwarz as Elias
• Lukas Schwarz as Lukas
• Hans Escher as Priester
• Elfriede Schatz as Rotkreuz Sammlerin
• Karl Purker as Rotkreuz Sammler
• Georg Deliovsky as Pizzalieferant
• Christian Steindl as Mesner
• Christian Schatz as Bauer
• Erwin Schmalzbauer as Akkordeongott

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|{{RT data|score}}|7.70|148|Dark, violent, and drenched in dread, Goodnight Mommy is perfect for extreme horror enthusiasts—or filmgoers who prefer to watch between splayed fingers.|ref=yes|access-date=October 31, 2024}} On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".{{cite web |url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/goodnight-mommy|title=Goodnight mommy |website=Metacritic |access-date=27 May 2018}}

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "this insidious tale of a mother-son bond gone haywire is squirm-inducing stuff. It has cult potential stamped all over it."{{Cite web |last=Rooney |first=David |date=2014-08-31 |title=‘Goodnight Mommy’ (‘Ich Seh Ich Seh’): Venice Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/goodnight-mommy-ich-seh-ich-729309/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}} Mark Kermode of The Observer gave the film 4/5 stars, calling it an "increasingly alarming chiller" and writing, "by the third act, you'll be hiding your face in wincing terror."{{Cite news |last=Kermode |first=Mark |date=2016-03-06 |title=Goodnight Mommy review – alarming Austrian chiller |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/06/goodnight-mommy-review-alarming-chiller |access-date=2024-10-30 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}} The A.V. Club's A.A. Dowd gave it a B+ grade, saying it "plays on the nerves with expert cruelty—so much so, actually, that by the time the film belatedly comes clean about the plot secret everyone has already guessed, you're too pummeled into submission to care."{{Cite web |last=Dowd |first=A.A. |date=September 10, 2015 |title=Guessing the twist won’t save you from the horrors of Goodnight Mommy |url=https://www.avclub.com/review/guessing-twist-wont-save-you-horrors-goodnight-mom-225022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912194039/https://www.avclub.com/review/guessing-twist-wont-save-you-horrors-goodnight-mom-225022 |archive-date=September 12, 2015 |access-date=October 31, 2024 |website=The A.V. Club}}

Peter Keough of The Boston Globe was more critical, writing, "There's enough here for several films, yet somehow it doesn't quite add up to one. Franz and Fiala are visionaries; all they need is a vision."{{Cite web |last=Keough |first=Peter |date=September 24, 2015 |title=‘Goodnight Mommy’ is a horror movie with style |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2015/09/24/goodnight-mommy-horror-movie-with-style/9obqvEzNPJA24SFIrutO0O/story.html |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Boston Globe |language=en-US}}

The National Board of Review named Goodnight Mommy one of the Top 5 Foreign Language Films of 2015.{{cite web|title= National Board of Review Announced 2015 Award Winners|url = http://www.nationalboardofreview.org/2015/12/national-board-of-review-announces-2015-award-winners/ |publisher = National Board of Review |access-date= 1 December 2015}}

• The Other, a psychological thriller with similar themes
• The Good Son, a psychological thriller with related themes
• A Tale of Two Sisters, a South Korean psychological horror-drama
• The Uninvited, American remake of A Tale of Two Sisters.
• List of submissions to the 88th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Austrian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

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{{Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala}}

{{Austrian submission for Academy Awards}}

{{Méliès d'Or}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodnight Mommy}}

Category:2014 films

Category:2014 horror thriller films

Category:2014 independent films

Category:2014 psychological thriller films

Category:2010s German-language films

Category:2010s psychological horror films

Category:Austrian horror thriller films

Category:Austrian independent films

Category:Horror films about child villains

Category:Films about dysfunctional families

Category:Films about mother–son relationships

Category:Films about twin brothers

Category:Fiction about matricide

Category:Films about plastic surgery