52 Films By Women 2016: Film 5

The problem with aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes is that when a film is going to be as polarising as this it gets an average score. And the trouble with an average score is you assume the film is average.

Goodnight Mommy is an incredible film. The premise is simple: two young boys live with their mum who has been in an accident. Her face is covered in a mask and this causes the boys to start to believe that she is not their mother and they decide to take action.

It's very arty. Very bleak. Very nasty. I can see why some people didn't like it - it's very slow and the nasty stuff is relatively close to the end and doesn't go on for as long as gorehounds may want. For me though, it's a perfect little film and sits well amongst the recent crop of excellent new horror that we've had of late (like Starry Eyed, It Follows, etc). I was thrown by how sadistic it was - a few years back when I was into my Martyrs, Kill List, Eden Lake type stuff this would have slotted right in but it's been awhile since I watched any of them and it really shook me.

For cat lovers a minor warning - there is a cat and it dies. That was hard to take as my 11 week old kitten was at the emergency vets when I watched it. My kitty (Squeezy McTufty) is back and all well again. Yay.