GOODNIGHT MOMMY/ ICH SEH, ICH SEH

Austria, 2014, 99 minutes, Colour.
Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz, Susanne Wuest.
Directed by Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala.

Good night Mummy won a lot of awards at festivals, especially those with horror themes.

The film opens with a kind of Sound of Music group mother and children singing of Brahms lullaby on television, the mummy of the title as a television hostess.

The film makes a transition to a beautiful country home in beautiful surroundings, lovingly photographed. The woman’s two boys, twins, Lucas and Elias Schwarz, using their own Christian names, are shown playing together, the early part of the film establishing them as genial screen presences and delighting in a whole range of play. The mother, has had surgery, the audience not sure why, and her head is swathed in bandages. She seems capricious in her attitudes towards the twins, favouring one and ignoring the other. The twins spent a lot of time confronting her puzzling about her behaviour.

Matters then become more serious, the twins wanting to find out where their mother is – and beginning to torment the mother, eventually tying her up, touches of torture and interrogation. They go to see a priest who brings them back home, puzzled about their behaviour. Two elderly people collecting for the Salvation Army visit the house and receive a large donation.

But this prepares for the finale, a fire, the mother burning – and then the scene in the woods with mother and her two children which makes audiences realise that they have been watching variation on The Sixth Sense and The Others.

The real-life twins ensure that audience sympathies lie with them, audience curiosity wants to know what they want to know, suspicions of the mother who does mention the separation, but, eventually, it emerges that one of the twins was killed in a car accident… A ghost story.

1. The title, the tone, the mother and the choir singing Brahms’ lullaby? The domestic story, mother and two children, the separation, the surgery, the boys and their reaction? The film turning towards the touches of horror and torture at the end? The final twist?

2. The Austrian setting, the countryside, the forests, the lakes, the crops, the house, the interiors? The boys’ room? The mother’s room? Kitchen? The musical score?

3. The situation, the audience trying to understand what was happening about the mother and children? Her surgery, her face concealed, eyes visible? Her attitudes towards her children? Talking to one and not the other, the meal for one and not the other, confining her son? The discussions, the children saying she was not their mother? Her trying to cope? Night, listening for the boys, cleaning the house, in her bathroom, the bandages, putting them on again? The audience not sure about the mother?

4. The picture of the twins, their age, the detail scenes of their playing together, the 20 questions came and her not identified herself, the bond between the two, spirit of adventure, chases, prying into caves, testing out the hitting each other, depending on each other, interrogating their mother, the beatles, the dreams of her at night, stomach open with the beatles coming out?

5. Elias seeming favourite, his defending Lukas, the mother’s treatment of Lukas? Elias’ sharing with his brother, the drink the table, the play, their quest about their mother?

6. Going out, the sexton at the church, the priest, getting the lift, their wanting to go to the police, taking them home, the priest wondering what was happening? Their running into the house?

7. The Salvation Army couple, the collection, getting the money, giving them a huge donation?

8. Testing their mother, the sound machine in her room? The decision to tie her up, arms and legs, gagging her? The threats, the torture, her reaction? The colour of her eyes and the contact lenses? Her suffering, her mouth, their attempts to feed her?

9. Talk about the separation from the husband, accident, revelation that one of the boys died in a car crash which injured the mother?

10. Untying her, setting the fire, her being burnt?

11. In the forest, the mother with the two sons – and the film as a ghost story, twisting the perspective on the boys, presence and absence, for their mother?