Goodnight Mommy - B

Rated R, 99 minutes
In German with English subtitles

The 2014 Austrian horror film "Goodnight Mommy," nominated for the 2014 Oscar for Best Foreign Film, is one of the more chilling, disturbing horror films seen in awhile, relying on a slow-burn tension rather than blood and guts. The twisty ending is a tad anti-climactic in a M. Night Shyamalan sort of way, but it's still a treat for horror enthusiasts. It's the heat of the summer. A lonesome house in the Austrian countryside between woods and corn fields. Nine-year-old twin brothers Elias and Lukas (real twins Elias and Lukas Schwarz) are waiting for their mother (Suzanne Wuest). When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before. The children start to doubt that this woman is actually their mother. It emerges an existential struggle for identity and fundamental trust. Co-directed and co-written by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the tense, disquieting Austrian horror film "Goodnight Mommy" is worth a look, held together by its small cast. For some reason, horror films are often more chilling when kids are involved, and the charming Schwarz twins give among the most scary turn since Haley Joel Osment in Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense," just think of Haley Joel Osment times two (or Haley Joel Osment good cop and Haley Joel Osment bad cop). Wuest is also good as the unstable, though later, terrified mother; "Goodnight Mommy" seemingly works an intense three-person play that blurs the line between good and bad, and you're completely unsure until the ending of who's really good and who's bad and who just enjoys hanging around. One thing in particular that will make you squirm is those enormous roaches and bugs that the boys like to collect and place in the most unusual of places, not to mention a dead cat and some well-used super glue. Like many in this genre, the filmmakers have a penchant for that shocking plot twist that you should've seen coming all along, and it's one of "Goodnight Mommy's" few disappointments, but that chilling final shot of mother and sons will stay with you after you leave the theater.