'Goodnight Mommy' mines filmmaker fears
A film about two kids whose mom comes home from major surgery and seems like someone else could be played for laughs, like yet another Home Alone. Instead Goodnight Mommy leans into the plot's more terrifying possibilities.
The horror film (out now on Blu-ray and DVD) is Austria's entry this year into the foreign-film category at the upcoming Academy Awards and on Tuesday was named one of the top five foreign movies of 2015 by the National Board of Review. In this exclusive interview clip, directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala discuss how the story of twin boys (Elias and Lukas Schwarz) and their reaction when their usually loving mother (Susanne Wuest) comes home with a bandaged face and a malevolent personality digs into a long history of movies digging into human fears.
"I just love to have nightmares, even as a kid," Fiala says. "I was totally happy after waking up from a nightmare and was shaking and confused because, well, I love the feeling of knowing it was a nightmare and it had something to do with me."
He feels movies have a similar effect: "It’s a nightmare compressed into two hours. You can think about it, and it might follow you, but it is in a controlled environment."
Franz talks about how Pet Sematary creeps her out mightily but also explains that there are certain fears apparent in horror movies and feeling them is akin to overcoming barriers.
"I believe movies are supposed to reach people, break through to them," Franz says. "And I think fear is a great means to that, to bring down the façade or whatever we put up sometimes."