The story of the archaeologist Norman, who came to a provincial Italian town to excavate an old cemetery. Along with him, a deaf-mute teenage daughter rolls up, which becomes bored with the news, and she decides to summon the spirit of her recently deceased mother. But instead of the spirit of the deceased matrena, the snot evokes something different from the other world. . .
Before us is an Italian Gothic horror film with a quite standard story for the genre. There are a couple of things that add to the ribbon: a deaf-mute daughter, unable to call for help when she sees something terrible; the “bishop’s ball”, which is an analogue of the Ouija board; linking the plot to a real earthquake in 1908.
The plot does not shine with originality, since the entire narrative is built on an established pattern. And even a couple of unexpected twerks look very simple, and do not cause the desire to jump up and applaud until the morning with your mouth open. The emphasis is made on the abundance of screamers and tense moments, which are sometimes quite cryp and creepy. And in general, the mechanism of “frighteners” in the picture for the most part works, but rather is designed for shy.
But the tape has a great Gothic atmosphere and locations in which the action takes place. This is an ancient mansion with carved architecture, huge chandeliers and stained glass windows, a detailed ancient cemetery, beautiful landscapes and panoramic plans, dusty archives and entourage ruins. Here perfectly fits the theme of mysticism, ghosts and other black devils, because even such a film with a secondary plot does not look bad and can cause interest.
The moral is this: do not allow your children to play with objects that can elicit spirits, or once you wake up in the morning, you can find in the kitchen a boulder drinking your coffee.
As a result, a horror film with a Gothic atmosphere, screeners, but a secondary plot.
Here in the Russian box office suddenly appears a number of European horror films of class “C”, including the Italian “Mother: Guest from the Dark” (after all, this is how “Cruel Peter”) from the directors of the notorious “Fairy”. What are we going to do this time?
What catches your eye in the first place? Sicily. Sicily is very beautiful. The cameraman Duccio Cimatti struggles to show his ability to beautifully shoot beautiful places. Thus, most of the images depicting Sicily, both nature and the urban environment, please the eye. And the footage, where everything is captured “to scale”, for example, the panorama of the city and the port, the hunt to put on a postcard – they are so good. Separately, I will note the cool change of colors in different parts of the film, carried out clearly on purpose.
If we talk about semantic content - then there is especially nowhere to walk. Unassuming, but cute, “lamp”, old-fashioned low-budget horror. The plot and the script do not pretend to be deep. If you accept the conventions of the type of strange, but characteristic of horror actions of the characters or their strange behavior (quickly they forget about the death of loved ones, by the way), it is quite watchable. Compliment is a way to scold - everyone is free to decide for himself depending on expectations.
If we distract from the inappropriate (due to the indistinct scenario) “family” hysterics of the heroes, we can see that the mysticism is shown well. Old-fashioned, simple, loving. Thanks, again, to the successful camera work, there are good screamers.
Actors. More like the negative side of the movie. Most of them are impossible to evaluate due to the unwritten characters. And the play of the leading actor Henry Dowthwaite did not like categorically.
Thus, "Mother ..." leaves an ambiguous impression. If you are a lover of the horror genre and are looking for a nice picture, then I recommend the film to watch. Otherwise, I am not ready to recommend it.
When I first watched the trailer, I was impressed, and did not even argue with friends, what we will go. No reason.
Let's start at the beginning. The corpses of the animals in the screensaver make it clear that Peteter is not one of the model guys. It's really about him. But dolls in cages? Are you serious? Dolls in cages have to scare you? It's the 60s? Has he had a sexual disorder since childhood or something?
Okay, let's move on. One of the characters in the film is Alfredo, a servant boy, I understand. I'd rather watch a movie about him. He has a story, and the only scary moment in the film is his handiwork.
We are shown an archaeologist who goes to Italy to excavate. Grave. No, I know what you're thinking, 'cause they're looking for tombs and so on. He is sent to drip the cemetery, while why and why is not told. I mean, you know what I mean? Archaeologists in the understanding of people are people who dig ancient things, tombs in the deserts and with all their kind of avid botanists with a crazy love for all sorts of things create an image of something very interesting and mysterious, and then a man with a deaf daughter went to drip in the cemetery.
The completeness of the story is zero, the actors’ play is zero, the important dialogue is horror, this is a real horror, not the genre of this film. A man sits with a colleague at work and talks about the death of his wife as if he talks about how she left him and went to the gardener, and not as a grieving man who feels guilty for it.
And the prayer at the end of the movie is Bianca? It seems that a Sicilian woman living with a religious aunt knew nothing but three words, are you serious?
You, in turn, can stand up for the film, relying on the screamers in it, and a couple of unexpected moments, but my argument for you is to insert the same moments in the comedy and in any other film, but even in the video about cats on YouTube, you will be afraid of the same, but what is the meaning of a horror film? Screemers? Or in a bad job as a sound engineer? No, the point of the horror genre is to be afraid to turn off the lights when you come home, so that the plot forces you to lay bricks under yourself right in the hall. And this. I'm sorry for the money I spent on the ticket.
Poorly crafted plot. The wretched play of the actors, in whose eyes it was read that they had no idea who their heroes were and how to play them, and an even more wretched ending, which not only had to look like a highlight with a hint of a sequel, played the opposite, exposing this movie even more horror in terms of elaboration and idea than as a genre.
2 out of 10
Motherly love knows no bounds. She is capable of truly amazing things, because there is nothing more important than the well-being and safety of a child for whom you can sacrifice literally everything in the world. However, sometimes blind love turns light into darkness, perverting the very concept of the brightest feeling in the whole white world. A mother is able to forgive her child even the greatest sins, refuse justice for misdeeds, or consider him her property, which should be locked in the darkest closet. Something similar we could observe in the popular horror “Mother” from Andy Muschietti (“It 1, 2”), and if you dig a little deeper, then Pamela Voorhees comes to mind, the same woman who, long before her son Jason, committed a massacre on Crystal Lake. Now it’s time to fear the otherworldly darkness again, thanks to the movie “Mother: Guest from the Dark.”
The plot takes place in the Sicilian city of Messina, which was once almost completely resolved as a result of a powerful earthquake. However, shortly before this event, a very intriguing and at the same time frightening event happened in Messina, which put the public on their ears. The heir to the richest man in the whole city, twelve-year-old Peter, disappeared without a trace and no one could understand where he had gone. After him, his mother disappeared in the nearby forests, according to legends, practicing black magic. And it seems that all this terrible story is in the past, but sometimes restless souls have the ability to return and do even greater evil than during life.
The main events of the film unfold in our time, when a talented archaeologist Norman and his daughter Liz arrived in Messina. Having recently lost her mother, Liz moved away from her father and with all her thoughts returns to those days when the family was still full and you could only think about the good. Reading the occult books, Liz blindly believed that they could help her communicate with the spirit of her mother, but something terrible happens and instead of the real evil that was so afraid of all Messina returns from the prison of the afterlife.
This film is one of those that really scares. The story turned out from beginning to end tense, with several unpredictable moments that personally scared me seriously. Interestingly, part of the story was based on very real events. Messina was truly destroyed by the earthquake, and although its consequences were overcome, the past still gravitates over this place. In addition, there are beliefs that in the local region performed their dark deeds a real witch, and her son during his lifetime was the embodiment of pure evil. Now all these legends have found their terrible reflection in the film, where the horror does not even think hidden, but reveals itself in all its glory.
All the details of this terrible story we reveal together with the archaeologist and his daughter. In their lives there was a tragedy, but despite all the inefficiencies and hidden claims, they try to improve relationships, and the more alarming it becomes when ghosts return from nothingness, capable not only to appear in the darkest places, but also to seize the thoughts of living people, to encourage them to actions that in a common sense would never do. And all this happens in an atmosphere that is constantly thickening and closer to the end of the movies you begin to doubt whether everything will be okay in the end. But I will not disclose the details to you, so as not to spoil the impression.
Thus, “Mother: Guest from Darkness” boldly becomes one of the most terrible horrors of recent times, and it benefits from a strong attachment to real events that once occurred in Messina. Be prepared to be scared, you will like it.
8 out of 10
As the biggest and most devoted fan of the horror genre, I just couldn’t ignore this movie. If you ask me what scares me the most about horror, it is often witches with their creepy rituals, dirty curses, and young children with manic syndrome and empty eyes. So "Mother: Guest from the Dark" is a combo of two of my biggest fears.
Somehow it so happened that European horror for me is more terrible than European, and sometimes even Japanese. So when I found out that the production of Italy, I was just happy. Judging by the trailer about horror films is difficult, since the creators can cram everything interesting into it, and the film can frankly disappoint or, conversely, the trailer is not impressive, but the film is happy. So I had to go to the movies at my own risk. And I didn't.
Last but not least, “Mama” interested me because its directors, Christian Biscella and Ascanio Malgarini, not so long ago made the horror film “Fairy”, which I could not miss the attention in principle. And since "Fairy" was cool, then "Mama" was just obliged to be at the level, or even better, which actually happened.
The story tells us why it is better not to dig in graves and search for secrets buried by someone, even if you are an archaeologist. Archaeologists led by Norman discover a strange grave in which a child was buried alive. However, you do not have to feel sorry for the boy, since he was a little devil during life and thirsted for the blood of others, and his mother is none other than a real witch who has been looking for her favorite child for more than a hundred years. And now the task of the archaeologist to save his daughter and preferably survive.
The film is really atmospheric, it refers to the horrors that take not banal boo-effects, but suspense, pumping. With a fading heart on the edge of a chair, you wait for your hand, leg, or creepy skewed face to come out. Dirty hands of fear squeeze the heart and make you tremble from beginning to end. Lovers tickle nerves and watch another story about the witch and her offspring is highly recommended!
From a female point of view, I want to highlight Henry Dowthwaite, who played Norman. To my shame, I didn’t know anything about him before, even though he already has more than 30 works. After Mama, I’ll be watching him more closely, because the archaeologist in trouble, who has to do the work and protect his daughter, he played great. Feelings, emotions, everything is as it should be. If you believe in a hero, you believe in story and story.
The film is worth watching if you, like me, are horror fans. “Mother” is also suitable for those who enjoy a juicy picture and a high-quality plot, regardless of the genre. Take a look and be afraid.