Goodnight Mommy

Belgian filmmakers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz bring us this moody chiller, a largely silent and often grisly story of twin brothers who come to believe that their mother has been replaced by an impostor. Decked in matching ratty tank tops, Elias and Lukas (played by real-life brothers Elias and Lukas Schwarz) while away the hours burning bugs and romping through the fields that surround their upscale country home, but they sense something wrong with the heavily bandaged woman who claims to be their mother (Susanne Wuest). Goodnight Mommy conjures cinematic references ranging from Michael Haneke to Georges Franju, and there are a number of powerful images and surrealist red herrings, but the film is more icky than creepy, with a final third that gets a little too “torture porn”-y for my taste. At least Fiala and Franz possess a striking vision, as cold and severe as that country estate. D.B.