Good Night Mommy  ★★½

NAOMI Watts has been in American remakes of a few modern horror gems – Funny Games, The Ring and now Goodnight Mommy.

Why I’m not sure; doesn’t she get better offers than remakes that, to be honest, add nothing to the originals.

I mean stuff people who don’t like subtitles; they can watch it at home with horrible dubbing on.

In fact the 2022 version of the original 2014 Austrian  psychological horror actually lessens the impact with a couple of changes designed to make the story more palatable for mainstream audiences.

The basic story and twist remains, but the totally nihilistic approach and depth of emotion in the characters, and hence our feelings towards them, aren’t as strong.

Watts’s character is never named. She plays a former actress who is also the mother of young twin brothers Elias and Lukas, played by real-life siblings Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti.

When the film starts the brothers are being taken to be reunited with their Mother who has been away getting a surgical procedure.

The boys are dropped off by their father who makes it clear that she does not want to see him.

The boys find their mother wearing a pressure bandage that fully covers her head and face.

She seems stressed and the boys accept some of the strict rules she immediately applies, including not having any friends visit and not entering her room or the barn.

But then strange occurrences, such as her drinking heavily when she never used to and forgetting their bedtime song, start to make them seriously question whether the person behind the mask is actually their mother.

The original version went to dark corners of the characters’ minds which resulted in some visually distressing moments.

But the remake focuses more on the mystery and even greater investment on the twist. The over-reliance makes it an overall lesser experience.