Finding a good horror these days is hard work. For instance you have Blumhouse, who are a conveyor belt of standard stuff that rarely hits the mark. Then someone recommends The Eyes of My Mother and you find a little golden nugget of horror.
I don’t usually go off random suggestions from the internet. However, while going through some Facebook videos there was a guy pushing horror movies. Three that he grouped together were Pyewaket, Borderlands, and The Eyes of My Mother.
I’ve not seen Pyewacket, but I have seen Borderlands, aka Final Prayer. It’s a solid ‘found footage’ horror, that was made just up the road from where I grew up. It’s not perfect, but it’s very well-made with a good ending. With this being listed with The Eyes of My Mother, I thought I would check it out.
The movie stars Kika Magalhaes, Will Brill, Olivia Bond, Paul Nazak, Diana Agostini, Joey Curtis-Green, and Flora Diaz. Nicolas Pesce is writer and director, his biggest movie is probably the US remake of The Grudge (2019).
The Story
I thought this was going to be a horror, it is a horror, but not ghosts or bumps in the night. It’s more about the horror that people can commit. The plot is:
A young, lonely woman is consumed by her deepest and darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life.
The Eyes of My Mother is played out in three chapters, Mother, Father, and Family. Young Francisca (Bond) spends time with her mother (Agostini). Mother used to be a surgeon, but they now live in the countryside. I’m not sure where, France, Italy, or Portugal, I think.
Mother teaches Francisca about life, the world, cooking and everything else. On the farm, there are cows, at one point, the mother dissects a cow’s eyes with Francisca. This isn’t done in a horrific way, more of a home-schooling way. She’s a loving mother teaching her daughter about the world.
Everything seems to be OK until Charlie (Brill) turns up, selling door to door. He asks to use the bathroom and mother, reluctantly, lets him in. When father gets home, he finds Charlie bludgeoning mother to death in the bathroom.
Father doesn’t kill Charlie but chains him up in the barn. From here, things get, umm, weird. I would delve deeper into the story, but I wouldn’t want to spoil it. I found it genuinely interesting and I was hooked, a little grossed out, but hooked.
The Cast
The Eyes of My Mother is a nice and simple movie. There is a very limited cast and everyone carries it very well. The main focus is Francisca, played by Kika Magalhaes.
Cute isn’t she? Don’t be fooled, the expression about “Not sticking it in crazy” comes to mind. Francisca has a limited view of the world, she’s had a very limited upbringing and reminded me of Nell, the Jodie Foster movie. Nell was raised by someone who had a stroke, so didn’t understand English.
Francisca is the same, she’s been raised on a farm and knows how to care for the animals and provide food. She has had a very skewed view of morals though, of what it right and wrong.
Magalhaes plays her very well. She’s not stupid, but she doesn’t understand some aspects of life. Her morals are all over the place, but she is still very vulnerable as a person.
The Eyes of Me Mother
The mother was the only person she ever really loved and she was taken away from her. Everything that happens after that, is pretty much Charlie’s fault, he’s the one who took mother away. But then, the limited life lessons that her mother taught her, are also a problem.
There are so many layers to this movie, I can’t stop thinking about it. It deals with some pretty strong topics, which again, I want to talk to someone about, but it would spoil the story.
The way Francisca has an odd view of the world is very interesting. She talks to her mother, even though she’s not there. I did wonder how her mother would have reacted to the person she had become?
Overall
The Eyes of My Mother is a hidden gem of horror. The direction is very paced, slow, and deliberate. I loved how some scenes, start to pan around and let your imagination run wide before the reveal. Sometimes it’s not as bad as you think, other times, it’s worse.
Interestingly the movie is in black and white. I’ve no idea why this is the case, but it works. There are a few subtitles, but not a lot, most of the movie is in English.
If you want to enjoy a good horror, under 90 minutes long, that is a slow boiler of a movie, you can’t go wrong with The Eyes of My Mother. I really liked it.
