I do love a good horror movie. And by all accounts, the American Gothic horror film The Eyes of My Mother is a good horror movie. If you weren’t convinced of that by our own Matt Donato’s review out of Fantasia Fest earlier this year, then you’ll be convinced once you watch the first trailer.
The film tells the story of Francisca, a lonely young woman who lost her mother many years before. Her mother was a skilled surgeon in Portugal, and imparted her fascination with anatomy, as well as detachment from death, to the young Francisca. A mysterious visitor and a horrific crime later, and Francisca’s life takes a dark and twisted turn. Now older and (not quite) alone in the farmhouse where her mother was murdered, Francisca is still seeking solace and companionship in ever stranger avenues, her isolation and traumatic experience drawing out into her continuous fascination with anatomy. If that isn’t a recipe for a good horror film, I don’t know what is.
The trailer takes us into an atmospheric and unbalanced world. Shot in black and white and with minimal voiceover, little snippets of image and sound hint at the darkness concealed in the isolated farmhouse, and Francisca’s own mind. Director Nicolas Pesce has certainly constructed evocative images from his grayscale palette – I hope that the film lives up to its hype. It’s an unsettling trailer for what is bound to be an unsettling experience, and I can’t wait to see it.
The Eyes of My Mother has done the festival circuit and received generally positive responses. Whether the broader American audience will embrace it is another question, but then again, I was surprised that everyone was so into The Witch. Audiences can be very fickle.
The Eyes of My Mother is set to release in the US on December 2, 2016.