The fact that Fiala and Franz have no feature film experience between them (again, according to IMDB), this is quite a feat. What's doubly impressive is the fact that there is very little music in the film, so the tension you feel is real and not a cheat using music cues, not unlike the Cohen brothers' brilliant No Country for Old Men.
Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (both relatively newcomers as well) bring out the best in all involved, creating a movie so filled with tension and suspense, I found myself holding my breath many times throughout the film. When the story relies on three people to carry it, two of which – Elias and Lukas Schwarz – have never been anything else (according to IMDB), it has the potential to be disastrous.
There are a lot of things that make Goodnight Mommy a rock solid film, starting with the acting. Elias and Lukas are convinced that this stranger is not their mother, and the once happy home is now one of fear and tension. She proceeds to tell her sons that there are going to be new rules: no open blinds, no visitors, nothing brought in from outside (including animals!!), and knocking before entering her room.
Apparently these boys were living parent free because soon enough, their mother arrives home from assumedly the hospital as her face is all bandaged up and it's clear something horrific happened to her. In this case the film opens with two young twins, Elias and Lukas, doing something you never see kids doing anymore – playing outside without a helicopter parent within five feet (that's how you know the film is foreign, Austrian to be exact). Goodnight Mommy is one of those wonderful types of movies that thrusts you right into a middle of a story with no explanation of what's going on, instead opting to slowly feed you information, bit by bit, until you are caught up. I was able to go into this movie more or less blind. I wanted to go into it completely blind, and with the exception of the poster and editing the majority of Ted's review (I didn't even edit the spoil warning part, Dan handled that for me), I was successful. When I first saw the trailer for Goodnight Mommy, I immediately decided to not just try to forget what I had just watched, but also make an attempt to avoid reading or viewing anything about this film until I watched it.