31 Days of Halloween: You Are Not My Mother

2021, Kate Nolan (Catcalls) -- download

Sombre. Its a word that often can be attributed to Irish horror cinema. Usually they are family related, but then again, many many horror movies begin with the introduction of a family dealing with something. Much of You Are Not My Mother is focused on young Char (Hazel Douple, Michael Inside) dealing with her mother's depression, and the bullying at school. Even when her mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken, The Lodgers) returns from an assumed suicide attempt, radically changed and improving (?), much of the movie focuses on the tension between all. The colour tones and lighting is all grey and moody, never a bright ray of light to be seen. Irish horror cinema in a nutshell.

So, yeah, her mother returned ... different. Its Irish, so immediately I wondered if changelings were to be involved. Enjoyably, or maybe the opposite if family drama is your trigger, much focuses on whether Angela was ... different, or just in a deeper spiral from her depression. That is, until she starts committing murderous acts. Then, the movie shifts to defense mode, as Char has to come up with a way to unveil the creature pretending to be her mother, with only her former bully to assist. 

Even for our love of The Different. the faithful to setting, this movie was just ... OK. Everyone was well acted, the setting appropriately bleak, but nothing really jumped out. And no, I don't mean jump scares. Its just well done family drama mixed up with a bit of otherworldly mythos, but not much else. I am never sure how to communicate what is lacking, but nothing was ever truly terrifying, nor eerie or even heart breaking. Its just as if bleak was the tone they achieved, and that was as far as they went. By year 10ish, maybe I am beginning to want more?