Kay (Emily Mortimer) receives a call that her mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) has gone missing, so she and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) drive out to Edna's home to investigate - and find that Edna hasn't been home several days judging from the rotten fruits, but apart from things feeling slightly off, there's no trace what could have happened. Kay reports Edna's disappearance to the police, and a search party is formed, but to little avail. But when all hope seems to be lost, Edna's suddenly back without any explanation. She's very vague about where she has been, and other things Kay learns about her behaviour of late make her things that she might just be suffering from dementia, so she and Sam decide to stay for a few days, and maybe get her into an old folks home. Now sure, Edna still seems physically fit enough to support herself, but mentally is another issue altogether - and that's probably best exemplified when she one day gifts her wedding ring to Sam, and the next day accusing her of theft and almost breaking her finger to get it back. Thing is, Edna is behaving more and more erratically, over the next few days, like when she first wants to eat up, later bury a photo album full of memories - and what's with her eventually starting to self-harm. It really gets bad though when she ... well, starts to skin, really, and when she does, she grows violent towards Kay, while at the same time Sam gets stuck in the attic that turns out to be an elaborate maze made all the more dangerous by the fact that the laws of nature don't apply anymore ...

Now this is a slowburn film, and for at least the first part it seems to be more of a slightly creepy drama of a family dealing with the matriarch's evolving dementia - but things really come to a head in the third act when the film manages to subvert audience expectations with a gusto and moves towards body horror and surrealism ... and somehow that makes total sense as in retrospect enough clues were dropped to maybe not anticipate this but be prepared for it. And one of the most ingenious strokes about this one is that it actually ... doesn't explain away anything, leaves everything (including character backstories) open to interpretation, and thus hits home on a deep level that mere jump scares basically never could. And of course, a genre savvy yet not spectacle-prone directorial effort helps a lot here to make this one spooky ride one won't forget all that soon ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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