Agnese (Susanna Costaglione) has only recently released from a mental institution back to the house of her husband Riccardo (Edoardo Oliva) and her daughter Arianna (Sofia Ponente) - a house pretty much in the middle of some wolf-infested woods. And mostly, Agnese seems to be ok actually, and really tries to make up for lost time with her husband and daughter. And then the Corona lockdowns strike, and the three of them are pretty much forced to endure each others company - which is problematic enough as it is, but then Riccardo catches the virus is hospitalized, maybe to never return, and Arianna's left to caring for her mother - and soon enough she notices that while she's coherent most of the time, she's far from easy to cope with, from her sleepwalking spells to her outbursts of violence. Arianna goes through Agnese's sick files and learns some troubling details, not just about her condition but also about their family history. And living with a not quite sane woman in a haunted house surrounded by a dark fairy tale forest sure can be taxing for the sanest of minds ...

Mother Nocturna certainly is anything but your typical Italian horror flick (and not that there'd be anything wrong with those) - and sure it's heavy on moody visuals and has an operatic side to it, both of which sound typically Italian, but then again it's a very slowburn movie, and not one that easily explains itself away at that or gives all the hints when one expects it to. And that's really the film's stregth, that it finds its own voice, cares little about genre conventions, and actually comes across a bit as an arthouse flick in horror clothing - and in the best of possible ways, as this is a movie as thoughtful as it is effective, and while it might require a little bit of patience to watch, this patience is richly rewarded.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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