GOODNIGHT MOMMY – The remake, with Naomi Watts. Two brothers, twins, arrive at their estranged mummy’s house only to find her wrapped up like erm, well, basically a mummy. Just to make it clear, we are not within the realm of the ancient Egyptian undead (more’s the pity), this is just someone whose bandages are the result of something that’s happened to them… but what? Now mum’s acting strange and there’s a barn in the field at the back where no-one can go – will it all go ‘Eyes Without A Face’ or is the explanation even freakier? The original ‘Goodnight Mommy’ was quite interesting if I remember correctly, and had a clinical, detached Euro-art feel to it. This version is more meat and potatoes and kind of plays like a standard Hollywood thriller, raised a couple of notches by the presence of Watts and some good performances. It’s weirdly old fashioned in that, like the original, the whole thing seems to hinge on a single revelatory twist, making repeat viewings a bit redundant if there’s nothing much else going on (the original had style and was the sort of thing you could go back to just for the aesthetics, not really true in this case). But as a first viewing it’s quite entertaining.
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