Taglines Every family has their secrets.
You Are Not My Mother Movie Storyline. It’s the week before Halloween. Char’s bedridden mother, Angela, has mysteriously gone missing. All that remains is her abandoned car parked in the middle of a field. When Angela returns home to their North Dublin estate the following evening without explanation, it becomes clear to Char and her grandmother, Rita, that something is amiss.
She might look and sound the same, but Angela’s behavior has become increasingly erratic and frightening, as if she has been replaced by a malevolent force. As Halloween approaches, a night steeped in ancient Irish myth and legend, Char must unearth the dark secrets of her family in order to uncover the truth behind her mother’s disappearance and save her, even if it means potentially losing her forever.
You Are Not My Mother is a 2021 Irish psychological horror film written and directed by Kate Dolan. The film stars Hazel Doupe as Char, a young woman at odds with her grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie) after her mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken) briefly goes missing, only to return soon afterward with a radically changed personality. The film premiered in the Midnight Madness stream at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named first runner up for the People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness.
Film Review for You Are Not My Mother
After her depressive mother disappears, teenager Char (Hazel Doupe) fears the worst. But then Angela (Carolyn Bracken) returns, inexplicably changed for the better. More engaged with her daughter, more fun to be around. More unpredictable and impulsive. Char embraces the shift in their relationship, trying to quell the mounting doubts about the fact that she no longer recognises the woman who claims to be her mother.
This folklore-infused Irish horror from Kate Dolan crafts an unsettling atmosphere in which the banal and the uncanny co-exist. More concerned with creating a slowburn of discomfort than with deploying jumpscares, it is driven by first-rate performances from Bracken and, in particular, rising star Doupe.
You Are Not My Mother is the latest Irish picture to weave regional legends into the broader horror genre, sharing a theme of fae malevolence with films like UK director Corin Hardy’s Irish-set The Hallows and Lee Cronin’s The Hole In The Ground. There’s also a kinship, in the picture’s exploration of the horror of mental illness in a loved one, with Natalie Erika James’ Relic.
Effectively spooky and unflinching when it comes to the depiction of some particularly grim school bullying, You Are Not My Mother should find a home with either a specialist distributor or streaming platform. It’s a promising feature debut for Dolan, whose short film, Catcalls, won the 2018 Emerging Directors Award in Ireland.
The picture opens with a wide shot which looks as though it could have been lifted from the portfolio of the American photographer Gregory Crewdson. A single streetlight offers a wedge of sulphurous illumination, a contrast to the foreboding gloom of the suburban street around it. And in the street, abandoned, is a pushchair containing a gurgling baby. As we watch, a figure hobbles towards the child, grasps the handles of the stroller and hurries away with it, deep into the woods. What happens next sets the tone for a film which is steeped in superstition, arcane ritual and a flagrant disregard for fire safety protocols.
The explanation for the scene comes much later in the film but it’s clear from the outset that Char’s home life is not a happy one. The house, with its tainted yellow walls and twisted, twiggy amulets woven by her grandmother “for protection” is a soul-sapping space. A debilitating sadness has rendered Angela bedbound, unable to care for herself let alone her daughter. The unhappiness of her family life rubs off on Char like a stain, marking her out of cruelty from the spiteful circle of bullies at school. But when her mother returns after her mysterious absence, her new wildness of spirit inspires Char to stand up to her tormentors, further aggravating the situation.
Dolan offers glimpses of something monstrous through Char’s dreams, and caught fleetingly in mirrors and reflections. But for the most part, the film’s suspense builds in Doupe’s superb, self-contained performance and in her wide, expressive eyes. Complementing Doupe’s intense interiorised turn, Bracken’s performance as the person who may or may not be Angela is equally effective; all jagged physicality, jerking animalistic lurches and cracking joints – the film’s sound design adds a queasily unnatural aural component. And while the picture’s climax requires several of the secondary characters to act in a way which strains credibility a little, the authenticity of these two intriguingly contrasted mother and daughter performances keeps the film on track.
You Are Not My Mother (2022)
Directed by: Kate Dolan
Starring: Hazel Doupe, Carolyn Bracken, Paul Reid, Jade Jordan, Ingrid Craigie, Jordanne Jones, Katie White, Aoife Spratt, Lucie Doran, Martin O’Sullivan, Miriam Devitt, Florence Adebambo
Screenplay by: Kate Dolan
Production Design by: Lauren Kelly
Cinematography by: Narayan Van Maele
Film Editing by: John Cutler
Costume Design by: Gwen Jeffares Hourie
Art Direction by: Colette Wrafter
Music by: Die Hexen
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: September 13, 2021 (TIFF), March 24, 2022 (United States)
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