You Are Not My Mother was reviewed out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where it made its world premiere.
Director Kate Dolan's 2017 horror short, Catcalls, sees a sexual predator get a brutal, bloody comeuppance at the claws of his female-turned-feline targets. Much more than an effective cautionary tale for would-be perverts, the award-winning project afforded the Irish filmmaker the recognition and clout to bring her inspired brand of frights to a feature-length movie. In You Are Not My Mother, she wastes no time doing just that, delivering an effectively unsettling horror effort with gripping performances.
Inspired by Irish folklore, specifically changelings – mythical, human-like creatures swapped for people abducted by nefarious forces – the film begins with a baby, a small ring of fire, and a middle-aged woman armed with a spellbook. Without spoiling too much, this unsettling prologue concludes with the infant crying and embers rising into the evening sky to form the film's title card.
Upon planting the seeds of our next nightmare, the movie makes a sharp pivot, jumping ahead in time and introducing us to three generations of Irish women, all living under the same roof. We meet Char (Hazel Doupe), a high-school student who's not only navigating the expected trials of teenagehood, but also dealing with her mother, Angela, who seems to have checked out.
Played by Carolyn Bracken, Angela appears to suffer from mental illness – and/or possibly something more sinister. She has “down” days, which find her sleeping lots and neglecting her parental duties, like keeping the kitchen stocked with essentials. Then there's the young-ish grandmother (Ingrid Craigie,) a caring but distracted matriarch who doles out lunch money and protective talismans in equal measure. She's also the same woman, albeit several years older, who maybe set a baby ablaze at the film's start.
Char gets the most screen time, and deservedly so. Doupe's performance is incredibly layered, as she balances a strained home life, school's difficult social dynamics – which include an increasingly threatening bully problem – and her, er, complex relationship with her mom. Each circumstance introduces different challenges for Char and, while she reacts to each with the expected anxiety and despair, she also injects these feelings with situational nuance. Doupe exudes palpable fear in the face of her bully, as well as when dealing with her mother's progressively disturbing behavior. But it's never a recycled, one-size-fits-all fear, but rather a complex, shifting emotion that we feel right along with her.
Speaking of shifting, it's Angela's erratic, often unsettling actions that not only help draw out Doupe's brilliant performance, but lend the movie its more traditional scares. Following that frightening opening, You Are Not My Mother mostly settles into a slow-burn groove, save for the changes manifesting in Angela. Char's generally troubled existence ensures a constant air of tension, while the film's Halloween themes (it takes place during the Irish Samhain) and perpetually overcast skies set the mood. But it’s Angela, transforming in ways we won't spoil here, that unmistakably slots this one into the horror genre.
All that said, if you're looking for a truly terrifying flick to take up permanent residence in your nightmares, this isn't it. You Are Not My Mother packs a few frights for sure – including a couple that could elicit an audible gasp from more unsuspecting viewers – but it's overall more unsettling than scary.
The film also suffers from some pacing issues and a couple of uneven character moments that undermine the otherwise excellent performances. Again, it takes its time building dread and elevating tension, establishing a cadence that mostly works well for the story. When its big reveal hits about an hour in, however, there's a sense that the film's rushing to the finish line to wrap things up. A principal character meets an untimely demise, but their fate is barely recognized before the story speeds toward its conclusion. Similarly awkward is an intended act by that aforementioned bully; while the character's previously established as a menacing pain in the ass – and possibly a pyromaniac – her final scene stretches the bounds of believability.