In this guest post, Jim Brymer reviews the chilling cult horror film The Eyes of My Mother.:
This is one bizarre movie to say the least. Its sort of “art house horror.” In fact one reviewer I read described it as if The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had been directed by Ingmar Bergman. Digest that image if you can…
The movie stars Kika Magalhães as a pretty disturbed woman. It was directed and written by a first timer, Nicholas Pesce. If you aren’t prepared for it, the movie may disturb you. The interesting thing about it is most of the violence is either hidden or happens off screen. But it is the unseen parts that feel a little chilling.
The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
On a remote farm little Francesca (played by Olivia Bond) lives with her parents (Diana Agostini, Paul Nazak). Her mom was a surgeon in a previous life before marriage, and teaches her daughter some of the surgery techniques using cattle from the farm as their subjects.
One day while Dad is gone, a visitor shows up. Charlie (Will Brill) claims he just wants to use their bathroom. Against her better judgement, Mom allows Charlie into the house, where the man reveals his true nature.
Dad comes home to find Charlie killing Mom. He attacks Charlie, but rather than killing him, chains him up in the barn. Little Francesca visits him and promises he will not be killed, but she uses the surgery techniques Mom taught her to remove his eyes and vocal cords.
Years later, as a grown woman, Francesca (Kika Magalhães) still lives with her father and Charlie, who is still chained up in the barn. After Dad dies, Francesca cuts up his body and stores it in the refrigerator. She begins a life of a serial killer. At one point she brings home a woman, Kimiko (Clara Wong) she meets in a bar. After telling her that she, Francesca, killed her father, she ends up killing Kimiko too, and storing her body parts in the fridge. (What she intends to do with all these parts is anybody’s guess).
Francesca ends up freeing Charlie from the barn and bringing him into the house to sleep with her in her bed. But when Charlie tries to escape she kills him. Now, being truly alone, she wanders in the woods where she meets up with Lucy (Flora Diaz) and her son, Antonio (Joey Curtis-Green). She brings them back to the farm where she ends up doing much the same thing she did to Charlie, chaining Lucy up in the barn. She doesn’t tell Antonio what she has done. Instead she just tells him to stay out of the barn and proceeds to raise him as her own son. But eventually Antonio’s curiosity is going to get the best of him…
This movie was very bizarre, even for me. But unlike some of the more outre stuff I’ve seen, this one lingers on long after viewing. It got pretty good reviews upon it’s release. It doesn’t try to glorify violence like, say, Blood Feast, but the haunting images of the rather sedate Francesca mirrored against her homicidal tendencies is definitely a stark contrast. I do not, repeat do not, recommend it to anyone with children.
Jim Brymer, AKA Quiggy, runs the movie blog The Midnite Drive-In, check it out for more insights on other classic films.