‘You Are Not My Mother’ Review: A Richly Ambiguous, Autumnal Irish Horror Balances Mental Illness and Mythological Unknowns
variety.comGuy Lodge Film CriticThe so-called “elevated” horror genre has lately been overrun with stories in which supernatural creepings function as a metaphor for psychological trauma and dysfunction.
At first through-the-fingers glance, “You Are Not My Mother” appears to be following suit, centering as it does on an isolated teenage girl haunted by the unpredictable rhythms of her mother’s debilitating mental illness.
But this pervasively eerie, emotionally acute debut from Irish writer-director Kate Dolan doesn’t trade in neat symbolism or pat explanations: Steeped in local folklore, it lets mythic and mind-based terrors exist side by side, allowing the viewer to interpret and believe what they will.
This leeway comes at no cost, however, to its effective atmospherics, which sink into the bones like an unexpected twilight chill.
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