Dir. Cristian Ponce (2024)
A firefighter tries to evacuate a nursing home during the middle of a storm but runs into some pushback.
Lovecraftian horror is incredibly hard to do on a budget, or at least I would assume so because most indie cosmic horror films really struggle to find a way to express the type of horror necessary to make it work. Director Cristian Ponce's new film A Mother's Embrace is a notable exception, a Brazilian film that delivers the perfect amount of "off-ness" that lets its audience know something is wrong from the jump. With lots of scares and an excellent performance from its lead, it's a film to watch on the indie circuits.
Ana (Marjorie Estiano) was the victim of a house fire when she was younger, and now she's a firefighter in an attempt to make sure others don't have to go through what she did. Her trauma has caused her some difficulties in her profession, but she may face her biggest test yet when her unit is called to evacuate a nursing home in the middle of a terrible Rio de Janeiro storm. The owner of the building refuses to allow the team to evacuate the building, and as things begin to escalate, she begins to doubt the motives of the residents of the building. Basement monsters, creepy patients, and more are going to make this evacuation really difficult.
A Mother's Embrace has some great scenes of terror without a ton of visual effects, though what effects are there are fantastic. This is all atmosphere and mood, and it's handled perfectly by Ponce. He leaves a lot to the imagination, and he effectively utilizes the creepiness of the location and the actors to make something that manages to be scary and worth exploring even further. Estiano is excellent in the lead, and she enables the plot to develop in a way that guides the audience through just how scared they should be as things go from bad to worse.
It's a slow-moving film, though that's hardly a negative in this case. It takes some time for the plot to develop, but there's a reason for every scene and it all adds together to create a stellar film. It's reminiscent of films like Last Shift or The Void, even moreso because of the emergency worker aspect of the film. It's dark and foreboding, and the dilapidated nursing home is the perfect locale for a Lovecraftian horror. The entire film is well-made, but special attention should be given for whoever did the set design, because it is phenomenal.
It's easy to see why A Mother's Embrace has been winning all kinds of awards on the indie film festival circuit. It's an excellent film, but it's also the type of film that feels like it could be a sleeper hit, the type that you'd see recommended somewhere in the "underseen" category. There were a few moments in the film that gave me the absolute heebie jeebies, and that doesn't happen often. If you get a chance to check this one out, you definitely should. It's worth a watch.
Who this movie is for: Cosmic horror fans, Lovecraft lovers, Nursing home administrators
Bottom line: A Mother's Embrace is a bit slow but worth the journey, a genuinely scary film that's incredibly well made. It's a great indie horror, and it's currently making the festival circuit and coming soon to On Demand. If this type of film is your cup of tea, I definitely recommend checking it out. If not... watch it anyway.
