Dir. Daniele Campea (2024)
A wolf biologist rejoins her family after a long stay in a mental institution.
One of the unseen effects of the COVID pandemic was the effect on mental health. A lot of attention has been paid to the effect that it had on those who were quarantined, but the problem goes so much deeper than that. Many mentally ill people were stuck without medication or forced to attend virtual therapy, a serious problem for those with disorders like schizophrenia and OCD. These are tough to manage in the best of times, but squirreling these people away inside their homes when their best treatment is to be out in the world and completing their routines is a problem for which we still haven't seen the lasting effects. Exploring this problem through film is poignant and relevant, though the delayed release of Mother Nocturna certainly does take away some of the impact that it would've had upon being completed in 2022.
In the middle of the COVID pandemic, Agnese (Susanna Costaglione) returns to her family from a mental institution, rejoining her husband Riccardo (Edoardo Olivo) and dancer daughter Arianna (Sofia Ponente) at home. Agnese throws herself into her work as a wolf researcher, using her studies to help distract her from the mental health concerns that still lurk in the forefront of her mind. When Riccardo tests positive for COVID and is quarantined away from his family, Arianna finds herself stuck inside the house with a mother whose mental state is rapidly fraying, obsessing over the legends of wolves and the story of a mother who sacrifices herself instead of murdering her children.
The themes of isolation and insanity ring true to an audience who have all lived through a similar experience. Sure, a lot of them probably weren't dealing with serious mental illness on top of all of this, but that just further compounds a problem that was already occurring. Costaglione and Ponente, the primary actors in the film after Olivo's character's relegation to a hospital, are fantastic in their damaged mother-daughter relationship. Despite his absence, however, Riccardo is a central figure in the drama. Mother Nocturna is a slow burn horror, but it's also a story about family relations and betrayal, of mental illness and justified anger.
Mother Nocturna is an inexpensive indie psychological horror that looks far more expensive than it is, a well-shot and elegantly told story about a family with secrets. The actors do a marvelous job in their roles, and while the story certainly burns as slowly as possible, the payoff is worth it. It's one of those films that generates a feeling of unease in its audience, a requirement for a good slow burn. It's also devastatingly sad, a realistic portrayal of not only those suffering with mental illness but also its impact on those that they love. Mother Nocturna is an excellent film exploring a subject that horror has delved into in recent years but in a way most films wouldn't dare.
There are some major weak points to the film as well, unfortunately. A lot of the dreamlike sequences make no real sense in the context of the story, serving more as a supernatural-esque insertion into a film that would have been better off without them. It's creepy, but it's also so dimly lit as to be hard to parse what's happening during a lot of the more surreal parts of the film. Whether this was part of the plan or a consequence of a lack of budget I am not sure, but the film does suffer a bit because of it. By and large, however, it is a competently made film with some stellar performances that help make it as good as it is, even if it could've been better were some different choices made.
Who this movie is for: Slow burn horror fans, Psychological horror aficionados, Wolfmen
Bottom line: Mother Nocturna is a well made indie psychological horror that serves more as a family drama than anything else. Costaglione and Ponente are excellent in their roles, and the film accomplishes quite a lot despite a tiny budget. It's slower than it should be, however, punctuated with some inaccessible supernatural scenes that don't do much to make it a better film. By and large, it's a good film, and it's handling of some emotionally deep subjects is very well done. Give it a watch if you can be patient enough to get past some of the drag.
