That’s Not Our Mother: Goodnight Mommy Review

Goodnight Mommy is Prime Original movie released September 16, 2022. It is a remake of a foreign film under the title Ich Seh Ich Seh. The movie is considered a crime, drama, horror, although thriller would be a much more accurate classification.

I cannot recommend you watch Goodnight Mommy. The movie is a mess from start to finish, with sloppy writing and dialogue everywhere. The plot is really light, although it does have a couple of twists and turns to keep you on your toes. The visuals are decent, but the cinematography is straight up bad at points with goofy camera angles that make this feel like a home video at times.

While not good in the slightest, this movie does end with a bang.

Who Stars in Goodnight Mommy?

Goodnight Mommy has a very small cast and stars 3 characters. Mother, played by Naomi Watts, is the boys’ mother in case that wasn’t clear. She has received an operation of some sort to here face and wears a white cloth mask as a result. It’s very off-putting and sets the tone for the movie. Elias, played by Cameron Crovetti, is one of two twins who have been left with their mother by their father. Neither boy is confident that their mother is who she say she is. Lucas, played by Nicholas Crovetti, holds influence over his brother and certainly seems to be the older twin.

I didn’t love any of these characters. Mother’s character arc makes sense at the very end, but there isn’t much development throughout. The two boys have a lot of sloppy lines, and I can’t tell if its poor acting or poor writing but their performances had me cringing quite a lot. It does get better as the movie moves along, but not by a ton.

What Makes Goodnight Mommy Worth Watching?

Not a lot. Not a lot. Maybe the ending, but not really. There’s a lot of bad in this movie, some mediocre, and very few moments of good. I did enjoy the way the thriller/horror aspects were portrayed in the second half of the movie, and the plot did surprise me at the end. Other that that, not a lot.

What Makes Goodnight Mommy Not Worth Watching?

Our characters are a little rough around the edges and none of them are particularly likeable. The dialogue disrupts the flow of the movie, and I actually had a hard time keeping myself from laughing during some of the “intense” sense at the beginning of the movie. It gets much better as the movie carries on, but it was quite bad to begin with.

The cinematography was also not good to begin with. Weird camera angles, a lack of movement and cuts, made certain scenes come out looking really weird. I do understand that they were attempting to create an off-putting atmosphere, but it just didn’t work for me.

The plot was hidden for most of the movie, and it became an ah-ha moment at the end, but it wasn’t all that shocking. The moments that follow the grand reveal were fairly surprising and ended the movie on a stunning note, but the punchline was fairly obvious after about half an hour. Unfortunate, as the movie point of the movie was this reveal, but maybe that’s part of why I didn’t like it.

Not a lot of good in this movie, and Goodnight Mommy is going on our ‘Skip This” list immediately. I wouldn’t watch if you like horror, it really isn’t a crime movie, and the drama elements are okay. The characters and the dialogue feel clunky and awkward to begin with, but do get better as the movie roles along. Prime Video is usually a slam dunk for mediocre to good content, but this was a miss.