'You Are Not My Mother' is a psychological horror film that follows Charlotte, a young woman at odds with her grandmother Rita after her mother Angela briefly goes missing and returns with a drastically changed personality.
The film opens with Char late for school, with her mother reluctantly driving the girl down despite being low-spirited and despondent. Soon after, Angela goes missing and Char, Rita and Angela’s brother Aaron start looking for her. Soon Angela finds her way home, yet is noticeably changed. As time passes, Char is revealed to be bullied at school until one day she is in a confrontation an at threat of being harmed until Angela knocks the bully back. The two then go for a walk until Char realises her mother’s state is worsening.
It is later revealed that Angela had drugged her brother with the medication prescribed to her, leading him to being hospitalised as he suffers through a coma. In an attempt to preserve her own and Char’s safety, Rita ties Angela up in her bedroom and tries to explain to Char that that is not her mother, stating that it is a demon and has replaced Angela, going further in explaining that Char herself had been replaced by a changeling as a baby and the only way to excise the daemon is by fire. In disbelief, Char releases Angela, only for her to turn on Rita and kill her.
The following day Char runs from her house and realises she has to trap the daemon and burn it alive. That night, Char leads the evil spirit to a bonfire and even though it tries to convince her it is her mother, she burns her down. The following day as Char and Aaron prepare to be split apart and designated to child welfare services, Angela returns home.
‘You Are Not My Mother’ is a deeply emotional and terrifying film, - it addresses mental health issues and displays them as horrific and monstrous incarnations of pain, confusion and frustration. The focus of the feature lies with Char, the young girl trying to keep it together as chaos ensues around her. The film addresses the difficulties that she must face daily, with an emphasis on the fear that she experiences as each new day begins with uncertainty about how her mother will feel that day. Deeply touching and saddening, ‘You Are Not My Mother’ highlights the struggle that is each day for Char and how she manages to survive the horrors that eventually befall her.
Without creating a damsel in distress, the movie focuses on and illustrates Char’s resilience, as she is intelligent, just and displays enormous emotional strength as she manages to cope even when the worst is thrown at her. Hazel Doupe portrays the main character and does so with unfeigned emotion, illustrating the traits of a smart and proactive individual who finds a way to end the trouble that plagues her family. With genuine displays of grief, fear and momentary glimpses of joy, Doupe embodies an admirable person, someone with the strength to move past a harrowing family tragedy.
The other stand out in the film is Carolyn Bracken who plays Angela. By moving from a deeply depressed and down-cast person to a manically sinister presence, Bracken succeeds in instilling fear in the viewer, as with each subsequent appearance on screen the character becomes less predictable and more easily horrifies us by playing into that uncertainty. Bracken dies well in conveying the drastically differing emotional states that someone may be going through when suffering mental health issues. By showing us Angela's lowest lows in contrast to her menacing and chaotically high spirited daemonic presence, Bracken illustrates the tragic duality of someone with bipolar disorder.
In hear feature directorial debut, Kate Dolan, who also wrote the screenplay, has created a magnificently haunting an touching story about a family in trouble. Creating a project where mental health issues are analogous with haunting spectres and ghouls, Dolan has successfully delivered an insightful story where the damage inflicted on the family members is not overshadowed by the use of daemons, rather those scenes are peppered in at just the right times to accentuate the real life fear that mental instability can cause someone.
With an excellent cast, strong performances and a dreary and downcast tone, 'You Are Not My Mother' delivers an unnerving and honest look at how mental instability can leave deep scars on families and how choosing to cope rather than ignore the issue can make all the difference in the world. The film is a worth-wile experience that allows the viewer to experience the life of a family with tragic issues, allowing us to better understand those around us who may be suffering.
Score: 4/4
Comments